Apple to review Hong Kong iPhone orders amid HK$14.7m of unauthorised transactions

Apple should ultimately bear responsibility for more than 700 unauthorised credit card transactions in Hong Kong, a lawmaker has said, while estimating that the actual loss would not be significant.

Speaking on a radio programme on Monday, Election Committee sector legislator Johnny Ng Kit-chong described the incident as “rare”, given the large number of victims and the involvement of a platform operated by a major company such as Apple.

Over the weekend, many Hong Kong social media users reported unauthorised credit card transactions involving orders for Apple’s newly released iPhone 18 Pro series, which went on pre-order on Saturday. The cards had been issued by different banks.

Police said they had received more than 700 reports involving HK$14.7 million in unauthorised transactions.

Ng said he suspected that hackers might have stolen and stored the credit card details over time while waiting for an opportunity to use them.

“As this new smartphone model was just released, the scammers saw this opportunity and wanted to try placing orders on a large scale with these credit card numbers to see if they could exploit it for profit,” he said.