Mom wasn't the happiest...

Experts have been warning for a long time that so-called in-app purchases, especially games, can be quite dangerous. Jessica Johnson, a 41-year-old real estate agent from the city of Wilton in the US state of Connecticut, felt that this is indeed the case.

In July of this year, Jessica noticed significant deductions on her bank statements for Apple and PayPal. Since she didn't buy anything through them, she thought it was a mistake or a fraud, so she called the bank, where they advised her to file a fraud refund claim. Chase Bank took its time to respond and told her in October that the deductions, which had meanwhile grown to $16,293.10 (€13,333), were legal and that she should contact Apple. And it did.

It turned out that the amount was generated by purchases of accessories for the game Sonic the Hedgehog, and Jessica's six-year-old son George was the culprit. Since neither Jessica nor her husband included security features on George's phone in the family phone plan, George pressed buy. First some red rings for $1.99, then some gold ones for $99.99 and so on... to over $16,000.

Jessica, of course, informed Apple about this, but it replied that it could not return the money to her, as she had missed the 60-day deadline for claiming the purchase. The argument that she did not get in touch with Apple in time because the bank told her that it was most likely a fraud was not valid and the family can wipe their noses for the money.

It is quite clear that the fault lies with Jessica and her husband, who did not know that such a thing existed, that is, that a six-year-old son could make purchases through his phone with the help of his parents' credit card, even possible, and therefore they did not make sure that such a thing could not happen. On the other hand, it's true that it's a kind of predatory practice by developers and content providers: "What adult would spend $100 on a chest of virtual gold coins?" asks Jessica. “My son didn't understand that money was real. How could you? He's playing a game that takes place in a world he knows isn't real, and consequently the money isn't real to him either."

We can agree with Jessica's arguments, only the part about the adult who spends, not so much. In 2018, the 31-year-old Japanese Daigo [spent more than 70,000 dollars] (https://youtu.be/z-fxfuWhff0) for accessories in the game Fate/Grand Order...

Source: New York Post, image is symbolic

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