Inadvertent $1500 in app purchase Tap Zoo - warning!

TBH this thread serves to warn and caution, the card holders

can i ask all of you would you allow any other person (let alone a child) to play with your plastic card on a high street?

i know it sounds harsh, but simular has happened on gaming networks, where you buy DLC. kid askes instead of pocket money can they have the latest game or maps. so whoever says ok but then finds it is only done by card.

not wanting to disapoint and perhaps seem mean (my advice is be so mean) they proceed in all good faith, trusting known suppiers not realising that card becomes an open conduit to their funds at any time. So later now the card is established the security check is on the gamers id, name and address, not the CARD HOLDERS!!!!

don't buy there love or respect, saying NO will not damage then for life - just trust me on that 😉, anything and i mean anything that is attached to a card in any way for Goodness sakes do NOT LET ANY child near it = simple as!

if you make a transaction get back on the site as soon as and delete you card details, but best to say NO and exsplain so they will be aware.

Message was edited by: alanfromwickford for typ's

Tonefox,

The fact that a feature is accessible, doesn't mean that the in-app purchase will NOT require a password to be entered, and this is where I call it a scam. It meslead one to think it's for free when you buy stars, and istead you don't realize you are spending real money, and Apple takes 30% of it...

So much so that I understand iOS 5 has addressed it and a password will have to be entered even for in-app purchases.

Please don't assume letting a child, who can read and write, play with an iPod touch is the same as giving him your plastic card on a high street. BTW a 8 year old child would understand that using a credit card he would be spending his parents real money! While playing a free game, my kid felt cheated.

As advice for anyone who discovered this on their credit card, keep asking and Apple will refund you.

Giovanni

With respects, many have been caught out like this, and to be honest it is imho not a new ruise so a practice for the extremely gulable.

I do say giving a child of any age access to any device tied invisibly to a credit card, which to them hide's finacial real life transactions and there value is simply very unwise.

Apple have for their part resolved this bug in iOS 5, to me that says they acknowledged the problem and have now acted over this bug or glitch, as no doubt angry as you are and I sympathies for you lose, shouting they are part of a 'scam' when at best it's a programming oversight, is not really fair when customers share the blame to some extent for their lack of caution.

We have to be careful at ATM's, we have to be careful to shred bank statements, remove address details from envelopes etc, so why not just as much or more caution with open ended online transactions? Via plastic?

Personally I wish the rules were changed so only one transaction can happen on a card at any one time, as it stands once your details are registered they can take money just like a direct debit, assuming (wrongly) that customers understand this.

The quickest way to stop this is cancel he card, however inconvenient that may be.

giovanni perche'no wrote:

Tonefox,

The fact that a feature is accessible, doesn't mean that the in-app purchase will NOT require a password to be entered, and this is where I call it a scam.

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

Read the description before you download it. Take the advised precaution to disable in-app purchases. Let your child play with it. No problem.

I really cannot see how Apple can be accused of anything. Do you hand a child a book, a DVD, or any media without checking what the content is? And if the description told you that there was an option for the child to spend real money on your credit card number, and told you a way to prevent that happening, would you ignore it?

Oh. You did, didn't you?

Yes there is a warning about in App purchaces, but its not just the odd in app purchace its one after the other, a friend of mine's son spent nearly £25 in two minutes, and that is not a scam?, its daylight robbery.

EDIT: Sorry that was in reply to Tonefox

I would rather put in my credit card each time. In itunes I could not create an account to download free items without giving them a credit card number 😟

Not an (Cr)apple fan,

Agreed, or at least be asked my middle name/password even the last 4 digits of the card

Trouble is there are those who legitimately allow free billing and can afford it, they would claim it is 'nannying' so how do the companies appease them?

It would be easy to have an account setting under My Account> Payment Options that asks: would you like to allow automatic purchaces. This should be set as an opt in not an opt out.

ToneFox, just curious. Do you have children? If so, you have more than a valid claim. If not, you have no dog in this fight.

Tom Perkins1 wrote:

ToneFox, just curious. Do you have children? If so, you have more than a valid claim. If not, you have no dog in this fight.

Just slightly. Married for 43 years, three children aged 40, 38 and 35, I started using computers 43 years ago, I have used Macintoshes since March 1984, and I am now in the pensions and savings group at 65.

Do I have a dog in your kiddiwinkies fight, young Tom?

We are fairly similar, 3 sons, 5 grand kids married 40 years several dogs in that time (RIPs).

Never went the MAC route but built and repaired many PC's - so gave a lot of blood to the cause ;)

Touche! I am humbled! 😀

Genuflection is, indeed, appropriate. 😁

That post got temporarily hidden by the mods, presumably while they looked for a dictionary... :-)

Infidels... 😉

Must be from Queen Elizabeth's line and not Queen Mary.

A little religious humor there.

Very little...