A San Francisco man has been charged with defrauding Apple of approximately $2.5 million in gift cards and products. Noah Roskin-Frazee, the man in question, was acknowledged in a January 22 security update from Apple sent about two weeks after his arrest. However, it is unclear why Roskin-Frazee was thanked in the Apple update, and the company did not comment further. The report suggests that Roskin-Frazee, a security researcher, had reported issues to the tech giant in the past. In a December 2023 indictment, the US Attorney in San Francisco charged Roskin-Frazee and a co-defendant with counts including fraud and intentionally damaging a protected computer.
According to the indictment, Roskin-Frazee and his co-defendant used a password reset function to break into the account of an employee who worked with Apple customers, and then edited orders for items such as gift cards and devices. Some orders were edited to cost $0 or had gift cards sent to fake addresses, which they then resold, resulting in about $2.5 million in products, services, and gift cards. Despite the indictment not explicitly naming Apple, it is noted that the company is headquartered in Cupertino, California and develops and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and services. However, Roskin-Frazee’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding the charges.
