Boy spends £4000 on Fifa...

[hardtailstar]

Anyone else think its the Mothers fault and shes being stupid trying to blame the makers?

 

 

BBC News - Mother's anger as son racks up £4,000 FIFA 14 bill

 

I have an xbox, My card isnt linked to my account for this very reason so I dont spend thousands on my xbox with in game costs.

[Millgate]

I can believe that!

 

A lad I went to school with spent around £500 on furniture for his Playstation "Home" when that first came out! Madness!

[localzuk]

I'd never be linking a card to my child's account if I had one! If I were to have such a thing, I'd set up something like a Tuxedo card for it - which can be topped up and only the amount on it spent. So, you say they can have X game? Put the cost of X game on the card, and that's all they can spend.

 

Why do these parents not think ahead about these things?

 

I also can't imagine EA will be particularly helpful...

Edited February 27, 2014 by localzuk

[featured_spectre]

Looks like the card was linked to his account. She was dumb enough to do that. If you want to buy something on live, then buy the prepaid cards for xbox. Its what I did!

[sted]

another media field day about how some poor innocent kid runs up a huge bill on their parent credit card. Im sorry if you dont apply the locks ipads/xboxs etc have so you need to put in a password to use your card (or let the kid know the password if you do) then they deserve everything they get imo. How far does society have to go to protect people from themselves and their own ignorance and or stupidity. You make a mistake you learn and move on granted 4k is an expensive mistake but they could of got a pre paid card or at least a credit card with a low limit for this sort of stuff

[Griff]

Yet again lazy parenting like you guys have said prepaid cards. He must have a pretty awesome team though..blimey I think you could buy the Luton Town team in real life for that sort of money

[hardtailstar]

I've always just bought live or microsoft points from shops, id never link my card on my xbox account.

 

EA declined to comment...... Not surprised as it was the mother and sons stupidity.

[featured_spectre]

I just realised at what she said about the whole thing. She said there isn't enough safeguards. Sorry, but there are plenty. If you are dumb enough to allow your card to go on an account that isn't yours, then you are deserving of what happens. Simple as that really.

[X-13]

I thought this was the same as one I was reading about this morning... [though, with the amount wrong.]

 

 

Henry Tattersall: Boy, 13, 'stunned' by £420 Xbox bill hanged himself | Metro News

 

 

*This one is possibly slightly wrong... He didn't "mistakenly" download the games. It was deliberate.

[Andrew_C]

Hmmm... Not sure it is that simple.

 

Management set up xbox live for her boy, and thought she'd only done it for one year. It auto renewed this year. She isn't stupid, no more or less IT literate than "a reasonable wo/man". However, she doesn't normally have anything to do with the console, and I suspect, failed to spot a tick box with a nested double/triple negative opt in/out clause.

 

The boy failed to spot (or maybe he's too honest) that the card was still available on the account.

[sted]

Hmmm... Not sure it is that simple.

 

Management set up xbox live for her boy, and thought she'd only done it for one year. It auto renewed this year. She isn't stupid, no more or less IT literate than "a reasonable wo/man". However, she doesn't normally have anything to do with the console, and I suspect, failed to spot a tick box with a nested double/triple negative opt in/out clause.

 

The boy failed to spot (or maybe he's too honest) that the card was still available on the account.

 

iirc it does email as well saying your account will expire in x days and money will be taken from card ending 1234

[featured_spectre]

yeah but it was probably linked to an email the boy had. I have a prepaid card linked to the account, I top it up when I want to buy something on there, or I buy the prepaid value cards. Since June I have spent £8, and that was buying the lego games DLC.

[Andrew_C]

To who? An email account the boy never looks at?

 

I don't know, I NEVER play the things; I know I'd get hooked, and I haven't the time for another vice!

[sted]

To who? An email account the boy never looks at?

 

I don't know, I NEVER play the things; I know I'd get hooked, and I haven't the time for another vice!

 

but if you use your credit card with an email address you dont check whose fault is that?

[rickjames]

More importantly, I want to the kid's Ultimate Team lineup.

[featured_spectre]

The bad part is...he got no legends, or players of the week, and only just got a few golds! lol

[AMLinington]

Even on my Android devices ingame and play store purchases have to be verified by my password and the ticky box that says 'do not ask me again' shouldn't be on there IMO. It is too easy to accidently tick it and buy stuff by finger kludge. I make a point of NOT disabling this feature but I can see how it might get disabled easily.

[tech_guy]

Welcome to the world of muppet parenting.

[featured_spectre]

Every time I see something like this, I sing this song in my head.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1EG-MKy4so

Edited February 27, 2014 by featured_spectre

[Oaktech]

The grandson of our finance lady racked up £1800 in minecraft after they let him spend £20 for a birthday present and the card kept authorising... He's doing epic amounts of 'little jobs' effectively stopping him from playing!

[alameals]

That kid has just had his Christmas and Birthdays cancelled for the next 15 years

[sonofsanta]

Yeah, I... can't talk. Got a phone call at lunch the other day from my bank's fraud department as they'd automatically blocked a £99.98 transaction from Sony Entertainment, so I cancelled my card and figured it was just a coincidence that the attempted purchase had been there.

 

No, turns out my 18mo son had gotten hold of the Blu Ray remote for the PS3, clicked random buttons while everyone was watching normal telly, and when they switched over to HDMI later for NetFlix it was on the shopping cart page with two items in the basket for £99.98: Gran Turismo 5 and Grand Theft Auto V. Yes, I let my 18 month old son try and buy GTA V. I am a terrible father.

 

Didn't think I'd need to password protect purchases quite so soon!

[X-13]

The grandson of our finance lady racked up £1800 in minecraft after they let him spend £20 for a birthday present and the card kept authorising... He's doing epic amounts of 'little jobs' effectively stopping him from playing!

 

That seems unfair.

 

As far as I can tell, there's no Minecraft cash-shop. And no DLC either.

 

So unless they're incredibly stupid and didn't notice loads of Mincraft merch turning up at their house, it isn't the kids fault. And they should get the money back.

[featured_spectre]

Minecraft you can buy loads of skins, which classify as DLC. Each DLC comes to a total of around £50. So what ever else he bought was not on minecraft.

[Oaktech]

I'm not 100% on the details... But ultimately he's being taught the value in real world work of what he's spent... I think they did get back some of what he spent but from the credit card rather than the vendor.