5-Year Old Kid Racks Up Over $2,500 In In-App Purchases, Apple Promises Refund

I’ve never liked the freemium model simply because it usually causes gamers to spend more than they would had they bought the game outright. Unfortunately it is a model that many developers are starting to adopt, most notably in the mobile scene where games such as the recently announced Real Racing 3 are free, but in order to speed things up in the game, unlock features and etc., gamers would have to fork out additional money. It seems that in the UK, a 5-year old boy might have gone a tad overboard and has gone on a spending spree with his parents’ credit card, racking up an iTunes bill of a whopping £1,700 (~$2,555)!

In a way the parents were partly to blame as they were busy with guests when this happened. Basically the boy asked his dad for the iTunes password in order to download a free game. As you know, once a password has been entered, there is a 15 minute window in which it does not have to be entered again, and unfortunately that’s when the spending spree began. The parents initially thought it was a mistake until their bank called them to confirm the charges. The good news is that Apple has since agreed to refund the parents the money. Phew!

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple
Tags: Apps, iTunes