You need to be careful with your phones, pads, tablets and all that fun stuff. Most of these things have one touch buying and in app buying set as a default. You need to turn this stuff off and make it so you need a passcode to buy in app stuff. There is a company out there called Glu that has a game called bug village. It is aimed at kids and there is a way for them to buy in app stuff in like one click. My youngest son racked up a 500 dollar bill over the course of a few days this way and I didnt discover it until checks started bouncing. 830 bucks later I dont have my money and the credit card companies wont assist because it was bought with your permission. My brother who is a lawyer is trying to figure out a way that the credit card companies will have to fork back the cash. We are going down the under 18 route probably as it was a minor that racked up the charges. He is 7 and doesnt quite understand what he did, on top of that he has autism which makes it even worse. Anyway, you need to be careful of these companies. What makes matter worse is the fact that the game is unstable and restarts so everything that he did buy is gone. I am considering suing them in small claims like the woman with the honda did but we will see. Just a warning, be careful. We got him the tablet because there are some good programs on it, we just didnt realize how easy it was to buy in app things with it.

Good day mikeystoyz,

Thank you for letting us all know Friend.

I shall be looking into purchasing an I pad or something similar, to operate all of my AV Equipment within the next year or so.

I shall return to this site if I do purchase one of the items and shall read your post again.

These companies do this kind of thing on purpose, in order to get as much money from you as they can.
It's dishonest, sly, crafty and underhanded. . . . . .The customer should always come first, but clearly this doesn't mean that much to some companies anymore.

Still with people such as yourself who are very streetwise, the rest of us are kept informed.

Many thanks to you. . . . . .And thinking of others.

Sincere Regards

The best thing I can tell you is to disable in game app buying. Password protect everything immediatly. That way you can not be scammed. They really do say oh well! The companies I mean.

The Daily Show did a report on this very problem back in December. The app in question was called "Tap Fish".

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-8-2011/video-game-dealers

I am still trying to figure out exactly how to get the money back. I am thinking that if I go the minor is to young to go into a contract that might work. All said and done he went through 500 bucks before we were able to stop him. My brother is thinking on how we can get them. I am just thinking of suing them in small claims court. Go in front of a judge, show him the game, which is aimed straight at kids, and show him how easy it is to buy things. There has got to be a way to stop this crap. I wouldnt mind if the game was for adults but it isnt, it is for kids. The other thing that is bad is google, amazon and apple make you keep a credit card on file. Then you click one button and poof, it is yours.

Christ, this is absolutely terrible. Hopefully you'll get your money back, I can't believe how low those companies can go...

My ten year old daughter makes apps. purchases on her IPod. There is no "ask your parents permission first" tab. As long as a credit card is on file we are stuck with relying on the "good act" of a child not to make a purchase without permission. Fortunately for me my daughter has been honest.

I forget where but I have seen a "ask parents first" tab somewhere before but in actuality that only helps if the kid is really going to follow that.

It is difficult to regulate. You may have some legal ground approaching it from the minor standpoint as you said. They (the credit card companies) may try their legal mumbo jumbo and claim that, although the child can't be held accountable, you as the parent are responsible as to where your credit card information goes and who has access to it. I wish you the best in this situation.

As I said, my brother who is an attorney, for real is looking into it. I might just sue them in small claims court as they have a presence in los angeles and throw it to the judge, show the judge the game on his cell phone and then buy something with it, lol. That would be funny.

That does stink. But that is why whenever the holidays come around I always remind those in my office the following: If you're going to give an iPod touch, an iPhone or an iPad as a Christmas gift look at the Parental Controls! You can easily disable in-app purchasing, or purchasing of any kind. Most people don't realize that their (in this case) iTunes or Apple ID is linked to a credit card. It's too easy to purchase things these days, but you should always be careful before giving internet connected devices to children, it's way too easy to either purchase something or look up adult content. Apple has some info here about their products: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4213?view ... cale=en_US

I'm sure other companies have similar tactics. I'm always so careful and even as an adult I may almost buy things sometimes! Best of luck reclaiming the money back, I think you have a good chance.

This really sucks. I don't have any kids but ultimately it's the owner of the device that is responsible. If you give your kids a device that is able to make a purchase (and they are able to do so, which means you must have also given them your password as you can't download apps without one [or that's the way it is on my iphone at least, it asks for my password everytime I try to download an app]) then I think you are kind of responsible for paying. Kind of like if a kid picks up your phone and calls overseas or a 1-900 number. Looks like it's time to take away the ipad/iphone until they're a little older..... I do feel real sorry for you though, I hope you get your money back. Just think of how many great laserdiscs that money could have bought!

Nope, you dont need a password to buy in app stuff. You have to physically turn it on. No where does it say you have to do this and it isnt a default setting on the Ipod, Ipad or the Android systems. You have to know that it is possible to do it to begin with. TO buy the app yes, unless it is free, and then you dont need it, at least on the android. Everything is default to one click.

Wow, I wasn't aware of that. That seems like a terrible system. You figure it would be easy to have some setting that restricts buying. I guess they do it to trick people into spending more money. Once again, sorry to hear about these experiences. I hope the money will be recovered. One thing you may be able to try is to put the device in "airplane" mode when the kids use it, this will prevent all wireless communication and then you won't be able to make any transactions while they play.

You can lock them down and keep people from buying in game, which I have done, but it is not originally that way. You have to turn it on which i have done. You can double password protect it but only if you do it and it does not come like that from the factory. It is a button you have to turn on and passwords you have to enable.

I can't imagine how much "extra" money they must make with these "accidental purchases."

Ironically when you buy something it doesnt tell you per say. It does say are you sure in super small lettering before you do but nothing after.

Figured this would pique your interest Mikey

Parents sue Apple over children's costly and highly addictive apps

The story is pretty cool, what people dont realize is apple doesnt set the security as a default. You have to go into settings, go into something else, into something else and into something else just to get to the screen where it says lock. Then you put in a password to lock it and have to do another password that blocks in app buying. It is difficult for the average person to do and as to parents letting their kid play with an ipad, my kid has autism and one of the main tools used in helping the kids is the Ipad. Ironically, my youngest has become a rather good hacker. I have to stay one step ahead of him!

i hate to say this but when i was a kid i was never allowed to play with the phone, so why would you let your kid do it now???
i know there are games on it etc. but think about it.

it still bites that these companies are doing this sly stealing but that's how they do business now.

My kid has autism, an I pad is one way for him to communicate with the world and do other things. This does work

http://www.squidoo.com/ipad-for-autism

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/ ... re-autism/

that is why. It isnt a cure but it does help him communicate with his grandparents and other people.

i know that now it's the only way for them to communicate.
you can use that as even more of a reason to try and get your money back etc.

it's just the way these ipd iphone things are made, too many options for the ability to
spend money on them.

if these phones/pads were only for communication as phones then there would be no problem.
it's not you it's them.