Thousands of stolen iTunes accounts for sale in China

Tens of thousands of fraudulent iTunes accounts are for sale on a major Chinese website, it has been revealed.

About 50,000 accounts linked to stolen credit cards are listed on auction site TaoBao, the country's equivalent of eBay.

Buyers are promised temporary access to unlimited downloads from the service for as little as 1 yuan (10p) a time.

Apple, which recently stepped up iTunes' security after a series of break-ins, declined to comment.

However the company has warned users in recent months to safeguard their personal details.

Listings seen by the BBC tell buyers they can "go after anything they like" including "software, games, movies, music and so on". Several listings tell prospective buyers they can only use the accounts for 12 hours before they are likely to be shut down.

:story: Full story: BBC News