According to the Wall Street Journal report, a spate of retail giants including Home Depot and Target have been hit. The majority of unauthorized purchases have been for big-ticket items bought with smartphones at Apple's own stores.

Although details are light on the ground, it would appear that the thieves are using the same attack vector as those in the EU. This involves placing stolen credit cards onto the iPhone and hoping the bank fails to check it.

Apple so far have blamed the banks and said in its universe Apple Pay is totally secure so it must be true. In fact Apple is literally laughing all the way to the bank on the issue. It forced the banks to sign an agreement that they would pay up if anything went wrong.