Girl, 7, runs up £250 bill on Facebook virtual pet game

A seven-year-old girl racked up a £250 bill in under an hour after playing a game on Facebook. Megan Fox, from Birmingham, spent the money while sitting next to her parents on 'Petville' which allows users to purchase virtual clothes and furniture for a make-believe pet. On returning from school, Megan had asked her parents if she could play the game. As her parents don't allow her to have her own Facebook account, her father Mathew, 35, let her log in to his account so he could supervise her.

He said: 'She was sat next to me playing the game, asking me and her mum which dresses we preferred. We played along, suggesting which ones to buy, not realising that she was actually spending money.' Mathew had forgotten to log off his stored Paypal payment details on the computer before she started playing - which meant that she ran up a bill without even realising. It was only an hour after Megan had finished playing when Mathew checked his e-mails that he realised what had happened. He found four receipts on his iPad, one for almost U.S. $170.



'I got all these receipts from Paypal. I opened the e-mails and added them all up. I found that she'd spent $400 dollars,' he said. Staff at the social networking site and Paypal, who process the online transactions, have so far refused to refund the money. In e-mails to the couple, they said that, because the payment was made by someone within the Fox household, the rules for unauthorised transactions do not apply. Dawn, 33, and Mathew said that they were 'shocked' when the receipts came through. Mathew said: 'We couldn't believe that she'd spent all that money in such a short time, but we thought that something could be done about it.

'But both Facebook and Paypal have replied basically saying tough, she's in your household so its authorised.' Under the site's rules, if someone in the account holder's household, or somebody known to them makes an unauthorised online purchase, they are not eligible for a refund. Megan's mother Dawn said: 'I think it's outrageous that, not once in four transactions, were we asked to confirm any details. If something had come up she'd have asked her dad and he would've clocked on. It was only because of the e-mails that we realised. If we hadn't got the e-mails my bank account would be completely empty.' The pair called for more security measures to ensure that children can't accidentally spend their parents' money.