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5 Year Old Racks Up Massive iPad App Bill in Ten Minutes

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News Posted: Sat, Mar 2 2013 10:07 AM
When it comes to the iPad, it's all fun and games until little Billy starts downloading in-game content willy-nilly, resulting in a huge credit card bill. In this case, it's little Danny Kitchen who, quite innocently, managed to download dozens of in-game add-ons worth £1,710.43 (around $2,570 in U.S. currency). Do'h!

How does something like that happen? According to The Telegraph, Danny asked his parents for the iPad's passcode so he could download Zombie v. Ninja, a free game in the Apple Store. Greg and Sharon (mom and dad) left him alone and, well, it ended up costing them.

Zombies vs Ninja

"Danny was pestering us to let him have a go on the iPad. He kept saying it was a free game so my husband put in the passcode and handed it to him," Sharon explains. "It worried me when he asked for the password but I had a look at the game and it said it was free so I didn't there would be a problem."

On the contrary, Danny bought a boatload of in-game weapons, including ecstasy bombs, darts, and other goodies that quickly added up.

"It was a good game, but I will never do anything like this again," Danny said. "I'm banned from the iPad now, but I am still going to play games when I can, but I will be careful now."

To Apple's credit, they refunded the family the massive bill. That's not something Apple is obligated to do, especially when there are built-in parental controls, including the ability to turn off in-app purchases. Incidentally, Apple recently settled a lawsuit over in-app purchases that were made before there were safeguards in place.
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3vi1 replied on Sat, Mar 2 2013 11:35 AM

>> "in-game add-ons worth £1,710.43 (around $2,570 in U.S. currency)."

I'm pretty sure that requires a loose interpretation of the word 'worth'.

EA's iOS Mortal Kombat will be better (http://i.imgur.com/dZAvwB9.jpg):

What part of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" don't you understand?

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RWilliams replied on Sat, Mar 2 2013 12:55 PM

Something is not right here. I don't think -I- could wrack up $2,500 that fast when trying to do it on purpose, so I have major doubts that this kid did it "by accident". Does an ecstasy bomb cost $250??

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CDeeter replied on Sat, Mar 2 2013 1:33 PM

Yeah I don't get that at all. Just how long did it take to rack up that much? He had to be playing for days and days.

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Super Dave replied on Sat, Mar 2 2013 10:56 PM

Hopefully Mom and Dad learned their lesson! Years ago I came home from work and discovered that my wife had allowed our 10-year-old son to take the laptop out to our apartment building laundry room so he could surf the internet unsupervised with his two buddies. She had given him her password which allowed them to go anywhere on the 'net without his usual parental controls. So I grabbed a cold one and decided to take a look at their history trail to see where they had been. I discovered that those three little guys had stumbled across some really hardcore porn sites! When I showed my wife the pictures she was horrified and began to cry in earnest. I think I was more shocked at my wife's reaction than I was at the PICS. A little while later I was looking at one of the cartoons my son had viewed and my wife caught me chuckling at it. She accused me of thinking the whole 'incident' was funny and she told me I needed to get serious and talk to our son about it! Later that evening my son and I had a heart-to-heart, and then my wife tore into him anyway. My wife was at fault, but my son and I got the punishment for it! 

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realneil replied on Sat, Mar 2 2013 11:45 PM

Ha! I just reported the spammer and came back to start deleting his posts and it was gone!

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Super Dave replied on Sat, Mar 2 2013 11:50 PM

I whacked his 8 SPAMMY posts and it feels GOOD!Big Smile

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realneil replied on Sun, Mar 3 2013 12:08 AM

LOL!

I just love nailing them,.......

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MayhemMatthew replied on Sun, Mar 3 2013 2:46 AM

I think Apple should have told them to suck it...

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Super Dave replied on Sun, Mar 3 2013 1:03 PM

I'm no fan of Apple, but in this case I think they did the right thing.

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realneil replied on Sun, Mar 3 2013 3:17 PM

Super Dave:

I'm no fan of Apple, but in this case I think they did the right thing.

 

I agree, this could have been crippling to this family, even though it's entirely their own fault. Apple's response was good to hear.

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