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!

At the start I had sympathy for the OP but it's gone now as I just can't understand how someone who has said above that she has financial difficulties at the moment doesn't check every statement every month.

Passwords are just a red herring, every single one of us has a responsibility to make sure transactions on our bank and credit card statements are correct to avoid just this type of problem/frauds/errors etc

Apple will probably ask exactly the same questions, are you going to try and fob them off with cancelled cards and loan payments?

Oh op I'm so sorry.

In my view the recriminations are useless. Could've should've would've if etc are meaningless once a situation occurs.

It was stupid but not malicious. Try for a refund. Dry the tears.

And learn from the info how to not do this again. (And keep up to date on it/apple stuff!)

You definitely don't have to have a password or pin for all in app purchases and you don't always get emails. It would be perfectly possible for the OPs scenario to occur, except for the fact that bank statements are blindingly clear.

We had a similar situation, fortunately we both check statements right away and noticed DS's spending that way (he was 7 and didn't realise he was spending real money). Apple were really really helpful, gave us both an phone tutorial and refunded immediately. DH is very tech savvy but had messed up when synchronising devices and left DS's ipod unprotected. He now checks it regularly to make sure the protections (for internet as well as purchases) are actually working.

OP statements are there to protect you from all sorts of things. Anyone can be out there spending your money in on any account or card and you'll never know if you don't check your statement. But I guess you know that now!

Neither the OP or her DH checked their CC statement. It was obviously a silly thing to do but they are not the first people to make this type of mistake.

Agree with the above. Yes we should all be responsible with our money and keep a close check on our bank accounts. Not everyone does for varying reasons - lack of time and energy, or not feeling able to face the stress of looking at the accounts. Some people do go for the burying head in the sand option and hope it'll all be okay. Whatever the reason, the OP needs to find a better way of managing and organising finances, for sure, but hardly needs to be berated for mistakes made and has surely learned after this experience. I hope you can get it / some of it back, OP.

A colleague of dh's came into work fuming, and said that his 9yo son had managed to purchase a horse box on his eBay account for £9000... Yes, it raised the issue of spending more time with the kids, internet security, and managing behaviour. Not good. But it happens.

What I really don't understand is the Apple blaming. Surely parents are the ones who buy their children these devices, or permit them to borrow theirs are responsible.

In our case when I saw the bill, I blamed DH not Apple, he bought the bloody thing for a 7 year old so twas his fault entirely (and my fault for having children with a wannabe techie....always goes back to the parents!!)

Splodge, i started a thread on this a week ago, it was £652.

I was refunded within a week, both by Apple ( send a polite e-mail to them, google i tunes helpdesk, and tehy will reply. Or go inot i-tunes: my account: recently purchased: click on any of the purchases you want to contest. You only need to do this once, ten list all the purchase numbers in one big e-mail for them to look at.) and my bank ( love you barclays), I then had to refund the bank as I was quids in!

Big shock at the time.

Initially felt like blaming DS, who is 8. But upon further thought, it should NEVER be a child's fault if the parents are stupid enough ( this includes me! ) to link the kids' games to my own credit card. Not the kids
'S fault!!!!!!

Blame yourself, blame apple, but not the kid, IMO.

Anyway, you should get it all back!

Let us know!

Surely if refunds are available on demand, everyone would invent an 8 year old who had an unfortunate unsupervised 6 months moment, and ran amok racking up charges? Why would anyone accept the charge at all?

I don't understand how anyone can download anything without an Apple ID password? You can opt to require a password for each and every download or opt to give a password every 15 minutes but I don't understand how you can completely avoid giving a password at all? I don't think its possible. Please enlighten me

Maybe it's possible with old ios's (but I still doubt it)

BitOutOfPractice sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I misread your post.

Fiscal - was your £652 run up in a short period of time? I think apple might be dubious about a 6 month period and query it more.

Flogging, we asked the lovely guy at Apple that question and he said there is a distinct pattern to children's usage, the things they buy, the timing and its often fairly straightforward to differentiate between adult and child.

