Mobile bill shock through kids in-app purchases

fm123

Its crazy how some companies have found a way around the problem of not having a card on your account by charging direct to your mobile contract provider and you can't do much about it. Angry birds is one of the worst as it keeps flashing up ads to buy cheats and of course kids will click on these.

charis18uk

My 10yr old son bought £438 worth of turbine points and goods for the online game LOTRO in 15 days before I picked up on the issue...I made him pay me back every penny.

It was my own fault as I left my credit card details open on the account and didn't realise it.

Fire_Fox

So why is it so many adults have time to play games on smartphones and social networking sites, but don't have time to cook meals from scratch instead relying on ready meals, horsemeat and all? Or are these different adults?

Wonder how long until there is a scandal about 'children' gambling on their parents' phones or tablets and wiping out their current accounts?

dodiddlydee

Here's a tip for preventing kids from buying paid apps unsupervised for iphone/ipad etc:


1. Access your ituunes user account:

• Open iTunes.
• Choose Store > Sign In.
• Enter your Apple ID and password, then click the Sign In button.
• Choose Store > View My Account.
• Enter your account password, and click the View Account button.

2. set up your credit card details as normal, these must be correct or the setup will fail


3. after setting up your card details and they have been varified, log back into your account and change the 3 digit CSV number to something different, the varification process does not run again.

Now you and your kids will be able to download free apps but paid apps/songs/films etc will fail because the transaction will not go through.

If you want to make a purchase though you will of course have to log back in and correct the CSV number.

I have no idea if the same works for android, if someone can try it and post i'm sure others would be very grateful

spa2k

There is an interesting take on this here.....

its not googles, apples or microsofts responsibility its yours

circuit

charis18uk wrote: »

My 10yr old son bought £438 worth of turbine points and goods for the online game LOTRO in 15 days before I picked up on the issue...I made him pay me back every penny.

It was my own fault as I left my credit card details open on the account and didn't realise it.

It was your fault, but you billed him £438 for your mistake? Hm.

epredator

We fell foul of this same sort of scam. Despite living with tech all the time and being careful I did not realize the 15 minute rule by default on the iPhone. You type the password and then it does not ask again for 15 mins. Which means unscrupulous apps may start charging for things like "deluxe mode £99.99". I document the conversation with Apple I had over this and have reported it is fraud.
The apps are aimed at kids, they do show the in app prices on a full screen but on smaller screens the prices are off screen. A cursory glance also makes it look like 99p not £99.99. The apps we had an issue with are in a suite of dodgy ones. They also have computer generate favourable ratings to drown out those of us who have complained. Apple refunded the money but finally replied "As for this being a scam, please note that this has always been a feature". As Apple are taking a cut of in app purchases and also have an apparent rigorous approval process this was all very surprising! The app in question is Mustang Tuning Crash the full transcripts of Apple's replies and my evidence its a scam www[dot]feedingedge[dot]co[dot]uk/blog/2013/01/22/in-app-purchase-scam-mustang-tuning-crash ( I can't post links properly but don't want to cut and paste it all here)

bat400

If my children want to watch a new TV programme, or read a new series of books, or play a new computer game, I make sure it's ok by watching/reading/playing it with them before I let them have unsupervised access. As far as I can see that's basic common sense. I wouldn't dream of letting them loose on a tablet or phone without being sure of what they were doing. You might think I'm overprotective, but at least I haven't had any problems with in-app purchases...

jaibaby

shropshire_lass wrote: »

Grow a backbone and say 'No' for once!

Wow! I don't need a backbone, I allow MY children to play on MY phone because I trust them - and they have not let me down either, whether that be because they know better (I would say this for the two older ones) or that they can't because of security settings (more likely for my youngest - he could never "guess" my password) but my account is safe from them downloading anything.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

So why is it so many adults have time to play games on smartphones and social networking sites, but don't have time to cook meals from scratch instead relying on ready meals, horsemeat and all? Or are these different adults?

I play on mine whilst travelling or whilst I'm in bed. Just because parents play games on their gadgets DOES NOT automatically mean that they don't cook meals from scratch!!

And anyway, what's wrong with horsemeat? We've probably been eating it for years and I always LOVED Findus Pancakes

epredator wrote: »

We fell foul of this same sort of scam.

It's not a scam!! It's parents that are either;
(1) not aware that their kids can do this
(2) can't be bothered to check what their kids are doing (same type that allow them their 7 year olds play 18+ rating games online)
or (3) doing it themselves then blaming the kids.

No scam.

bigpigsmummy

Erinnire wrote: »

My 5 year old recently spent £64.99 on in app purchases much to my horror turns out this isn't the first time either smaller amounts have been coming out for months. I thought that I had turned the in apps purchases off on the iPad but it wasn't as the settings are really confusing! It's definitely turned off now though!

My son managed £95.00 with 'jetpackjoyride' in 20 mins!
Looking at what he did there is no currency listed at all! He thought he was getting imaginary coinage.

Is this legal surely if you're purchasing something then at least the seller needs to put in a £ sign somewhere? All there was on show was numbers with a decimal point that was the next page from 'get more coins' - no mention of changing from imaginary money to real money until you pressed the 'buy' button by which time you've had an email sent congratulating you on your purchase!