China seems to be causing Apple quite a few headaches lately. Apple has been tirelessly working for months to make the iPhone 3G legitimately available to Chinese customers to no avail, and now they have an entirely new problem on their hands. Chinese hackers have cracked the iTunes gift card algorithm and are now generating their own codes.
The illegitimate $200 gift card codes are being directly sold through the online shopping site Taobao for as little as $2.60. Users are able to receive codes through the online store's IM service almost instantly. There are currently thousands of codes available, but customers are limited to purchasing only a set amount of codes everyday.
The sheer amount of codes available has made the prices decrease dramatically, but the demand remains high. The business was started about six months ago with prices near $47 for a $200 card, a far cry from $2.60.
It's hard to believe Apple will let this go on much longer. The problem is, these codes are already in circulation. They will have to allow customers to use their codes whether or not they were generated illegally, unless Apple can figure out a way to determine which codes are illegitimate.
[via Outdustry]
