It turns out that mobile games are harmful not only for children, but also for parents – or rather, for their wallets. So, a 7-year-old boy from Wales spent $1800 playing with his dad’s smartphone. To recoup the losses, the father had to sell the family car.
Doctor Muhammad Mutaza from Wales let his 7-year-old son play Dragons: Rise of Berk on his smartphone. He did not suspect that in just an hour the life of his family would undergo significant changes. This time was enough for the boy to make 29 purchases in the application for different amounts – from 1,99 to 99,99 pounds.
As a result, the child managed to spend 1290 pounds (1800 dollars, or almost 130 thousand rubles). Muhammad explained that his son remembered the iTunes password and entered it every time to confirm purchases. The man is sure: the child did not have malicious intent, he simply did not understand that he was spending real money. All he wanted was to get through the next round as quickly as possible.
It turned out that in this game you can make any number of purchases, as long as the amount of each does not exceed 99,99 pounds. Yes, information about all transactions immediately came to Muhammad’s email, but he admitted that he rarely checks emails.
“At first I thought I had been lied to. I never imagined that it was possible to spend so much money in a child’s game. And here, it turns out. it is quite realistic to click on the “buy” icon 10 times and spend a million in half an hour, ”said the man.
Mutaza did not remain inactive – he contacted Apple support with accusations of theft. The man was convinced that the developers of the application deliberately misled his son. Part of the amount – only about $ 285 – was returned to him, but nothing more was achieved.
Now the Briton, who has been an Apple customer since 2005, says he won’t spend another dime on their products and services. And this decision is not surprising: after all, the amount spent by the child exceeded the limit of Muhammad’s credit card. To cover his expenses, the man had to sell his family car, the Toyota Aygo.
The case never came to a hearing in court. The parties managed to reach a compromise
A similar story happened earlier in Russia. A resident of Noginsk near Moscow suddenly discovered that 320 thousand rubles had disappeared from his card. It turned out that the man’s son spent this amount on the mobile anime game Bleach: Immortal Soul.
He, like the hero of the previous story, made several microtransactions to “pump” his character. At the same time, the cost of virtual goods ranged from 99 rubles. up to 9490 rub. The boy got access to his dad’s account without difficulty, as he played on his Android smartphone.
The student’s father decided to recover the money spent from Google. To do this, he not only turned to the technical support of the corporation, but also sued the company.
However, the case never went to court. The parties managed to reach a compromise. However, it is not yet known whether the Russian was returned the entire amount or offered a different type of compensation.