Jessica did not become a victim of debit or credit card fraud but her six-year-old son George Johnson was busy making in-app purchases on Apple App Store.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Jessica Johnson was in for a rude shock when she discovered that $16,000 (Rs 11 lakh approximately) was paid to Apple from her account.
- Jessica later discovered her six-year-old son George Johnson was busy making in-app purchases on Apple App Store.
- Apple refused to refund the money because she did not claim the money within 60 days.
Apple user Jessica Johnson was in for a rude shock when she discovered that $16,000 (Rs 11 lakh approximately) was paid to Apple from her account. Jessica did not become a victim of debit or credit card fraud but her six-year-old son George Johnson was busy making in-app purchases on Apple App Store. Moral- never trust your six-year-old with an iPad!
As per a report by New York Post, 41-year-old Jessica was shocked when she found out that her six-year-old son has made in-app purchases worth $16000 on Apple App Store using his iPad. She discovered that the transactions were made in July when he had started using the iPad for his games and bought add-ons on the games.
Particularly on July 8, her account was debited 25 times with around $ 2,500(Rs 1.8 lakh approximately). Johnson initially thought that she has been duped by the hackers and filed a fraud claim. However, she was later informed by Chase that the purchases were indeed made from her account and she was not duped by anybody.
However, when Jessica reached out to Apple asking them to refund the money. She was outrightly refused because she did not claim the money within 60 days. “Tough.’ They told me that because I didn’t call within 60 days of the charges, that they can’t do anything. The reason I didn’t call within 60 days is that Chase told me it was likely fraud — that PayPal and Apple.com are top fraud charges,” Jessica was quoted by New York Post as saying.
Apple refused to budge even when Jessica told them that because of the difference in her bank account she would not be able to pay her family’s mortgage. She informed me that she has received her last paycheck in March and her salary was slashed by 80 percent.
Apple did question her for not activating parental controls but she said that she was not aware of any of those.
“Obviously, if I had known there was a setting for that, I wouldn’t have allowed my 6-year-old to run up nearly $20,000 in charges for virtual gold rings,” said Jessica. She also accused the gaming company of being “predatory” and luring kids to buy things on the app.
For the unversed, Apple has parental controls options that allow the parents to monitor what their kid is browsing on their Apple devices. Some of the settings also include limiting purchases or accessing some of the apps.
