Amporn Chumcheundee’s was a little surprised by her regular phone bill when it arrived last Tuesday. Instead of a few hundred baht, AIS sent the 48-year-old farmer from Suphan Buri province a three page bill totaling THB203,477.06.
Turned out her 12-year-old son, who uses the phone, admitted to unknowingly buying items to advance in the national pastime of Cookie Run.
Just about everything in the bill involved not-so-small microtransactions payable to Japan’s Line Corp., maker of the popular chat app and game.
Amporn’s son claimed he followed instructions from a YouTube video how to “hack” the game for free items and did not think the carrier would charge his mother.
Apparently the “hack” didn’t work.
Amporn said AIS agreed to let her pay by installment, but the farmer insisted she cannot afford it.
Amporn has submitted a letter to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission asking for a review of the bill, as she believes the bill may have been miscalculated.
Speculation online from netizens and gamers suggests that Amporn must use AIS’s Carrier Billing service, which allows users to buy applications and services through Google Play without a credit card. Charges are passed along through their phone bill.
Although the condition states customers cannot spend more than THB1,000 per transaction, there is no cap on the number of those transactions, Kapook reported.
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