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Kid Racks Up $5,900 Bill Playing Jurassic World On Dad's iPad (pcmag.com)
theodp writes: For Mohamed Shugaa, the scariest Jurassic World creature is perhaps Apple CEO Tim Cook, not the Indominus Rex. That's because Shugaa discovered his 7-year-old son had managed to rack up a $5,900 bill playing the Jurassic World game on his iPad in six days. "Why would Apple think I would be spending thousands of pounds on buying dinosaurs and upgrading a game," Shugaa told The Metro. "Why didn't they email me to check I knew these payments were being made? I got nothing from them. How much longer would it have gone on for?" Shugaa discovered his son's 65 in-app purchases when a payment he tried to make to a business supplier was declined. His son had upgraded dinosaurs using the game currency 'Dino Bucks' without realizing it was charging his Dad in real money. The good news is that Apple has decided to refund the money, so the kid doesn't have to worry about Apple making him work 8,500 hours for $5,980 to settle the debt. Btw, before you developers get too excited about the possibility of using In-App Purchase to take kids to the cleaners at $6,000-a-pop, remember that Apple call dibs on the first $1,800!
First there's a way to adjust the password settings on iPads: Settings > iTunes and App Store > Password Settings. Set it to Always Require for paid apps and in app purchases and Do not require for free downloads. But that's all moot in this case because the kid did know the password and the account is linked to a credit card. It's like he gave his son key to the gun cabinet and later blame the gun manufacturer when the kid hurts himself. Bad bad parenting. The article also mentioned that he should received several email receipts for these purchases. That's Apple's way of reaching out to him and say "something is suspicious". What does he really want? A police officer knocking on his door telling him that there have been big charges on his CC?
In the end though, Apple did reimburse him all the money what else is left to grunge about? Had he given his kid an Android, the situation would have been the same: kids swipe the parent's CC clean. I have no doubt Google would promptly reimburse him, just like Apple did. However, this article was written only because it involved Apple.
Purchases do require a password. The problem is, which the summary left out, the kid knew his dad's password. Because of this, all of the iOS protections that exist to stop excessive IAPs were bypassed with the password.
The source article said the kid had the father's password and used it to make purchases.
You can opt out of that. It's not forced on you, it even asks the first time if you want to enable it, so it isn't even on out of the box. Blame the parent.
Charge backs do not have zero repercussions - if he claimed fraudulent activity, his son could have a visit from the police.
Correct. Last time I performed a chargeback (admittedly not in the USA) I had to sign a statutory declaration that I had zero control of the purchase. Zero control has a lot of meaning and typically requires some kind of criminal act to be valid (stealing the card, stealing credentials etc). In my case someone managed to make 2 purchases a day after I left my wallet in my hotel room. The I had a follow up interview with the police who were investigating the hotel service staff (apparently my case wasn't isolated) even though I never called them, though I did give all the details to the bank.
I also know of someone, who's never been very bright, who gave their credit card to a "friend" to quickly go and buy something. That other person then spent big without her knowing. After doing the charge back she had an interview with the fraud department from the bank (she charged back the expensive item which was bought, but not the other item a few seconds earlier which she needed so they questioned whether or not she was in control of the credentials). Once they found out that she voluntarily gave someone the card that was the end. She was liable for the full cost and a $200 administration fee, not to mention that a fraudulent chargeback is now recorded with her bank.
I'm going to guess that giving someone the password to your iPhone to use with Apple Pay, or in app purchases or whatever falls under the same category. You can't charge back stupidity.
You can buy "prepaid" cards to load finds for purchases made via their respective "stores".
I cannot imagine any situation where you would register a real world credit card to allow direct charges with either of them.
It's sad that people blindly accept that giving a service provider direct access to their credit card or bank account number is a suitable way to pay anything, and its what leads to situations just like this one.
My son has an iPhone. It has a preloaded balance. It CANNOT spend anymore than that. If he runs low he can ask me for a another iTunes card.
I have an Android phone. Same setup - preloaded balance that it CANNOT exceed. It does not have the ability to use anymore than the balance that I have loaded, which I (and ONLY *I*) can replenish as needed
For any service that will not bill any way OTHER than to a credit card, or for any online purchase, I use this:
https://www.bankofamerica.com/...
I set up an Apple ID for my nephew on iTunes with an AppleTV and iPad he received for christmas. His parents asked me to set it up properly because they'd heard all the horror story rumors about how you needed a credit card.
You just sign up for the account and select NONE when you make the account. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PROVIDE A PAYMENT METHOD AT ALL FIRST TIME.
I did this just two days ago.
Talk about naive. A seven year old absolutely needs to be supervised when using a mobile or any internet connected device. The most maddening part of this is that he seems to be expecting Apple to babysit his kid.
Absolutely not. Only if the parents need to be supervised when using a mobile device as well. Apple allows you the following settings: 1. Password for every purchase. 2. Password for every purchase, but no further password for 15 minutes. 3. No password for free purchases. 4. No in-app purchases whatsoever. 5. Have no credit or debit card registered but use giftcards which cannot be overdrawn. 6. Have a family account where junior can buy what they like on their device, but the purchase only goes through if dad says "yes" on dad's device.
I think this might depend on your region. Set up my aunt's iPad over the holidays, and I couldn't find any option to not provide payment method at the normal sign up screen. There was no "None" option.
Since we were just at a coffee shop across an Apple store, I went to ask them, and the solution was to click on a free app/music, try to download, and sign up from that prompt - there, the "None" option shows up finally.
I later googled it, and saw some mixed comments, some suggesting the same steps we do, some just say you can select "none" off the bet.
So yes, you can set up an account with out a credit card, but it seems like depending on your region (or time or day, or whatever voodoo that was), it might require some not so intuitive steps.