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[Idiot] Boy, 11, racks up £1,000 bill on mother's debit card playing XBox online


Zechs Merquise

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Well, isn't it her responsibility to research these things? Besides, it's not like Microsoft is stealing the money off the card. It's the kid who's spending it.

 

So when every other company in the world doesn't save your card details without your express permission, or requires a CVC before any subsequent purchases are made, we're supposed to read massive reams of small print to find out that Microsoft have a moronic system?

 

What's idiotic is that it's far easier to rack up a £1000 bill than to have your card removed or cancel automatic renewal.

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So when every other company in the world doesn't save your card details without your express permission, or requires a CVC before any subsequent purchases are made, we're supposed to read massive reams of small print to find out that Microsoft have a moronic system?

 

What's idiotic is that it's far easier to rack up a £1000 bill than to have your card removed or cancel automatic renewal.

 

The fact that their system is inconvenient doesn't make Microsoft responsible. Whenever you enter your credit/debit card (but especially debit) details ANYWHERE, you should be cautious as to what you're doing. When linking your details to any sort of account there should be a reasonable suspicion that the system will save the details. I don't know exactly what its like setting this up on xbox live, but I, as well as any responsible person would check to see what exactly I'm doing.

 

Obviously the mother should have done this and then had a talk with her kid about spending money online. Something along the lines of "Its okay if you buy stuff once and a while, but make sure you leave cash on my desk to pay me back".

 

If she didn't know he had spent all this money on games, she also obviously didn't have a clue what he was playing. While I think its reasonable for parents to give their kids a certain amount if privacy, at 11, the parents should still really be keeping track of that to a certain extent.

 

More than anything else, this is a case of a parent not parenting.

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Agreed, Microsoft are not at fault here despite the way their system works. They may force you to phone up to cancel subscriptions, but they don't hide any details or cover up the fact that points = money. That said...

Something along the lines of "Its okay if you buy stuff once and a while, but make sure you leave cash on my desk to pay me back".

How much cash did you have when you were 11??

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Agreed, Microsoft are not at fault here despite the way their system works. They may force you to phone up to cancel subscriptions, but they don't hide any details or cover up the fact that points = money. That said...

How much cash did you have when you were 11??

 

I wasn't a big spender. I saved any money I got for Christmas or whatever else and bought games every once and while if I really wanted them. When I say every once and a while I mean every 3 months or so at the most.

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Just a thought, if I had spent £1000 on my Mum's credit card when I was 11, she wouldn't have been posing for publicity shots in the tabloids, arm around me like I'm some kind of victim, blaming anyone but me. Can you imagine something like this happening to you 10 years ago? The world has really changed.

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Just a thought, if I had spent £1000 on my Mum's credit card when I was 11, she wouldn't have been posing for publicity shots in the tabloids, arm around me like I'm some kind of victim, blaming anyone but me. Can you imagine something like this happening to you 10 years ago? The world has really changed.

 

I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of trouble I'd have been in, I used To get seriously shouted at (+ fined) for going a little over the dial up Internet limits.

 

Rez, that picture is awesome, I'll probably be using it at work when this comes up.

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I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of trouble I'd have been in' date=' I used To get seriously shouted at (+ fined) for going a little over the dial up Internet limits.

 

Rez, that picture is awesome, I'll probably be using it at work when this comes up.[/quote']

 

 

Jeez laweez, everyone had nicer parents than me. I had to pay for all of my dial-up usage from age 16, and my parents actually stopped buying clothes for me the year before that.

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