Dun dun dun. One popular viral game app has since claimed its first young, non-income-earning victim. Or so a Singaporean dad has told Singaporean daily, The New Paper over the weekend. In fact, he had no qualms saying that he got the “blardy shock of his life” when he looked at his credit card bill for March 2013.
Apparently, his 14-year-old son had spent SGD4,300 on Candy Crush Saga. SGD4,300 (RM10,719)! Yes, the chart-topping game is free and it has attracted millions of daily players but it’s not really, really free, if you know what we mean.
The 50-year-old Mr. Cheong, who works as a store sales manager, found out in the (financially) hard way. He complained:
My son told me that the app is free to download, but I’ve since found out that there are “hidden costs” because the game asks users to purchase “boosts” to progress or complete the game. SGD4,300! I don’t even earn that kind of money in a month!
This is not the first time but in the past, he usually spent less than $100 playing other games. I was okay with that and so, when he asked me for the password to his iTunes account, which is tagged to my credit card, I gave it to him. I was also too lazy and didn’t want him to message or call me each time he wanted to log on to the account.
Don’t trust a teenager with a credit-card-linked iTunes account, sir. That’s all we have to say.
“Deliciously sweet fun?”. We beg to differ.
(Source)
