A 6-year-old boy was caught spending $16,000 on in-game purchases by using his mother’s credit card and told her that he will pay her back.
George Johnson, who is just 6, went on a shopping spree on his mother’s iPad when she was working from their house during this coronavirus pandemic.
Jessica, the mother, did not realize what her son was up to when he was using her iPad.
But in the month of July, the little one bought add-on boosters that allowed him to access new characters and gain more speed in his favorite video game.
Sonic Forces is the game that he was playing.
On July 9, 2020, the boy had bought 25 charges, which cost a total of $2500.
During an interview with The New York Post, the mother said that her son was like doing drugs while playing the game.
She said:
It’s like my 6-year-old was doing lines of cocaine — and doing bigger and bigger hits.
After realizing that there was money being removed out of her Apple and PayPal accounts, the mother called the bank officials right away.
The bill also reached 16,293.10 and once it did, she filed a fraud claim in July of this year.
In October this year, she was told by Chase that the charges were hers and she needed to get in touch with Apple.
After reaching out to Apple, she walked through a list of charges and it was really hard for her to understand, but she spotted a Sonic icon.
After noticing the icon, she realized it was her own son that carried out the act.
Recalling the moment, she said
Apple said, ‘Tough.’ They told me that, because I didn’t call within 60 days of the charges, that they can’t do anything. The reason I didn’t call within 60 days is because Chase told me it was likely fraud — that PayPal and Apple.com are top fraud charges.
The mother was not supported by the customer service agent despite her telling them that she would not be able to pay her family’s mortgage.
Instead of helping her out, the agent told her that there is a preventative measure that she did not set up in her account.
The mother added:
Obviously, if I had known there was a setting for that, I wouldn’t have allowed my 6-year-old to run up nearly $20,000 in charges for virtual gold rings. These games are designed to be completely predatory and get kids to buy things. What grown-up would spend $100 on a chest of virtual gold coins?
The mother tried to explain what the 6-year-old had done, and the boy had a hilarious response.
The boy said that he would pay back once he gets big.
Recalling the moment, the mother said:
He said, ‘Well, I’ll pay you back, Mom,’” she recalled. “How? I pay him $4 to clean his room! I literally told George, ‘I don’t know about Christmas.’ My son didn’t understand that the money was real. How could he? He’s playing a cartoon game in a world that he knows is not real. Why would the money be real to him? That would require a big cognitive leap.
The mother is currently having a hard time paying off his debt.
She did not get a paycheck from March to September.
Let’s hope for the best for the mother.