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!

You still never answered the question about your credit card. It is not throwing stones, but you are blaming all and sundry and yet YOU yourself are mostly to blame here.

I'm not blaming anyone - I'm asking for help!!

would it help people to know that I spent most of the evening cry and/or screaming at my son?

That's what I mean by blood.

Will talk to apple tmw and report back

For not having proper controls and for not checking your card expenditure.

crying not cry

DaveGahan I don't think we'll ever get an answer to your question I'm afraid!

Apple can be really reasonable tbh. I just worry that you have left it all this time :(

I've dealt with this a fair bit. You definitely are asked for the long Apple ID password. It's not a pin and it has to have letters and numbers and all sorts. I don't think anyone could "guess" that, but if you used something obvious, or your DS knew it anyway then I can see how it happened. But the lack of emails is strange.

As for not noticing. I can see how that can happen. We are talking about 6 months here. I also think that it's possible for your DS to have not quite understood the enormity of it as the amounts were probably 69p a time.

They would know £1700 was a lot of money but I honestly believe it would probably be as unimaginable as say £45 million would be to most of us.

Tenner a week? They would probably just dismiss it especially as there were no consequences or appearances of 'real' money anywhere.

Like an adult running up a credit card bill and not really equating it to real money have never done anything so stupid obviously

MissWimpy - but you forget that all those 69p etc are itemised on your credit card bill.

This OP has me sooo wound up! Accept responsibility FFS!
My DS did a similar thing with Microsoft points on the X-box. Not £1700 worth though but a few hundred pounds over several months. He was mortified but we hadn't noticed as the credit card was rarely used and the balance cleared automatically each month. It would never have been a problem had we noticed straight away.

He shouldn't have done it. We should have noticed. It never even occurred to us to try and get the money back from Microsoft as DS knew full well what he was doing, just hadn't realised how much it all added up to.

He offered to sell his x-box but we all learnt our lesson, you need to too.

It's the modern day equivalent of getting the phone bill in after spending too much time on dial-a-disc

Splodge. I think it would be useful if you did come back and update. There are regular threads like this on Mumsnet and it's useful for other to know how other people have got on.

Good luck
(I think you will get your money back)

£1700 at 69p a go is almost 2500 purchases! Over 6 months, that's 410 a month! Your cc statements must be very long!

I genuinely wish you luck with Apple tomorrow and I hope they've changed their ways recently. A few years ago my apple account was hacked and someone spent £250 on software downloads in China! Apple wouldn't refund a thing but as the money came from my cc (and I noticed right away) the cc company refunded me ( after quite a palarva).

Good luck.

How is it throwing stones when people are asking a very valid question of why did you not check your credit card account?

You think that the people at Apple are going to say, ok so you didn't notice for 5 months that we have been charging you, not a problem, here's all your money back? No. They will want answers. But if the email has been changed like you are also claiming, you will fail the initial security question and they possibly will not talk to you.

To check the email that is being used, on the ipod , open the App store app. Click featured and scroll down. If the ipod is still logged in, the emial will be written there as clear as day. If not, try and log in with the details you used to set the account up. If the email hasn't been changed, then you ds really does know what he was doing because he has deleted the emails.

Dial-a-Disc?

I would still like to know what iOS your sons iPAD was running.

In your son's defence, it's easier done that you'd imagine. I used to play a facebook game where you could essentially buy more power for your character, or pay to speed construction up / a dozen other advantages. I'm embarrassed to admit that I actually did that a few times thinking that it wasn't a large amount of money. Actually it turned out to be in the region of £5 or more each time, and the extra points / power didn't go very far. The money very quickly mounts. Thankfully I remembered that I am a grown adult and didn't want to waste our hard earned cash on pointless but very addictive computer games. I totally understand your upset, rage and feeling of being robbed by him, but believe me he will likely have been shocked and horrified beyond belief himself. That doesn't make him any less thoughtless and irresponsible, but I do disagree with some of the posts that 'he knew what he was doing'. No, in fairness, I doubt he had any idea the cost would escalate so horrifically. I really hope apple are understanding and helpful. There have been a couple of positive posts on here from people who have had refunds, so stand your ground and hope it goes well. All the best.

Hmmmm - having just written my last post, are you sure it was your ds? As I said, my account was hacked from China. I noticed first when I logged in and my home county had been changed to China!! Didn't think too much of it, changed it back and the. When I got my cc bill, there was the spend.

How did you discover what he'd spent?

It's irresponsible of apple to aim a game at children where amounts like this can be spent. I certainly do not think the OP is to blame!

Dial-a-Disc???!!!!! Omg I had so forgotten all about that! I do remember furtively ringing the number and then quickly putting the phone down after listening for the prescribed 3 minutes, so funny how innocent that seems now in comparison to all this above .

Apple are a business they are not the moral guardians of our Nation's youth!

Ecaudor, not a tenner a week. A tenner a day, for 25 weeks worth of consecutive days... very easily noticeable, I would think. And very easy to realise you shoudln't be doing it.

I do understand the argument of 'you don't get anythign tangible, therefore it isn't a 'real' spend'. BUt then, given that line of thinking, a device should not be handed over to a child without securing it in some way.

If inapp purchases weren't thought of, what about other restrictions - giving an 11 year old an internet capable device with absolutely no restrictions on it at all is asking for some kind of trouble. There surely isn't anyone anywhere who would actually think that was a good idea?

Ok a tenner a day is a lot

Op should have suitable controls set up on the technology she chooses to give her children.

Dial-a-disc - that so takes me back :)

I did that too!

This happened to a friend of mine the other week. Her kids were on clash of the clans and clocked up £ 270 in one afternoon. It appears that the in app purchases for this game do not require a password and gems ( or whatever) may be purchased whenever.The kids, age 11 and 9 did not realise it was ' real' money. It is relatively easy to build up the amount as the amount increases with every purchase of the gems so it doesn't take long to be buying a gem at 60 odd quid a throw. The parents spoke to apple and explained the incident. Apple refunded all of the amount as it was a ' first offence' . Apparently that is their policy as long as you apply within a certain time scale, not sure what this is. 90 days sounds familiar. I'm not sure how you would get on with this though over a longer period of time. The info will be on the apple website.