"We are looking at the whole issue of whether or not this is misleading," she added. The ACCC also wants to raise parents' awareness because many did not realise the games their children downloaded for free could end up costing money as children pay for rewards or tools. "It is really very large real money for virtual, transient things," Ms Rickard said. Although the ACCC has only received a "handful of complaints" about in-app purchases, Ms Rickard said she believed that was just the "tip of the iceberg" because most parents would complain to the app store or their bank instead of the ACCC. The regulator has scheduled meetings with Apple and Google in coming weeks to present its findings.

"At a minimum we hope that they will improve their disclosure – at the moment I think it is fair to say that Apple's [App Store] disclosure is better than Google's [Play Store], which is extremely patchy – I think we will probably have a range of issues that come out of the sweep." Ms Rickard said it was difficult to publish a list of the worst apps because apps appear and disappear all the time. And popular free apps may introduce in-app purchases, such as Angry Birds. "There is an app a minute being developed, and the majority are being developed overseas. So the most effective way to try and improve standards here is to work with both those stores to try and improve the disclosure they have on their websites and have them put pressure on the app developers." The ACCC has published a website giving parents step-by-step instructions to disable in-app purchases and advice on how to minimise the financial damage if their child does play a game requiring purchases to complete. A Google spokesman said: "to help users prevent unauthorised transactions, the default setting on Google Play requires customers to enter their Google account password when they make a digital content or in app purchase on Google Play".

"Users can also request refunds of in-app purchases when children make unsupervised purchases." Apple declined to comment. A spokesman for the Australian Communications Communications Action Network said it wrote to ACCC chair Rod Sims in May alerting him to potentially misleading and deceptive apps. "ACCAN research has uncovered several game apps which engage in these practices, including The Simpsons: Tapped Out, The Hobbit: Kingdoms and Tap Paradise Cove. In The Simpsons: Tapped Out, ACCAN found a situation where the player is required to either wait 90 days for a crop of corn to grow, or purchase 1,060 doughnuts for $48.58 to complete the task instantly. The research also found disclosures around in-app purchases on both the iTunes Store and the Google Play store were often minimal and inadequate," spokesman Asher Moses said. "ACCAN requested the ACCC investigate these practices and we have been consulting with the regulator since then. We also outlined our concerns in a submission to the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council Inquiry into App Purchases by Australian Consumers."

One mother told Fairfax Media her nine-year old son racked up a $3000 bill on her credit card within three days by playing the Simpson's game. "I was alerted by emails from the Apple store about transactions made in the middle of the night in Singapore when they were processed. I initially thought someone had hacked into my iTunes account. I went straight to the bank who cancelled my card so the pending transactions were stopped. My son confessed, making the connection. He thought he was playing with game money not real money. I also contacted the iTunes store and had everything reversed. It was really difficult to work out how to contact them, and it is by email only so took some time,'' Moira Simic said. She successfully argued to Apple that her son had no authority to make the purchases. Apple told her to disable in-app purchases in future and warned it would not reverse the purchases again. "I have stressed to both my sons to be very careful and have used the restrictions settings to turn them off,'' Mrs Simic said. Meanwhile, in the US Apple agreed earlier this year to settle a $US100 million lawsuit brought by five parents that alleged "Apple failed to adequately disclose that third-party game apps, largely available for free and rated as containing content suitable for children, contained the ability to make in-app purchases."

Loading Apple gave 23 million parents the option of a $US5 iTunes voucher if they lost less than $US30, or agreed to refund payments, but only if purchases were made within 45 days of each other and prior to Apple introducing password requests. Have you been caught out by in-app purchases? Email us.