A six-year-old boy may have played too many video games, and now his mother is paying the price.
George Johnson, 6, spent more than $16,000 in Apple app store charges for the video game Sonic Forces, the New York Post reported.
His mother, Jessica Johnson, was completely shocked.
The mother from Wilton, Connecticut worked at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t know that her two sons had purchased games on her iPad.
In July, George bought extra features, starting with red rings that cost $1.99. Suddenly, he was hooked and began purchasing $99.99 gold rings that allowed him to play with new characters and have more speed.
On July 9, Jessica was working in the next room. She checked her account and found that they were 25 charges that costed $2,500 each.
“It’s like my 6-year-old was doing lines of cocaine — and doing bigger and bigger hits,” she added.
When logging onto her Apple and PayPal accounts, she saw that they were some hefty charges and quickly called her bank to report fraud when she was confused by the sums.
“The way the charges get bundled made it almost impossible [to figure out that] they were from a game,” Johnson said.
During the summer, Jessica filed a fraud claim when her bill reached $16,293.10. Several months later, in October, Chase allegedly told her that the charges were made by her and that she had to contact Apple.
Apple called the mother and was walked through a “buried running list of all the charges. You wouldn’t know how to [find] it without someone directing you,” the mother added.
When she saw the Sonic icon, she instantly knew it was her son.
“[Apple] said, ‘Tough.’ They told me that, because I didn’t call within 60 days of the charges, that they can’t do anything,” Jessica said. “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.”
According to the New York Post, Apple, Chase, and Sega did not comment on the situation.
The mother explained how she works on commission and that her paycheck has decreased by 80%. Right now, she is trying to pay off his debt.
“I may have to force this kid to pay me back in 15 years when he gets his first job,” the mother said… WWJ950 Radio News