In the early days of smartphone app stores, there wasn’t a lot of protection built into it that would prevent kids from knowingly or unknowingly making in-app purchases without their parents’ knowledge. This has resulted in parents receiving credit card bills worth thousands of dollars due to these purchases.Unfortunately even today with protections enabled, it still seems to be a problem. Take for example 41-year old Dr. Muhammad Mutaza, a consultant endocrinologist who was forced to sell the family car, a Toyota Aygo, to help pay off a £1,289.70 iTunes bill that his 7-year old son racked up.
Mutaza initially thought it was a scam when he received the bill, but later discovered that the reason behind it was because his son had made several in-app purchases while playing the free version of DreamWorks’ Dragons: Rise of Berk. Mutaza tried to get a refund on those purchases, but Apple only agreed to refund £207, which forced him to sell off the car to cover the rest of it.
While Apple did not comment on the matter, Mutaza is said to now be considering taking legal action against the company. According to him, “I’ve been an Apple customer since 2005, I just said to the customer services man on the phone ”Well done you’ve ripped me off, congratulations you have succeeded in ripping my child off. You’ve tricked him’.”
Filed in . Read more about Apps, iOS, iPhone and Social Hit. Source: dailymail