More case of exorbitant charges from mobile phone games reported in the South

PHANG-NGA, 26 June 2014 (NNT) - Several complaints of exorbitant charges from mobile phone games are made in the southern region. One particular bill in Phang-Nga is as high as 116,000 baht.

The case was reported by a family in Kapong District in the province, where a nine-year-old boy played the popular online games on mobile phone called ‘Cookie Run’ and ‘Dragon Story’, and had unknowingly spent the absurd amount of money on the games’ in-app purchases.

Mother of the child, Weena Jadjing, pleaded her case to the media, after receiving the shocking bill. At first she had no idea where the expenses came from, as her phone had been registered under an economic service package. The games’ in-app purchase expenses were charged separately from the monthly payment.

Mrs. Weena admitted the incident is similar to what has happened to other families making the headlines earlier in the week. The single mom has no means of paying the bill as her husband has long been deceased.


-- NNT 2014-06-26

smart phones for dumb people .....do any of these parents actually speak to the children and ask why they are always playing so long and often on THEIR mobile phones?

One of the challenges is that AIS allows these purchases to go on the phone bill, this is very uncommon amongst telecom providers. The usual set-up is to register a credit cards with google, line or the game provider but as most Thais do not have credit cards AIS has set up a system so they can use their phone account. Having to put credit card details into the system alerts most people this is real money.