Unauthorised Credit Card Transactions

[Deskdiary]

Hope somebody can help/has had experience of this.

Briefly.....

My CC is linked to my Apple account. My 10 year old son plays a game called Roblox, and unknown to me, over the last month he has made nearly 200 in-game transactions totalling £1,600 (Yes, £1,600!). It turns out when he makes an in-game transaction there's no safeguard such as requiring the Apple password (which he doesn't know).

To give him the benefit of the doubt, he didn't realise what he was doing, but nonetheless these are unauthorised transactions.

I'm angry with myself (perhaps I should have been keeper a closer eye), and angry with Roblox and my CC company, as surely their systems should recognise something that is clearly unusual/odd.

My question.....anybody any idea if I can claim the money back from Roblox or the Credit Card Company.

Thanks in advance.

[TonyV]

Don't think so, the purchases were not made fraudulently. Your CC with your authorisation code.

[Rockrose]

All the iPhone iPad games I play do require the password or thumb print are you sure you haven’t auto saved the passwords?

[Deskdiary]

^^^Every time I make a purchase on Apple, I have to enter my password, so I don't think I have.

[TonyV]

well how did your son sign onto your account then?

[pixie374]

This happened to both my sister/niece and my friend with her daughter a few years ago. Both did get their money back from Apple. However, I have heard since that they are no longer repaying this kind of thing, because it is so common.
But you can only try. If Apple don't help, try the credit card company. Good luck xx

[Deskdiary]

You're missing the point. Roblox DOESN'T require the Apple password to make a purchase. If it did he would not have been able to make the purchases.

[Deskdiary]

Thanks Pixie - a small glimmer of hope then!

[webbo3]

https://www.apple.com/ca/legal/internet-services/itunes/ca/terms.html

APPLE ID
\\Using our Services and accessing your Content may require an Apple ID. An Apple ID is the account you use across Apple’s ecosystem. Your Apple ID is valuable, and you are responsible for maintaining its confidentiality and security. Apple is not responsible for any losses arising from the unauthorized use of your Apple ID. Please contact Apple if you suspect that your Apple ID has been compromised.\\

\\Your Apple ID is valuable, and you are responsible for maintaining its confidentiality and security. Apple is not responsible for any losses arising from the unauthorized use of your Apple ID. //

[Old_Geezer]

Did he require the password to play the game ? In which case you may be hoping for a gesture of goodwill as getting on the game could be considered as authorising all in game purchases. After all, otherwise one could spend spend spend and then claim, after benefiting, it was all a mistake. Maybe check the game rules signed up to. How does one not know that buying something doesn't cost ? Sounds like it wasn't even considered by all.

Good luck anyway.

[pixie374]

Has to be worth a try, DD! X

[bednobs]

dot have experience of that specifically, but do have experience of roblox - stupid, pointless rubbish game that i took off my daughter's tablet because he kept asking me to but stuff for it :(

[Deskdiary]

We'll see.

He's in the doghouse - it's his birthday next week and only yesterday I bought a gaming PC for him, which is going back to PC World tomorrow.

[wolf63]

I play games on my Kindle - mainly Candy Crush saga. I had to put the parental locks on the machine to stop me making spur of the moment purchases to help me finish a game. It is too tempting and I am not 10.

[Prudie]

If he's in the doghouse I assume you think he did know what he was doing? 10 is difficult, it's on the cusp of being aware of what you're doing. Was it on your ipad? I've just been told by husband that if he left the room and was logged into itunes I could go on and buy £1000s of music and it wouldn't ask me for any check or password. Similarly if I left the room and he went on my amazon, he could buy till the money ran out.

[bednobs]

i dont really kno how ipads work, but i asume you have to enter your apple id to set it up and download roblox (just like my daughter's fire had to be linked to an amazon account) on the fire, you can set up a child's account, or set parental controls (you have to enter a password to buy anything). they dont make it super easy though. Is there something similar on the ipad (for future; i realise thi doesn't help fro this occasion)

[Tilly2]

Perhaps this is a good time to restrict the amount of time your 10 year old is spending playing computer games. I am not being critical here but it does seem to be an awful lot of time in front of a computer screen. Some future guidelines/ restrictions might be useful.

[bednobs]

tilly, the 200 transactiion could happen from 10 mins per day

[david small]

It’s like online gambling, becomes addictive, like intended. Inform the Daily Mail to shame them into refunding you. Just a suggestion.

[Tilly2]

Oh, ok, Bednobs. Just shows that I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Deskdiary]

bednobs is right Tilly.

On 4th October he spent £79.92 (8 x purchases of £9.99) in about 15 minutes.

I'm not brilliant tech-wise (I still use an iPod classic), but the more I think about this the more I'm frustrated with Roblox - it's preying on kids, and that can't be right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not abdicating responsibility - clearly I'm at fault for not keeping closer tabs - but even so....