OMFG just found out DS has spent £1700 on ipod game!!!

[splodge2001]

It's all in the title really. Still shaking, It's been going on since June> I hadn't noticed because the spending was masked by some unusual purchases over the last few months. Am livid! I've deleted 'Clash of Clans' banned the Ipod, grounded him, asked him to think of ways he can pay us back (he won't be able to). What the hell do I do? Can I get my money back. Do I report it as fraud? After all, I didn't allow it to happen. Help!

Agree, SilverApples. I too find it extraordinary how posters have been quick to say 11 year olds don't understand such things.

I have a 9 year old who has severe ASD. She has her own iPad, and is able (as in, knows how to) download apps and music. She also knows she has to ask me to do it for her, as she need s a password to do it, and because it costs 'real money'. We are still working on the whole value of money thing, but then, she is, in academic terms, still working at pre-Reception levels. She does know the relativity of number size, and so understands if something is more money than she can afford, and can usually search for something within a set limit (she did really well with this on a recent holiday when spending her hard-saved pocket money).

my 6 year old (NT with quirks) also knows not to spend my money, and that there are some things she cannot do in apps because I won't spend money on it (and she doesn't want to spend her pocket money on it - which says it all, really!)

I thought I was safe with password protect, on all purchases, app or in-app, and with no card details entered into the device.

Luckily I have a child who is scared of me and was far more upset about mistakenly purchasing something than I was about him doing it

itwas under a tenner and we got it back

but still

Well I think the lesson learned is...check your bank statements regularly.
I am amazed that people don't.

I had a similar issue with ds1(9) who spent £305.thread

My boss, his son, spent a lesser amount, and boss's wife got it back quickly.

Ours took a lot of effort. We fought hard. But we got it. Google apologised to us, because they had stored dh's credit card details and there had been no pin number, no e-mails, just buy but buy by ds.

Be savvy OP. A lot of the people on this thread, who are giving you grief, are completely ignorant about how easy this is.

There are loads of ways this can happen. There are endless MN threads and endless posts/threads all over the internet. People seem to be implying that the parent is an idiot, for allowing this to happen.

It is so easy. There are so many ways this can happen.

To all those posters - Let's hope it doesn't happen to you, because then your comments really will come back to bite you on the bum.

Your son made a huge mistake. You made huge mistake. Take responsibility for your actions. Apple is not to blame. Why should they be made to eat the cost of your child's irresponsibility?

People need to take responsibility and if you don't know for sure that payments can't be taken then you need to check how it is set up. It is easy for kids to spend money, there has been enough publicity about it, that that should be a reminder for parents to check.

The OP has shown that she takes her financial situation less seriously than she should and that has meant her son has spent far more than she would have allowed.

If I was stupid enough to not protect my bank details then it would serve me right if my child spent all my money.

Even if you set up a 4-digit restrictions pin it doesn't automatically mean in-app purchases are blocked, you have to then go into the restrictions bit and turn that off too. The pin is purely to get into that part of the settings. Just wondering if that's where the confusion is coming from. (Apologies if I've understood it wrongly)

Hopefully loads of people read these threads and take the appropriate steps to prevent it happening to them.

FOR iOS7

THE BASICS FOR STOPPING UNINTENTIONAL IN-APP PURCHASES

1. keep your iTunes password private and not guess'able

2. Enable restrictions
   SETTINGS >>>> GENERAL. >>> RESTRICTIONS >>> then enter and re-enter a non-guessable 4 digit PIN number.

3). Then turn off in-app purchases
SETTINGS >>>> GENERAL. >>> RESTRICTIONS >>> your PIN NUMBER >>>>. Turn off IN-APP PURCHASES

4. Require a password every time you make an iTunes purchase. This is your Apple ID password.
   SETTINGS >>>> GENERAL. >>> RESTRICTIONS >>> your PIN NUMBER >>>> REQUIRE PASSWORD >>>> toggle it to IMMEDIATELY

5). Remove your credit card from your iTunes account and use itunes vouchers.

BLOCKING ADULT WEB CONTENT (ie porn 'n stuff)

Even if you have decent controls on your home network and it's worth following the info in the following THIS LINK This feature is even more important if your child has a 3G device or accesses the internet via networks with no controls.

PRIVACY

I recommend that anyone who is concerned about privacy and has Apple devices running iOS7 have a look at THIS LINK. It details how you can prevent pesky Apple and other apps accessing information about you.

Disclaimer, I am happy to have the above info corrected. I think its right but I am not at all an expert

This info is for iOS7 only.

We don't get paper statements from the credit card. I check the bank statements very often and saw the credit card amounts debited but they were mostly lower than usual as I'd stopped using my card (apart from 1 month the bill was higher, coz we'd borrowed money from the card).

This really annoys me.

Whenever I read something like this in the paper I think it serves them right.

Why should apple / google etc pay for your mistake?

You should have policed the situation better. If I didn't watch my DD with my iPad that's my too bad.

Ridiculous. They should make you pay it and I hope they do. Nothing personal but there's too much of this around at the moment.

Exactly Ob

SO much smugness and superiority from those it has never happened to (and clearly, could never happen to in a million years)

I had seen the threads
I set it up as well as I was able, password protected everything, blocked everything I was able to block.

I thought I was safe by only letting ds buy a voucher when he had saved enough, entering the voucher code and then allowing him to spend things only by asking me first so I agreed to each item and entered a 10 digit password he did not know.

