Kid runs up £1500 bill on iPad
Kid runs up £1500 bill on iPad
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Camelot1971

Original Poster:

2,829 posts

190 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51328762

Story said daughter (8) "managing to bypass the password to use her fingerprint as the default payment method."

Mother said:

"..she didn't really know what she was doing and she didn't understand. We are really angry, but she is innocent. She said she thought it was free."

Sounds like she knew exactly what she was doing! I'm glad Barclaycard didn't back down all the way.

Uncle John

5,206 posts

215 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
My nephew rang up a £1.5 k bill on Minecraft. Parents got the money back.

Then he rang up a £4K bill. They didn’t get the money back.

Bad parenting.

Agammemnon

1,628 posts

82 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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Something similar happened a couple of years ago. The parents only have themselves to blame.

Good on Braclaycard for not charging interest, good on them for insisting that bills have to be paid.

myvision

2,100 posts

160 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Uncle John said:
My nephew rang up a £1.5 k bill on Minecraft. Parents got the money back.

Then he rang up a £4K bill. They didn’t get the money back.

Bad parenting.
My nephew bought everyone in his class some pack on fortnite that wasn't cheap but not £4K.

Driver101

14,451 posts

145 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
I think the app owners should be stepping in to stop this happening.

They should realise when someone starts spending large sums of money on a game it's not normal transactions.

bitchstewie

64,412 posts

234 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
You have to wonder why the makers of games that are targeted at children would go for an in-game purchase system that can be used and approved by a child.

It feels like an issue that could be solved very easily if the app makers really wanted to stop this from happening.

Ziplobb

1,544 posts

308 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
WHAT i dont understand is that for the bill to run up someone has to input some card details. Surely no card details NO BILL its that fkin simple. The kid does not have its own card at that age.

Agammemnon

1,628 posts

82 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Ziplobb said:
WHAT i dont understand is that for the bill to run up someone has to input some card details. Surely no card details NO BILL its that fkin simple. The kid does not have its own card at that age.
Just because the parents enter their credit card details on something that they then give to their young child to use doesn't mean that someone (anyone) else shouldn't bear any & all responsibility.

Burwood

18,718 posts

270 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Ziplobb said:
WHAT i dont understand is that for the bill to run up someone has to input some card details. Surely no card details NO BILL its that fkin simple. The kid does not have its own card at that age.
A few points. The 1500 or was it 1800 was incurred in 72 hours. Apple have a responsibility. That’s just bullst. You can’t blame Barclays. If it’s not fraud they must pay the vendor (Apple). Her beef is with Apple.

If you don’t offer a card you can’t purchase anything at all in the a-ple ecosystem. Pretty standard to do so. My kids iPads use my fingerprint. It’s not very easy to override. I think the parents are lying. an 8 year old does not have the aptitude. She overrode the fingerprint controls. Yeah right. I bet there were zero controls.

Apple email the account holder daily with ‘bills’. The parents would have seen an invoice, well received one.

eldar

24,931 posts

220 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Driver101 said:
I think the app owners should be stepping in to stop this happening.

They should realise when someone starts spending large sums of money on a game it's not normal transactions.
Perhaps it is normal. Who knows?

Brainpox

4,300 posts

175 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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I thought Apple's policy was that they refund the first time it happens on an account, but not subsequent times.

So assuming they've contacted Apple, this either isn't the first time, which they should have learned from, or the activity on their account didn't fall in line with the story they are putting forward. I find it hard to believe an 8 year old bypassed Apple's security, which is considered strong enough for the US President to use, and caused some federal agency to put a lot of pressure on Apple to put in a backdoor into iOS so they could break into terrorist's phones (which they didn't do) some years ago.

I don't know why it has to be front page news every time it happens though.

Edited by Brainpox on Sunday 9th February 20:33


Edited by Brainpox on Sunday 9th February 20:34

Zirconia

36,010 posts

308 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Heard of the game but it looks like all the other "free" games designed to part loot from people. Get addicted and need to progress and small purchases add up. Get it free and fleece the users with the impossible level. I prefer the one of costs with in app purchases.

Kids it seems are much more savvy than the parents. There needs to be a better safety net for this stuff.

Boydie88

3,283 posts

173 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
You have to wonder why the makers of games that are targeted at children would go for an in-game purchase system that can be used and approved by a child.

It feels like an issue that could be solved very easily if the app makers really wanted to stop this from happening.
That's the problem. There are hurdles in place that can stop a child buying things. Parents not being clued up on it despite the seemingly monthly incidents and letting kids have hours and hours of unsupervised screen time are the problem.

Burwood

18,718 posts

270 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Zirconia said:
Heard of the game but it looks like all the other "free" games designed to part loot from people. Get addicted and need to progress and small purchases add up. Get it free and fleece the users with the impossible level. I prefer the one of costs with in app purchases.

Kids it seems are much more savvy than the parents. There needs to be a better safety net for this stuff.
The problem with these devices is it us used by kids but, as is the case with my 3 iPads they all link through my Apple ID. We tried Apple Arcade, a fixed monthly but he got bored of that pretty soon. He’s always searching for new content (at 5). But it needs a fingerprint to download anything. The main control is I get emails with bills for everything. At a minimum it’s daily but it might be real time.

I’ve purchased stuff before and realised it’s rubbish or a mistake. Apple always reverse it if you contact them when you receive your bill. They insert a link in all bills to raise an issue. It sounds to me they let their kid sub on the damn think all day and night.

OT, a mate got caught years ago with a webcam accessed in his phone. It was his house. On look at my fancy system, whilst abroad. He failed to close the browser whilst roaming and got a 13k bill which was 90% credited .

vaud

58,200 posts

179 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Burwood said:
Apple email the account holder daily with ‘bills’. The parents would have seen an invoice, well received one.
To be fair, they can be delayed. Some of my app purchase invoices come through after 72 hours.

Agammemnon

1,628 posts

82 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Zirconia said:
There needs to be a better safety net for this stuff.
The safety net is not entering card details on a kid's device.

A Winner Is You

25,844 posts

251 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Agammemnon said:
Zirconia said:
There needs to be a better safety net for this stuff.
The safety net is not entering card details on a kid's device.
The safety net should be regulation. Many of these mobile apps (and console games) are barely disguised slot machines, often advertised to children yet not subject to any gambling laws. I know of people who've spent tens of thousands on what are ultimately no more than flashy jpegs, and whilst the responsibility does lie with the end user, the state ultimately needs to protect people from themselves.

PF62

4,065 posts

197 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
Uncle John said:
My nephew rang up a £1.5 k bill on Minecraft. Parents got the money back.

Then he rang up a £4K bill. They didn’t get the money back.

Bad parenting.
But good business for the s who design a game for children where you can spend £4k.

It is despicable that anyone would design game software that you can spend £4k, particularly game software aimed at children, but really there should be a special place in hell for Apple who allow these despicable people to put their software on their platform (but I suppose the 30% cut Apple take is the reason why they have sold their soul).

Gareth79

8,776 posts

270 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
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"Katie Phillips' daughter reset security settings to accept her own fingerprint to make purchases."

Yeah......... no. That didnt happen.

Edited by Gareth79 on Sunday 9th February 21:45

Agammemnon

1,628 posts

82 months

Sunday 9th February 2020
quotequote all
A Winner Is You said:
The safety net should be regulation.
People should be free to part with their money in whatever stupid way they like.

A Winner Is You said:
the responsibility does lie with the end user
Exactly this.

A Winner Is You said:
the state ultimately needs to protect people from themselves.