A man accused of $2.5 million in fraud from Apple is thanked after his arrest

The U.S. Attorney in San Francisco has charged two men in an elaborate fraud scheme.

Getty Images

A San Francisco man has been arrested and charged with defrauding Apple.
He is accused of hacking into Apple's system to place fraudulent orders.
Two weeks after his arrest, Apple sent a security update acknowledging his “assistance.”

A San Francisco man has been accused of defrauding Apple out of gift cards and products worth about $2.5 million.

The man, Noah Ruskin-Frazee, was recognized on January 22 Security update From Apple sent about two weeks after his arrest, according to a report from Court monitoring And 404 mediawhich first reported the opening of Roskin-Frazee Indictment.

It's unclear why Roskin-Frazee was thanked in Apple's update, and the company did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. However, 404 Media and CourtWatch The report notes that Ruskin Frazee, a security researcher, has reported issues to the tech giant in the past.

In an indictment filed in December 2023, U.S. Attorney Ruskin in San Francisco charged Frazee and a co-defendant with charges including fraud and intentionally damaging a protected computer.

Prosecutors allege in the indictment a complex scheme that involved Roskin-Frazee and a co-defendant using a password reset function to break into the account of an employee who worked with Apple customers and then placing orders for things like gift cards and devices. In some cases, they edited orders to $0, or sent gift cards to fake addresses, which they then resold, according to the indictment.

They made off with approximately $2.5 million in products, services and gift cards, according to the indictment.

Although Apple is not explicitly named in the indictment, CourtWatch and 404 Media note that the indictment states that the company is headquartered in Cupertino, California, and “develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, and personal computers.” “, services.”

Lawyers for Roskin-Frazee did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.