A U.K. policeman has reported his own 13-year-old son for fraud after the young man racked up a £3,700 charge for in-app purchases on his iPad that Apple refused to refund. The officer, Doug Crossan, says that his son was not aware that he was being charged for these downloads, and that he wants Apple to cancel the charge. Apple has refused to do so, so in order to get his money back, he reported the purchases as fraudulent.
via Son makes £3,700 in app purchases, policeman father reports him for fraud | iMore.com.
I’m calling Bull-Pucky on this! Not the story, it’s apparently true, but the son claiming that he was unaware that his in-app purchases were free!
Each and every in-app purchase clearly states the value of the purchase. We’re not talking a 5 year old here like a previous case, no we are talking a 13 year old.
This is a clear case where the parents failed to do their jobs as parents and are trying to blame someone else instead of taking responsibility.
You should see the sad faced photo’s of the father/son. Surely folks like these shouldn’t be responsible for the sad looking 13 year old’s actions! After all, they clearly are not trying to defraud Apple and the developers of the software that his son IAP’ed.
Since the father has contacted the National Action Fraud helpline to report his son in an attempt to recover the money his son charged, it’s possible that his son could be charged for the crime. I say the father should be the one charged with fraud and sentenced to time in prison, or at least let go from the police force he works for. I mean really, a policeman pulling a stunt like this.
It’s not like the father had no way to block IAP’s in iOS. iOS has very easy to use Parental Controls for making sure things like this don’t happen.