Flogging, I pointed out to Apple that the previous months had a very different spending pattern from the past 8 years, we spend maybe £5 a month on songs, and a couple of £0.79 apps. Then suddenly, there were 6 purchases of between 15 and 70 (!) pounds in the space of 10 minutes, right after i downloaded a free app. ( that infamous 15 minute window I did not know about).

I was very polite to apple, they were polite back, it was all quite a good learning experience.

It was spent over about 4 weeks.

I had not noticed as I never read my bank statements (ahem) but occasionally (once a month) check everything online.

I was at the garage picking up my car, had to pay. £700 bill....but not enough cash. Bit embarrassing. All my own fault really.

I have now disconected my credit Card from i-tunes, and use vouchers.

Also got a bit more seriously into parental controls, to then forget the password before i could write it down! so DH and I are now limited to watching age 12 and younger films!!!! I am so crap!!!!!

Fair enough. That does sound vastly different to 6 months unnoticed usage, though. I still think op is on a hiding to nothing attempting to claim a refund.

Fiscal - your situation is different as you noticed and raised a query within 4 weeks. I don't think apple will see a six month delay in quite the same light.

I am so glad I have read this thread because there are several posts that make me feel I would be no better.
So glad there wasn't so much technology when our older dc were younger and dd is and will be told no from the off set.
Is it not cheaper to buy the cd, rather than giving such young irresponsible dc gadgets they really aren't old enough to manage?

Fiscal I must admit to sniggering about your new puritanical viewing habits

IAlwaysThought no worries. Sorry I was snippy back. Had a crap morning

A couple of years ago my at the time boyfriend had helped himself to one of my iPods and I hadn't noticed one was moving around disappearing ect.

For about 6/7 months he was putting albums and other stuff on it I noticed because my dd asked my why on earth I had dub step and techno music on it ( I have no idea what dub step even is) this prompted me to look through it and I found out he had spent about £700.

Apple refunded is very quickly as he did not have consent to do so.and it was bloody obvious from the purchase history that it was a different person doing it.

I would certainly blame my 8 year old if he had spent my money without asking me. He knows even at that age that if he wants to download anything he needs my permission and all in app purchases are switched off so there is no chance of him spending money on such shite.

Parents are responsible for making sure that their children understand that they are spending real money, DS actually doesn't have the chance to spend anything as he has to give me the device to input the password and in app purchases are switched off. I know nothing about bloody techy stuff and I worked it out.

OP you need to take responsibility and stop over reacting and blaming your child.

It is your responsibility to make sure your chid can't spend your money, you should have told him he can't buy stuff. You need harder passwords, clearly. And you need to take a better look at your finances as you clearly don't understand them.

I hope you get some of the money back.

Have pM'd you OP x

everyone having a pop at her - just WAIT till it happens to you. You're not immune to this stuff. We all think we're careful enough.

Some stuff is just totally counterintuitive

Thanks Pato but it really won't happen to me. You can't buy anything if there's no card attached.

Why are people saying that an 11 year old doesn't know he shouldn't defraud his parents? Mine bloody did. And I would have considered that I had failed as a parent if they didn't.

My suggestion that an 11 year old who didn't realise mightn't be where he should be, developmentally was deleted, curlew.
Maybe I phrased it wrong...

Yes, you did phrase it differently in your deleted post Molly.
But I was surprised that so many felt that understanding money and being responsible for your actions in this situation was beyond an 11 year old.

BigOrange - no, of course not. However I did not attach my card. I had used my card ONCE in connection to my gmail address on the internet several months before even buying the tablet - and google took it upon themselves to take those details and use them on it, without my permission or consent, or knowledge.

My settings on th desktop still state that google wallet has not been activated on any device...needless to say I closed down google wallet, as I hadn't wanted it in the first place and only used it to enter my details for one random transaction when the website didn't take other forms of payment.

Go figure