“A policeman has shopped his 13-year-old son for fraud after he ran up a £3,700 bill playing iPad games,” James Rush reports for The Daily Mail.
“PC Doug Crossan, 48, was horrified when his credit card company informed him that son Cameron had blown a small fortune in the App Store,” Rush reports. “He claims the teenager, who now faces the possibility of being arrested and questioned by his father’s colleagues, was unaware he was being charged for the in-game purchases and wants Apple to scrap the charge. But the technology company has refused and his only way of recouping the money is to report the purchases as being fraudulent.”
“Cameron racked up more than 300 purchases on games such as Plants vs Zombies, Hungry Shark, Gun Builder and Nova 3. Many of them are free to download but users can buy in-game extras – in one game Cameron had purchased a virtual chest of gold coins costing £77.98,” Rush reports. “When his father confronted him Cameron quickly confessed, claiming he did not know he was incurring charges as the games were initially free.”
Rush reports, “Apple has refused to cancel the charges, citing parental responsibility and pointing out that iPads contain password locks to prevent accidental or unwanted purchases.
But Mr Crossan, an officer with Avon and Somerset Police, believes the company has ‘duped’ his son into making purchases he was not aware of.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We just checked the UK iTunes Store pages for Plants vs Zombies, Hungry Shark, Gun Builder and Nova. Each of the app descriptions clearly state: “Offers In-App Purchases.” Furthermore, Plants vs. Zombies and Nova 3 are not even free, they each cost £0.69.
The way these app work is that every single time Cameron tapped on an In-App Purchase link, he was presented with a dialog box: “Do you want to purchase this?” to which he had to answer “Yes.”
Lastly, Apple routinely emails the Apple ID account holder, who we assume was either Doug or Cameron Crossan, receipts detailing the In-App Purchases made on the account. Therefore, the Crossan’s claim of horrified surprise over the charges is rather inexplicable.
