Unauthorised transactions made by a minor.

baza52

first off, sell the Iphone to recoup some of the money.

penners324

As mentioned above, it is possible to claim a refund. Try those avenues.

And ensure your card details are removed from the phone and then the cards hidden away.

FatherTireseus

I hope you’ve taken the steps as others have suggested to ensure no more purchases can be made with the foster child’s phone.

My only suggestion to try and get some of the money back would be to contact one of the financial journalists who run columns in the national press.

Anna Tim’s from The Guardian / Observer might be worth trying, dare I say the ‘foster child from overseas’ angle might play well in the Guardian.

She had at least a partial success in a vaguely similar case a few months ago.  The email address for contacting them is at the bottom of the article in the link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/feb/25/our-11-year-old-daughter-ran-up-a-2400-gaming-bill

zagfles

Indeed. It's a bit unclear what actually happened here, if the OP gave the child access to a security protected account with the card details stored then he/she could be screwed, although still worth trying to get a refund, others have in similar situations. But if the child found the credit card and entered details himself, it's a slam dunk refund for unauthorised transactions.

Also that amount in CNP transactions really should have triggered the fraud warnings at the bank.

Billyrusso745

zagfles said:

Indeed. It's a bit unclear what actually happened here, if the OP gave the child access to a security protected account with the card details stored then he/she could be screwed, although still worth trying to get a refund, others have in similar situations. But if the child found the credit card and entered details himself, it's a slam dunk refund for unauthorised transactions.

Also that amount in CNP transactions really should have triggered the fraud warnings at the bank.

I did not give him my card and i removed the details after i set up his phone initially. I have my suspicions but it is the childs word against mine. 

RogerBareford

Jami74 said:

Yes, the stupidity of giving any child (never mind a foster child who does not speak English, is uneducated and has no concept of money) an iPhone, unsupervised internet access and access to an app store with a linked credit card is dumfounding. But what on earth do Apple sell for that sort of money? Are there really people out there happily spend £143 on in app purchases?

Edited to add: Are these coins like cryptocurrency? Is your foster child sending them to people who speak the same language as him? Could it be theft/fraud/scam? 

There is no way to buy cryptocurrency using in-app purchases and these coins will just be used in a game for virtual items in the game.

dil1976

Billyrusso745 said:

zagfles said:

Indeed. It's a bit unclear what actually happened here, if the OP gave the child access to a security protected account with the card details stored then he/she could be screwed, although still worth trying to get a refund, others have in similar situations. But if the child found the credit card and entered details himself, it's a slam dunk refund for unauthorised transactions.

Also that amount in CNP transactions really should have triggered the fraud warnings at the bank.

I did not give him my card and i removed the details after i set up his phone initially. I have my suspicions but it is the childs word against mine. 

If you have suspicions of someone using it fraudulently then report it to the police as this will give you more chance of getting a refund from your CC company.

Billyrusso745

RogerBareford said:

Jami74 said:

Yes, the stupidity of giving any child (never mind a foster child who does not speak English, is uneducated and has no concept of money) an iPhone, unsupervised internet access and access to an app store with a linked credit card is dumfounding. But what on earth do Apple sell for that sort of money? Are there really people out there happily spend £143 on in app purchases?

Edited to add: Are these coins like cryptocurrency? Is your foster child sending them to people who speak the same language as him? Could it be theft/fraud/scam? 

There is no way to buy cryptocurrency using in-app purchases and these coins will just be used in a game for virtual items in the game.

They are gold and diamond coins that can be sent to other app users. The other users speak the same language. It is an arabic ludo game.

[Deleted User]

Jami74 said:

Yes, the stupidity of giving any child (never mind a foster child who does not speak English, is uneducated and has no concept of money) an iPhone, unsupervised internet access and access to an app store with a linked credit card is dumfounding. But what on earth do Apple sell for that sort of money? Are there really people out there happily spend £143 on in app purchases?

Edited to add: Are these coins like cryptocurrency? Is your foster child sending them to people who speak the same language as him? Could it be theft/fraud/scam? 

Apps with microtransactions rely on the "whales" who yes, spend hundreds, thousands even tens of thousands on the games. That is why the games are structured with a "cap" on how much you can do for free, to incentivise people to start putting money into the game to skip stuff or speed it up. Example here of a guy who spent $70,000 US on a game, another rich one spent $2m - they're big enough that if they organise a boycott due to say game bugs, the company stock value falls...

Ergates

Billyrusso745 said:

RogerBareford said:

Jami74 said:

Yes, the stupidity of giving any child (never mind a foster child who does not speak English, is uneducated and has no concept of money) an iPhone, unsupervised internet access and access to an app store with a linked credit card is dumfounding. But what on earth do Apple sell for that sort of money? Are there really people out there happily spend £143 on in app purchases?

Edited to add: Are these coins like cryptocurrency? Is your foster child sending them to people who speak the same language as him? Could it be theft/fraud/scam? 

There is no way to buy cryptocurrency using in-app purchases and these coins will just be used in a game for virtual items in the game.

They are gold and diamond coins that can be sent to other app users. The other users speak the same language. It is an arabic ludo game.

It sounds a bit less like one of those cases where a small child spends £100s in an app without understanding what they're doing.  13 year olds (especially ones who have already had a phone) are tech savvy enough to know what they're doing.

If, as it sounds, you suspect this was deliberate, then it is theft. You have 2 choices really.   

1) Report it as fraud.  The police may get involved, and there may be consequences for the child. 
2) Try to find some way to pay the bill.

Either way, there will likely be consequences for your relationship with the child - but if you believe they have stolen (a significant amount of money) from you, that is likely inevitable.  This is an unfortunate situation, and there is quite likely not going to be a "good" outcome.