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>It's just insane that a gift card redemption can trigger this. It's also the buying of gift cards that can get Apple accounts locked: https://old.reddit.co

• crossroadsguy 10mo ago
  > such as the $249 ISSEY MIYAKE knit sock I mean that is a problem in itself :D
• generic92034 10mo ago
  > If enough of these horror stories are publicized, people will learn to never buy/redeem Apple gift cards because of the real possibility of account bans. If you are trying to be a bad person you could weaponize that approach. You do not like person x, send them some Apple gift cards... :o
  • szundi 10mo ago
    In this case buy the gift card from some shady retailer with a one-time-use virtual card, and give this shady code to your friend. Or buy a physical card from aliexpress, the cheapest one with bad reviews.
  • Aurornis 10mo ago
    > You do not like person x, send them some Apple gift cards... :o 99.999% chance they happily redeem them and go about their lives. These stories, while frustrating, are clearly edge cases. Yes I know you can find more if you search social media, but I don’t think a lot of these HN commenters realize the volume of gift cards Apple sells and redeems without problem every day.
    • generic92034 10mo ago
      Maybe that hypothetical, bad person needs to find out what is triggering the account locking, first. Many small sums per gift card? A sum over a certain threshold? The point is, in reality it will not be up to pure chance. However, I personally would not do that anyway.
  • dotancohen 10mo ago
    [flagged]
    • kombine 10mo ago
      > I'm a Zionist I don't like you too.
      • rvnx 10mo ago
        Depends, > Zion serves as a living space for humans who have chosen to be disconnected from the Matrix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_(The_Matrix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_(The_Matrix)
      • dotancohen 10mo ago
        Thank you. Awaiting the Apple gift cards.
        • generic92034 10mo ago
          I wrote "If you are trying to be a bad person [..]". I usually don't.
• immibis 10mo ago
  - Don't use Apple. Or Google.
  • deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
  • stanac 10mo ago
    If it was be that simple. In that case I would have to go to the bank for every transaction/payment I want to initiate online. Banking app doesn't work for jailbroken devices. Using PC to access banks website works, but transactions still require 2FA and they don't support any other 2FA flow except the one in the app.
    • AnthonyMouse 10mo ago
      You don't have to go to the bank for every transaction, you can just go there once to close out your account and open one somewhere that doesn't require that.
    • duskdozer 10mo ago
      I'm surprised, most banks I've come across force sms or phone-call 2fa only. A rare few allow generic TOTP authenticators, and maybe one or two has an app as an option. And I've only come across one bank that detects and warns for root access. Is there no "jailbreak hide" on ios?
      • throw-the-towel 10mo ago
        This heavily depends on the country.
      • 71bw 10mo ago
        In Poland it's SMS OTPs, bank app (heavily recommended and in some cases enforced by the bank) or additionally paid physical TOTP token devices. And almost all banks throw a hissy fit once you have some sort of vector of root detection left open.
    • 10mo ago
• viraptor 10mo ago
  > If enough of these horror stories are publicized, people will learn to never buy/redeem Apple gift cards You'd think so. Yet, the stories of PayPal locking up payouts to surprised people keep coming every year - and people still use them.
  • wink 10mo ago
    That's so much not a fitting comparison. The most money I have ever had on my PayPal account was 100 bucks from a reversed transaction (like, double booking of a hotel room or wrong item sent), otherwise it's just a gateway. It would be annoying if my PayPal account was locked, because I use it a lot to order pizza online and a few small purchases. I could just use my credit card or something else but it's more clicks. And I know a lot of people who do it like this. The only thing lost is convenience. No past purchases, no digital identities. Maybe you meant the merchants who really amass thousands but I suppose they are a small minority of active users.
    • franga2000 10mo ago
      There are a good number of freelancers of various sorts that get paid via PayPal and only occasionally pull that money to their bank accounts to avoid the fixed fee, or even prefer to spend much of it straight from PayPal to avoid the percent fee. People also use it to send money between family members in different countries because it's often cheaper than an international wire. It's quite easy to build up a few hundred or thousand USD worth. It feels just enough like a bank account that you think you're safe. Then...well, the internet is full of PayPal horror stories, I won't bore you with my own.
      • Aurornis 10mo ago
        > and only occasionally pull that money to their bank accounts to avoid the fixed fee You have a fee for transferring from PayPal to your bank account? It’s always been free for me, as long as I don’t opt for the instant transfer option.
        • 10mo ago
• zerr 10mo ago
  Why does Apple sell giftcards?
  • crossroadsguy 10mo ago
    For the similar reasons Apple sells socks.. maybe?
  • akho 10mo ago
    Some cultures stigmatize gifting money, yet gifting corporate scrip is fine.
