Kid Racks Up $5,900 Bill Playing Jurassic World

[dlevere]

Xbox Live Sales Cost Canadian Teen's Family $8,000

By Aaron Homer

A 17 year old Canadian boy racked up almost $8,000 on his dad’s credit card making in-game purchases through his Xbox Live account, and Microsoft shows no signs of being interested in giving the money back, CBC News is reporting.

Lance Perkins of Pembroke, Ontario Canada says he gave his son his credit card for emergencies and to make purchases from the convenience store his family owns. Little did he know that his son, whose name has not been made public, would be using it to rack up gigantic bills via Xbox Live. He only found out on December 23 when he got a rather shocking bill in the mail: $7,625.88, all from in-game purchases the son made for upgrades and other purchases on the FIFA series of soccer games for the Xbox platform.


The FIFA series of games for the Xbox platform. Image via Shutterstock/ urbanbuzz

The young lad fessed up to using dad’s credit card to make the purchases, but he had no idea he’d racked up nearly $8,000 worth.

“It floored me. Literally floored me, when I’d seen what I was being charged.”

For his part, the young Xbox player is as upset as his dad is at the huge bill; he insists that he had no idea he was spending so much money.

“He thought it was a one-time fee for the game. He’s just as sick as I am, [because] he never believed he was being charged for every transaction, or every time he went onto the game.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Perkins is not the first parent – nor will he be the last – to get stuck with an exorbitant bill, thanks to a child’s gaming. Earlier this month, according to this Inquisitr reported, a 7 year old in England racked up $5,000 in bills on his dad’s credit card playing Jurassic World on his dad’s iPad.

Top Trend on #Facebook (USA). #iPad:7 Year Old Racks Up £3,911 Bill Playing Jurassic World on Dad’s Device,Reports. pic.twitter.com/3jx9dPjRHq

— Trends Today App (@trendstodayapp) January 1, 2016[/quote]

The problem, in both the young boy’s iPad situation and the Canadian teen’s Xbox situation – and indeed, on just about any internet-enabled gaming platform – is the dreaded “in-app purchases.” Spencer Whitman of app protection firm AppCertain told The Daily Mail in 2013 how app developers are able to squeeze money out of adults — and, especially children — through “in-app purchases” (or “in-game purchases.”

“[Mobile games] often include in-app purchases hidden behind the free price tag. Either they offer a small amount of play, then charge for continued use; offer in-app purchases for more in-game content such as extra areas of play or upgrades; or they constantly interrupt game play to ask for in-app purchases.”

In both the U.S. and Canada, there are few laws in place to protect parents from huge credit card bills brought on by their children making in-app purchases.

And in Mr. Perkins’ case, he’s very likely out of luck. He says he called his credit card provider and was told that unless he’s willing to prosecute his own son for credit card fraud, there’s nothing that can be done. Microsoft, the parent company of Xbox, was also less than helpful. In a statement, the company said that parents should know better and take steps to prevent their kids from making in-game purchases.

“Purchases made using a parent’s payment account are legitimate transactions under the Microsoft Services Agreement, and we encourage parents to use the many platform and service features we make available to prevent unapproved charges.”

And while he may be on the hook for his son’s $8,000 bill, Mr. Perkins has a sure-fire way of preventing something like this from happening again: he says there will never, ever be an Xbox, or any other gaming system in his home.

[xirtamehtsitahw]

Seriously, this "pay-to-win" philosophy is taking over the online-gaming marketplace, and I think it is one of the dumbest ideas ever....but I bet the developers don't see it that way. They think WE, the players, are the numskulls who are stupid enough to fall for this still perfectly LEGAL financial "black hole".

We humans have been screwing each other over since time immemorial, and we've also tried to find ways to make it LEGAL, or hide inside loopholes, or basically stab each other in the back. I just wish we'd wake up as a species, but I think it's going to take one hell of a karmic bitch-slap to do that.

[Pyriel]

It's not even DLC in this case. It's probably one of those stupid games where you can earn "bucks" the hard way or swipe your credit card for a shortcut. Like buying World of Warcraft gold from a shady Chinese website or something, except built into the app from the start.

[nensondubois]

Besides that, advertisements are everywhere. I know I'm against making most things illegal, but for the sake of our minds, advertising should be illegal. Great way to grotesquely distort the minds of kids is to advertise at them when they don't know any better to make up their minds.

[bungholio]

No surprise here, they throw in all these tiny things to buy in every game now. Nothing like 2 generations ago with PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube where you got the whole game. The new era of "Here's 1000+ tiny little extra things to buy for your game." Seriously, a goddamn Jurassic Park game with so much extra crap to buy he racked up $5,900!? Usually games with DLC frequently eventually get released with everything and I consider them a complete game then, $60 on the shelf new and sealed. So going by that logic, this complete game would be over $5,900 to buy the complete game? WTF!!? For that money it better be a life changing experience in more ways than just an insane dent in somebody's wallet. Even calling dibs on $1,800 no matter what for a children's game I would consider a criminally intentional trap and make me permanently start referring to them as "Assle" for it. I could permanently condemn them for such a thing. A children's game that has $5,900 worth of junk to buy? Last I checked not all children can read nor are they born financial prodigies, you don't charge them for it, take all of your crap back is the only option and goodbye forever Assle. Most people live paycheck to paycheck, that trap could bankrupt countless people.

[dlevere]

Posted by samzenpus

theodp writes:

For Mohamed Shugaa, the scariest Jurassic World creature is perhaps Apple CEO Tim Cook, not the Indominus Rex. That's because Shugaa discovered his 7 year old son had managed to rack up a $5,900 bill playing the Jurassic World game on his iPad in six days.

"Why would Apple think I would be spending thousands of pounds on buying dinosaurs and upgrading a game," Shugaa told The Metro. "Why didn't they email me to check I knew these payments were being made? I got nothing from them. How much longer would it have gone on for?"

Shugaa discovered his son's 65 in-app purchases when a payment he tried to make to a business supplier was declined. His son had upgraded dinosaurs using the game currency 'Dino Bucks' without realizing it was charging his Dad in real money.

The good news is that Apple has decided to refund the money, so the kid doesn't have to worry about Apple making him work 8,500 hours for $5,980 to settle the debt.

Btw, before you developers get too excited about the possibility of using In-App Purchase to take kids to the cleaners at $6,000-a-pop, remember that Apple calls dibs on the first $1,800!