Google was it seems desperate to get around my caution by grabbing details from a historic transaction involving my gmail address and letting him buy something using those...no password required as I'd entered it 20 minutes prior to this.

I acknowledge I made an error, but it was the sort of error that you cannot foresee without experience.

Bit like someone sending you a court summons at the age of 18 for a pencil you nicked in school when you were 7.

Oh, splodge - don't take it to heart.

I can completely see how it could happen the way you describe it, with lower rather than higher credit card bills. Lesson learnt, I'm sure.

If you can bear it, would you mind telling us a couple of things? Not to mud rake, but because I think it would be really helpful for people like me so we can understand how to protect ourselves better.

1. Have you checked which email address is linked to your iTunes account? In other words, has your DS changed it? Or is there some other explanation like the iTunes emails have been re-routed to spam? I'd like to know because if it's spam then I want to check my spam settings.

1. Do you know how your DS knew your password?

1. Do you know how your DS knew your PIN?

I really hope you get at least part of it refunded. I also hope your DH finds employment soon - it must be really hard being out of work for 2 years.

Curious, I am certain there are those who seek to take advantage of the refund policy in the light of this phenomenon

But look

Look at the sort of articulate, honest, genuine, educated parents (often very good parents no doubt) who are making these errors, and judge for yourself how likely it is that they are trying it on in a whiney sort of a way...'it's not fair ...'

It isn't like that. I'm the FIRST to hold my hands up and say, hang on, that was my stupidity, my error, I shouldn't have done that.

But when the thing is set up almost to trick people into doing stuff they had no intention of doing - like my son who came and told me immediately - then there is something at fault with the system imo.

IMO the nexus is an adult device. I regret buying the fucking thing. But there is huge peer pressure to have some kind of internet device and I think there is a real gap in the market for something that is pre-teen aimed, safe, user friendly, and not designed to make absurd amounts of money out of folk who are not especially clued up in technological terms.

It's immoral and wrong. People fall for it from a lack of knowledge in the same way that they find their FB profile is public when FB has once again changed the privacy settings in an underhand manner - but it's still a big ol' con.

Curious George, have you not read what happened to Me and Pato?
Google apologised to me for illegally storing dh's credit card details, when the account was set up 6 months earlier. When ds bought he items, over 5 days, there was no pin request, and no e-mails were sent.
Google admitted this. And this was why they apologised and refunded.

"it serves them right. "
"Why should apple / google etc pay for your mistake?

You should have policed the situation better."

What should I have done, that I didn't do?

Disclaimer: I might be a thicko but have met Oblomov and she's fecking ace

She's not a whiner and I'll bet neither is the OP.

Also, I am not on FB. Because I don't trust it.

Ooh x posts!

I hope that you got a refund. Did you ?

"They should make you pay it and I hope they do."

Next time there is fraud. Or some one breaks into your house. Or money gets stolen from your bank account. Or there is a really clever fraud, that leaves you penniless, we will???????

What?
Have a good laugh.
And say, serves you right.

Right

Google refunded the whole amount.
And a gift as an apology.
Bet that gets right up your nose CuriousGeorgie.
Good.

My son spent more money than I would like on doughnuts on a Simpsons game. Unfortunately the password to authorise payments is no different to the one he needs for system updates, game downloads etc.

Luckily we realised pretty quickly and nipped it in the bud, he still has the password though as he would constantly be asking me to put in the password every time he downloaded a free game.

No, it doesn't 'get up my nose'... But I have my opinion and I'm entitled to it.

I think your situation sounds lightly different than the OP's however.

An 11 year old out in a pass code and knew what they were doing.

Take some responsibility for your child.

since when has iTunes required you to have a credit card linked to an account? My ds has an iPod and his iTunes account doesn't have a credit card linked to it - if he wants to buy apps then we buy iTunes vouchers and he links those to his account, once the credit has gone then it's gone. But in-app purchases are disabled anyway.

But it's not apple's fault that children end up doing this - it's the fault, or naivety, or lack of tech savvy-ness of the parents for not putting in place the steps to ensure this doesn't happen. And there are steps that are easy to put in place. It's a bit like blaming the banks for the fact people get themselves into debt. yes banks make it easy to get into debt but ultimately the responsibility is that of the individual.

However, what's done is done and it's a valuable lesson to learn if apple won't refund the cost.

If your ds has changed the email address on the iTunes account then clearly he knew he was in the wrong. wouldn't just ban the game I would sell the iPod to make the point very clear. If a child that age doesn't know the value of money to that extent then it needs to be brought home to them very clearly IMO. I would sell his iPod and ban anything online related for a indetermined amount of time. and then make him do chores to earn back the money, and at 1700 quid he'll be doing chores for a bloody long time.

Wannabe they USED to make you supply a debit/credit card when you made an account. Then you could remove it afterwards. Don't think you have to now

So tell me how to stop in game purchases during Minecraft on the xbox? DS keeps spending 50p and I have no idea how to stop this; no 'help' button nothing. I have it set at teenage setting and linked to a card for the ongoing xbox live - when I tried to delete the card I couldn't as that would stop xbox live membership. I have been through every setting/account/privacy bit I can find (and in the process amended ratings/time on the xbox etc etc) but nothing at all to stop purchases. If I can't do that, what should I do?

going out now, will check back for tips later