A new case of involuntary or unconscious purchases with exorbitant amounts occurs again in the world of smartphones and applications This time it took place in Belgium and through a iPad, where a fifteen-year-old has added no less than 37,000 euros for the integrated purchases of a game with whom you have been entertaining yourself for several months.An amount that he claims not to have been aware of at any time.
The situation is somewhat complex, although more common than it may seem. The mother of the adolescent had requested during the holidays that configure the iPad to be able to buy and read electronic books To do this, they entered the data grandfather's bank accounts, although associating them with the kid's iTunes account The conclusion is a bar free of grandpa's money used in a simple but addictive roman style strategy game.
The title in question is Game of War: Fire Age, in which the player is proposed to build a city and an army with the one to defend it and besiege others. A strategy game that has several integrated purchases with which to buy gold to speed up construction, acquire other items more quickly or even play in the city's casino .Activities that, apparently, the boy in this case carried out on countless occasions with total freedom, charging the grandfather's account
According to the Belgian media outlet that reported the news, the teenager was not aware at any time of the real transactions he carried out during his games, much less the amount cumulative total. Neither was his mother, who claims that her son has always played video games like her other siblings, without incurring these kinds of expenses. No statements have been obtained from the real victim, the grandfather.
This case is surprising after several organizations such as the European Commission recommended Google how to Apple improve its protective measures when it comes to use bank details to buy apps or items within them.Something that was prompted by different demands from parents affected by involuntary purchases of their children and who, in several cases, obtained reimbursement for the costs caused.
But it is also surprising because, as a result of all these cases, the latest versions of iOS, the operating system ofproducts Apple, already has several security measures. One of them is enter a purchase password. The other is that iOS prevented purchases repeated once 15 minutes after the last password entry Questions that Google has also been improving by recently indicating the price of content that can be purchased through in-app purchases, or enabling the possibility of always prompt for a password
Of course, if the password is given by the person responsible for the card or bank account, little else can be done. At the moment it is not known if this family will request reimbursement of the 37,000 euros spent.
