Close on the heels of developer Thuat Nguyen’s ‘hacking’ of iTunes users’ accounts for repeated purchase of his apps – to move up their App Store sales ranking - last weekend, ArsTechnica Friday reported that another developer, named WiiSHii Network, had apparently followed suit in hacking the accounts, tied to credit card numbers, of the users.

With ArsTechinca reporting that the apps from WiiSHii Network were quickly moving up the App Store sales’ rankings, the offending apps - applications “[EN]GYOYO Shanghai Travel Helper”; “[EN]GYOYO Beijing Travel Helper”; and “[CN]GYOYO” – were removed from the App Store with immediate effect.

Nonetheless, the offending apps - most of which appear to be travel guides for cities in China, and had both English and Chinese versions - still managed to crack the ‘top 10’ listing before their removal. While “[EN]GYOYO Shanghai Travel Helper” ranked number 7; “[EN]GYOYO Beijing Travel Helper” ranked 8; and “[CN]GYOYO Beijing Travel Helper” ranked number 10.

The recent account-hacking issue was brought to light by Harper Reed, an ArsTechnica reader, who revealed that his account had been hacked and used for the unauthorized purchase of as many as 34 WiiSHii Network apps – totaling up to a $168.89 purchase on the whole.

After having removed the WiiSHii Network apps, Apple also advised that users should check their iTunes and credit card accounts to make sure they were not charged for something that they did not buy.