Parents, let this be a lesson: Don’t leave your child unattended with your iPad. Seven-year-old Faisall Shugaa apparently decided to get himself an early Christmas present in the form of Dino Bucks, which in addition to being an in-game currency of Jurassic World, are also linked to, you know, real money. The grand total? A whopping $5,000, all of which was spent between December 13 and 18. Needless to say, Faisall’s father, Mohamed Shugaa, is none too pleased about the charges.
As it turns out, the youngster memorized his father’s Apple ID and password, which allowed him to make purchases, mostly to upgrade the dinosaurs available in the video game. In a six-day period, Faisall managed to make an impressive 65 transactions, at one point spending some $2,000 over the course of a single hour.
Shugaa, who is a storeowner in the United Kingdom, discovered his son’s many, many mistakes when he attempted to make a purchase from a supplier. After his own charge was declined, he called his credit card company. He was was put in touch with the fraud team, who asked if he “was aware 60-plus transactions had been made to iTunes from December 13 to 18 totaling £3,911,” he told British newspaper The Metro. “I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about and I had to check my bank account online to understand what was going on.”
After he figured it out, things didn’t get much better.
“I was so mad. I’m 32-years-old, why would Apple think I would be spending thousands of pounds on buying dinosaurs and upgrading a game?” he said.
But don’t worry — this story has a happy ending. Despite initially being told by an Apple Support team member that there was no guarantee he could get a refund, Shugaa eventually got all his money back, which is lucky for Faisall (considering he would’ve gotten zero presents and been in even more trouble otherwise). Shugaa, for his part, says that he hopes Apple does something to ensure that no other parents endure the same headache.
“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?” he asked.
Apple, for its part, recommends that parents not share their password. Or at the very least, make sure that your child is using your iDevice under careful supervision.
