How does this keep happening? Toddler “buys” RM8,000 worth of furniture by playing with mom’s phone

If you have a toddler around your household, be careful if you’re letting them play with your phones. Because a family in New Jersey, USA, ended up with almost USD 2,000 (RM8,368) worth of furniture after their 22-month-old toddler played with his mother’s phone. 

“He just went to the cart and whatever was there, boom, he just clicked and all payments just went through,” explained the boy’s father, Pramod Kumar.

So, how would something like this even happen? The family had reportedly just moved into their new home, and the toddler’s mother—Madhu—had been spending “a lot of time shopping online” and all her payment information had been loaded onto her phone. She was still in the process of picking and choosing furniture, never intending to keep all the pieces she added to the online shopping cart. However, the toddler, Ayaansh, added up an extra USD 1,700 (RM7,115) worth of furniture before the family could stop him.

“We saw this guy, phone in hand—Oh no,” said Pramod.

The family hasn’t even yet gotten all of the packages ordered by the toddler—as only 75% of them have been received. But Walmart—the store they ordered the furniture with—said that it will refund them for the pieces after they’ve been returned.

In late 2020, it was reported that a six-year-old kid ended up spending USD 16,293.10 (RM66,076.67) to acquire in-game currency for the game Sonic Forces on the iPad. Sadly, Apple also refused to refund the mother any of the money as she “didn’t inform the company within 60 days of the charges”. 

The Kumars said that they would “remove their credit card information from their phones and add passwords” after the incident. To avoid having this happen to you, you can also set parental controls on your in-app purchases. And if your toddler or child manages to “outsmart” the system, report the incident immediately so that it’s more likely you’d get a refund.

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