    • abenga 10mo ago
      Then why do they ban accounts for using them? Is it some sort of honeypot?
• freeopinion 10mo ago
  It seems you haven't learned the whole lesson. You're close, though. If you're going to be skittish, there's a better and easier set of rules. Don't use anything that involves an Apple ID.
  • dotancohen 10mo ago
    The newer iPhones have such great cameras, I have have been considering an iPhone for my next phone. The only thing holding me back is the lack of built-in stylus. Does the iPhone require an Apple ID? I don't even log into my Google account with my Android device. If the phone requires an Apple ID, then obviously I'm not buying one.
    • nullfield 10mo ago
      No, it doesn’t require one… but you won’t be downloading anything from their App Store without one, leaving your only option for getting software onto it “Xcode after you build it yourself” since there’s no side loading. Xcode’s ability to do that may require an Apple ID or developer account; I’m unsure. In the EU, the requirement to support alternative app stores would probably mostly fix that, but those of you in the US are kinda…
      • dotancohen 10mo ago
        Thank you. I'm in neither the EU nor US. I'll have to check this.
• dariosalvi78 10mo ago
  An even better advice: Don't buy Apple.
  • jack_tripper 10mo ago
    BSD, Linux or TempleOS would never lock you out.
    • Workaccount2 10mo ago
      Nor provide much utility to the average person.
      • kragen 10mo ago
        BSD and Linux seem to be fine for the average person. I wouldn't recommend TempleOS.
  • Nevermark 10mo ago
    This isn’t a solution for many people. And in fact, a prohibition is never a solution, it is a reduction in solution options And this advice takes into account exactly zero aspects of the particular problems a given person may have to solve, besides “problems with Apple”, in a world where most people have “problems with X” for each of the few large ecosystems. Freedom of choice would mean for N choices, being able to make, well, N indepointed choices. N may be a very large number given how many things people do. For an ideal world of compatible modular technologies, N choices is easy. But our technology world is highly non-modular, centralized at many levels, and full of incompatibilities and dependencies of various kinds and costs. Including important dependencies involving the choices of other people we interact with, or very specific tools or resources. So no, “Don’t buy Apple” is not better advice, it is just bad random generic advice, without knowing a lot more about any particular situation. Like what someone writes books about.
    • windexh8er 10mo ago
      But it is a solution. Apple being a poor stuard of their customers is indicative that people buying their hardware and software are not their priority. Apple support used to be stellar, they used to care about customers, they no longer do. Apple's ToS should be readily indicative of anyone using any of their products that Apple's perspective is that you don't own anything and they can do whatever they want with anything you do with their products. As the author points out you clearly don't own free access to what you've purchased. The last thing I'll say is that it is fantastic advice to not purchase Apple in 2025. You can only be certain that this won't happen if you avoid them. I actually own a MPB, with receipts from purchase, that I had to purchase a bypass for when the device was enrolled in MDM by a family member that Apple has MDM locked and refuses to remove from iCloud. Avoid Apple, that's the best advice. If you can't avoid Apple, minimize your footprint and make sure you're a good boy or girl else Tim Cook will steal from you and hide behind some bullshit first line support tar pit and an army of lawyers if you do happen to decide to threaten them.
• alper 10mo ago
  It’s against money laundering. Onerous regulations being interpreted highly defensively create these kind outcomes. Neither the people creating the legislations nor the people at Apple responsible for these flows care very much about collateral damage.
  • cameldrv 10mo ago
    I think it's a combination of money laundering and phone scams where people are told they owe money to the IRS or something and are tricked into buying a bunch of gift cards. That said, if buying and redeeming gift cards are such an indicator of fraud that people are legitimately afraid of getting their accounts permanently locked, why doesn't Apple just stop selling them?
    • GoblinSlayer 10mo ago
      Apple keeps money from the gift card after banning you. Just business, nothing personal.
      • type0 10mo ago
        Digital feudalism
• quinncom 10mo ago
  I'm the author of that Reddit post. I should probably update it to clarify that I didn’t just purchase the gift cards, but also redeemed them. I don’t think it was purchasing them that triggered the lock on my Apple account. I mean, after all, how would they know what my Apple account is until they’re redeemed?
