Inadvertent $1500 in app purchase Tap Zoo - warning!

The max in-app purchase is much higher. We had a charge for ONE in-app purchase ("Chest of Stars") for the amount of $149.99+tax. The problem is, neither we nor our children ever made the purchase. We also never gave our children the iTunes store password. And to add insult to injury, the one purchase was double-charged to our credit card.

Unauthorized charges aside, why does a kids game even allow $150 in-app purchases in the first place?!?

Beware this scam indeed. StreetView Lab's very business model seems to be to give away games like this and then rake in these in-app purchases for obscenely high amounts.

We had a similar experience - my six year old purchased a 'chest of stars' for $199.99 (NZD) so yes it is possible to rack up a large amount quickly. We take responsibility and did not read the fine print properly (i.e. in the game description it makes note that you can purchase virtual items for real money and you must disable this) however what I am FURIOUS about is that my daughter was not prompted for my iTunes password (my experience with all other apps) which would have avoided this situation altogether. $200 for a virtual purchase - this game is a SCAM.

Has anyone received any reimbursement on these claims? I am assuming no as this thread is still open and given the iTunes/App Store 'Terms and Conditions'. I had a similar experience where my son purchased $9.99 of... something. Certainly not as bad as these other claims but nonetheless.

WARNING DONT DOWNLOAD RESTAURANT HISTORY:

my son who always downloads FREE games had downloaded this game called restaurant history were you help out in a restaurant I believe, well at the moment it said that it was supposedly free but they actually charged me $107.24 and itunes doesn't respond to my problem. *Be careful on what you download*

My experience is nothing like some of the others, but I had a similar problem with an app called Tap Town, had $8AUD charges. I simply reported a problem via iTunes store and within 24 hours I had the fees refunded by Apple and a nice link to disable the in-app purchases on the iPhone which I've now enabled.

I'll admit that some of the FREE apps seem to encourage less than ideal behaviour when it comes to purchases, I mean who about the age of 18 would even download and play something like Tap Town, it's aimed at kids and played by kids, as if they know if they are or aren't purchasing information.

estimado, yo soy de Chile y nos paso exactamente lo mismo, tu has tenido alguna respuesta, de verdad es incomodo esta situacion, y preocupante, porque efectivamente son niños quienes juegan y no tenemos por que saber los costos si uno ve que es gratis

You can rack up $200 fairly quickly, I do know that. This game has a feature that allows you to buy a "Trunk of Coins" for $99.99. Seriously- $99.99 for a single feature. My kid purchased this game because it was FREE, then bought a boat load of features and I ended up with $240 on my card in less than 2 minutes, with TWO transactions for $99.99 each, for a "Trunk of Coins." Look it up on the app. It's in there. This whole concept of "in-app-purchase" should be pulled. Most people don't know that they have to do that in order to prevent these kinds of charges. Apple shouldn't allow these apps to even get away with this total BS. Feels like a SCAM to me, praying on kids who don't know the difference then blaming the parents for not paying attention to something they didn't even know that had to pay attention to.

I have also been scammed by this app.

It was a very similar scenario to the guys above.

My son (7 years old) downloaded this "FREE" game and quickly created a $400 invoice!

Because my iPhone still had the DEFAULT option of no restrictions, in-app purchases were allowed, further more, in the first fifteen minutes after download you don't have to enter your password for in-app purchases, THIS IS EVIL!

I believe that Apple is complicit, culpable and should be condemned for allowing this to continue.

Apple did refund my money, only because they clearly know how bad this is.

I have removed my credit card details from my iTunes account.

I will never buy another song, book or app from iTunes again!

This is the only way to get Apple to do something.

I cannot believe Apple would associate itself with something as sordid and low as this.

Tasman wrote:

I cannot believe Apple would associate itself with something as sordid and low as this.

I cannot believe that a parent would give a seven year old a smartphone with internet access, with neither supervision nor at least learning what parental controls are available.

Because my iPhone still had the DEFAULT option of no restrictions, in-app purchases were allowed

It's your phone, so it's your responsibility to change the default settings if they don't suit.

iPhone's are not sold to 7 year olds.

This is the only way to get Apple to do something.

Apple already "do something". They provide you with a User Guide and provide you with the option to turn off In-App Purchases in the phone.

My 4 year old managed spend 160 euro playing Tap Zoo. I immediately emailed Apple Customer support, we have had the money fully refunded. I have also disabled In App purchases on my iPhone so it cannot happen again. It's a very cheeky scam designed to rip people off taking advantage of the In App purchases which does not require a password to be re entered. Apple are aware of it which is why the In App purchases option comes enabled in the first place. It's unethical and they need to address it or they are going to lose customers.

Apple are aware of it which is why the In App purchases option comes enabled in the first place.

It comes enabled because iPhone's are only sold to adults, who Apple assumes are capable of reading a manual, and adjusting the provided settings in the phone to suit their personal requirements.

Parental restrictions are not set by default on TVs, DVD Players and other devices where such restrictions exist. If you want to enable them, you turn them on yourself.

If In-App purchases was disabled by default, Apple would be inconveniencing many more responsible adults instead of the few irresponsible ones who let their children play on an expensive gadget unsupervised.

You'd then get all the eternal whiners on here complaining about Apple setting the option ON by default. No matter what Apple do, people will always complain because they failed to read the manual.

Same happened to me. This is not right. I tried getting support from Itunes but I did not get a reply. I let my daughter download the application because it was FREE ....I entered my password, which I do not share with her to avoid fraud. But it seems that for some reason Itunes lets you make purchases 15 minutes or so after you have entered your password. So this is how they do it. Show a game with Santa as an the Icon, fool the parents by letting the kids go in and then take advantage of the 15 minutes to sell junk for hundreds of dollars. Its a fraud according to me but how does anyone explain that Itunes with all their regulations to protect the artists, their own softwares etc. can let people take advantage of clients like this? I used to love downloading songs and Applications and I felt I was doing the right thing by purchasing my music through Itunes. Now I removed many apps from my Iphone, I dont intent to purchase any in the future, my daughter will have to stay away from my phone, I will tell all my friends about this scam and the danger of using Itunes and finally I have removed my credit card info from their site. How will this fraud be a benefit to them? I dont understand what is happeneing with todays businesses., Is it really CASH CASH CASH and the **** with the rest? Anyway BEWARE and stay away from the applications or keep you eyes open, they are out to get your money even if it means using the kids to do so.

In *Tap Zoo xmas* you can now make purchases of 99$ in one simple click.
So, it does not take long to reach 1000$. Also, how do you explain that Itunes requires that I enter my password to download a free application (free?) and then not ask the same password for hundred dollars purchases? I know they can find many arguments to hide whats going on but it is still a shame.

I assume this is "Tap Zoo: Christmas" where the third line of the description of the app in iTunes reads

"PLEASE NOTE: This game lets you purchase items within the game for real money. Please disable in-app-purchase on your device if you do not want this feature to be accessible"

So where exactly do you see this as fraud???