COVID-induced lockdowns and the sudden need to stay indoors have made us grow increasingly dependent on technology. Every one of us turned to digital content to relieve ourselves from boredom. Recently a new incident occurred related to this, and it shows us just how much is the value of technology in our life.
Jessica Johnson is an Apple user, and recently she discovered that $16,000 (Rs 11 lakh approximately) was paid to Apple from her account. Jessica did not become a debit or credit card, fraud victim. Instead, it was her six-year-old son George Johnson who is the real culprit. According to sources, the little guy was busy making in-app purchases on Apple App Store. Never trust your six-year-old with an iPad!
As per a New York Post report, 41-year-old Jessica was shocked when she found out that her six-year-old son has made in-app purchases worth $16000 on Apple App Store using his iPad. She also discovered that the transactions were made in July when he had started using the iPad for his games and purchase add-ons on the games.
According to sources, on July 8, her account was debited 25 times with around $ 2,500(Rs 1.8 lakh approximately). The mother thought that she has been duped by the hackers and filed a fraud claim. However, she was later informed that the purchases were made from her account, and nobody duped her.
Jessica then soon reached out to Apple, asking them to refund the money. But unfortunately, she was outright refused because she did not claim the money within 60 days. “Tough.’ They told me that because I didn’t call within 60 days of the charges, they couldn’t do anything. The reason I didn’t call within 60 days is that Chase told me it was likely fraud — that PayPal and Apple.com are top fraud charges,” Jessica was quoted by New York Post as saying.
Apple has parental controls options that allow the parents to monitor their kid’s browsing activities on their Apple devices. Some of the settings also include limiting purchases or accessing some of the apps. If Jessica would have used the feature, things would have turned out differently.