  • jasode 10mo ago
    >, how would they know what my Apple account is until they’re redeemed? To add context, your reddit post also mentioned: >, I purchased eleven Apple Gift cards from [...], and apple.com, and added the amounts to my Apple account. I'm not saying the following applies to you but one can buy Apple Gift Cards using their Apple ID. After adding gift cards to the ecommerce shopping bag on Apple.com, it offers the option : "Check out with your Apple Account" So Apple would know the exact AppleID at the time-of-sale instead of waiting until redemption. If for some reason Apple's fraud detection system doesn't like the transaction (e.g. unusual ip address from Mexico instead of USA, or too many high-value cards in a certain time period, or other black-box opaque heuristic) ... then the buyer puts their Apple account at risk. Fraud prevention heuristics are insanely aggresive these days... Last week, I bought a Netflix subscription and 5 days later, Netflix cancelled the membership for no apparent reason. I got on a customer support chat with Netflix and the agent said it was cancelled because of the credit-card #. It didn't pass their fraud prevention system and to try using another card. At least Netflix automatically refunded the entire amount back to me -- whereas Apple keeps the gift card balance for itself after locking accounts. In another incident, I used a Chase credit-card at a physical Apple store to buy 2 iPhones on 2 separate receipts. The first iPhone sale was a success. The 2nd iPhone transaction just 1 minute later was denied and Chase locked the entire account. I had to call Chase customer service and recite the make & model of a car I had 20 years ago to prove my identity for them to re-activate the credit card!
  • quickthrowman 10mo ago
    I’m not trying to be rude, but what is the point of buying and then redeeming gift cards yourself? I just pay Apple with my credit card when I want to buy something. Is this some kind of weird credit card rewards churning thing? Are you unbanked? I don’t understand why you’d voluntarily add unnecessary extra steps. A credit card offers far more protections to consumers than a gift card. Given the amount of false positives, Apple should have an appeal process for innocent users to regain access to their accounts. It would be nice if this applied to all big tech companies, losing an email address can make other accounts difficult or impossible to access.
• Aurornis 10mo ago
  I skimmed some of the comments from that giant Reddit thread. A lot of people responded that they’ve been buying even more Apple gift cards without problem. One commonality among the stories in that thread from people who had problems was either switching their App Store country or using their App Store account primarily from a different country than the setting.
  • SandyAndyPerth 10mo ago
    Well-spotted. That includes the original poster! "could have been because I purchased gift cards from the US (online) and added them to my account while I was in Mexico, or I was using a VPN while adding gift cards" One of the other people was someone who "purchased $2k in apple gift cards from target during Black Friday deals... There was a limit of 1 but if you went in store and were friendly to the cashier a lot of people (myself included) had luck getting them to ring them up as separate transactions". Pretty sure if the latter person had given those out as separate cards to other people it would have been fine but going from "limit of 1" to "all redeemed by same account" is unsurprising when it triggers a fraud flag. The big problem in this story as in the past one is the apparent lack of sensible escalation. I've heard horror stories from Google devs that it's even worse - such a situation follows you for life even if you try to setup new accounts.
• ryandrake 10mo ago
  The "gift card" in general is an anachronism whose time has passed. They have got to go. If companies are going to consider use of gift cards as red flags (as they often are, due to their being key components in money laundering and scams), then society should just abandon them. They are worse in every way than a prepaid credit cards, and in most cases where you want to give someone a gift card, you should probably just give them cash.
  • nullfield 10mo ago
    The only “use cases” I’ve seen are discount or niche. For example, Target and Bass Pro Shops/Cabelas in the US both offered some kind of 5 or 10 percent back/discount around Black Friday on gift cards. Niche would fall into, generally, some small enough business that these messes aren’t likely to happen, where the point of the gift is specifically later-consumption, like a local coffee place that you know someone loves, or say a specialty herbs and spices place for a cook (where you wouldn’t know exactly what they want from there, but that they WOULD be delighted to get something from the place). Otherwise? Yeah. Gift / prepaid credit cards are a horrible scam, because they tend to have a percentage or, worse, flat fee to activate. $4 extra on a $50 card as a gift means you just paid 8 percent just to GET the card.
    • pests 10mo ago
      I used to buy a gift card every ~week at a local sandwich place near where I worked and ate at every day. Their deal was a free meal (sandwich, chips, drink) with a $50 gift card purchase. Then I'd just pay with the card until it ran out.
      • econ 10mo ago
        If you buy them in bulk for employees they get progressively cheaper. It also matters how many customers you can serve vs how many you have and what you spend to get one customer into your store. If you spend 500 per day to get 100 customers into your brick and mortar store you can also give/spend 500 in discounts to get 100 more. If only 60% redeems the card the other 40% is profit. ETC
• theelous3 10mo ago
  "we sell gift cards :)" "and we ban you for buying or redeeming them" is just top tier comedy honestly. As soon as I heard the first one of these stories about a guy getting google broad-spectrum banned because a junkbot AI thought his completely normal youtube comment was a nazi rant or whatever else it hallucinated - I bailed on the whole shebang. Hosting your own stuff is, if you're a reader of this site, easy enough and cheap enough there's little reason not to.