Seven-Year-Old Memorizes Father’s iTunes Password, Racks up Thousands of Dollars in Purchases

Seven-Year-Old Memorizes Father’s iTunes Password, Racks up Thousands of Dollars in Purchases
Text Size
- +

Toggle Dark Mode

We all know the many benefits of keeping our beloved iOS devices password or Touch ID protected — to stave off thieves and protect our data, for instance. But what about our children?

Dare we deny our precious children the right to play with our devices in the comfort of our own homes? After all, what kind of damage could they possibly do while they’re sitting right under our nose? Well, you’d be surprised, as was one father, when he discovered that his seven-year-old son had amassed a stomach-churning $5,900 worth of in-app purchases while playing a game on his iPad.

iDrop_ChildSpends$$$OnDadsiPad_01Crazy as it may seem, indeed it’s true. Seven-year-old Faisal Shugga had apparently memorized his father Mohamed Shugga’s iTunes password, and, while playing the new Jurassic World game on Shugga Sr.’s iPad, racked up a hefty $5,900 worth of in-app purchases. According to Faisal, however, who spent the money upgrading his dinosaurs in the game, he was unaware that he was spending real money.

Mohamed, who runs a carpet store by profession, apparently found out about the transactions when he went to make a purchase from one of his suppliers. And although we don’t know exactly how infuriated the father was with his son, the former spared no expense in venting on Apple for the flub:

“I’m 32 years old, why would Apple think I would be spending thousands of dollars on buying dinosaurs and upgrading a game?,” Mohamed said. “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?”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mohamed demanded a complete refund from Apple shortly after becoming aware of the issue; but when the company replied, it stated only that there was no guarantee this could happen. He then explained how he needed the money to purchase Christmas gifts for his children, which ultimately struck a chord with Apple, prompting the Silicon Valley tech-giant to issue a full refund.

Well, at least this story has a happy ending, right?

A word to the wise would be: if you have young children that are playing around on your device, they should probably be monitored at all times, or at least periodically, just to ensure that rules are being followed and no monkey business is taking place.

Challenging it might be, no doubt about it; but doing so just might end up saving you a whole lot of grief and frustration in the end.

Learn More: Nintendo Disappoints With Their First Official iPhone “Game”

Sponsored
Social Sharing