Woman Sues Google Over Google Play Store Hack

You know that refund we said we'd give you for fraudulent charges to your Google Play store account? Just kidding!

In her complaint, filed in a US District Court in Eastern California, Harvey also says that when she reported the incident to Google, representatives from the company didn't believe her claims. Even after she convinced them that the transactions were fraudulent, Harvey alleges the company never made good on its promise to reimburse her.

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I wish I could ignore my bank account for so long.

The general rules are notice and file complaints within a reasonable time. I'm not sure if 13 months is classified as reasonable.

Axe

Had she found this issue after a month or two I might side with her, but the fact that it went on for over a year makes me say that she deserves most of the blame in this case.

Axehandler said:

I wish I could ignore my bank account for so long.

The general rules are notice and file complaints within a reasonable time. I'm not sure if 13 months is classified as reasonable.

Axe

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I would agree back in the good ol' days when you got actual statements mailed to your house. However in the paperless world that many institutions live in, you just don't know any more unless you physically log into the bank every month, which you might say "well why don't you" good point, I'll counter with the 85 character alpha-symbolic password that's required and I'm too paranoid to save it to my Firefox list of saved passwords

I would agree though 13 months is far from reasonable.

Not to defend Google but she made her own fair share of mistakes here ...

it is inadvisable to use a debit card for higher risk online transactions (like app stores) since you have fewer protections for debit card fraud than you do for credit card fraud ... you should always use a credit card (where you must receive the service or the charge is invalid) ... or a gift card (where the value of the card is fixed and can't be exceeded ... limiting your fraud exposure)

As others noted, who goes a year and thousands of dollars of charges without noticing something ... I pay my bills online so I can monitor my charge history for each of my cards ... I recently had a fraudulent charge on one of my credit cards that I didn't detect for 2 days ... once I detected it I called the card and they cancelled my card immediately and I had the replacement sent that day and received it the next (they emailed me all the tracking info) ... they also refunded the charge later that week while they investigated

I am wondering if there is something we are not hearing going here

So just because someone is well off and doesnt have to check their bank account daily means they are at fault for fradulant charges that google refused to refund? wow people on here...

VladDracule said:

So just because someone is well off and doesnt have to check their bank account daily means they are at fault for fradulant charges that google refused to refund? wow people on here...

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I didn't say that, that but there definitely seems to be a lack of knowledge on the liabilities of debit cards ... for whatever reason, the law provides very limited fraud protection for debit cards and debit card transactions ... gift cards probably have few protections as well but they also have a limited liability due to their fixed value ...

credit cards retain (for the time being) a ton of protections, including the requirement of receiving the good or service or being entitled to a full refund ... this is why it is recommended to use a credit card for a high risk transactions (like buying a plane ticket from a bankrupt airline) ... if you buy the ticket using a debit card you are limited to whatever protections your bank provides (which could be none) ... if you buy using a credit card you 100% must receive the service to be charged, if you do not then you can request the refund from your card provider (which they must provide) and then let them deal with the bankrupt provider for the refund to them

VladDracule said:

So just because someone is well off and doesnt have to check their bank account daily means they are at fault for fradulant charges that google refused to refund? wow people on here...

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I think you mean YEARLY... but even so, at what point YEARS later should google refund charges the customer claims is fraud? At what point does a customer have to accept some accountability?

Even the law has a statute of limitations for good reasons.

Axe

Axehandler said:

I think you mean YEARLY... but even so, at what point YEARS later should google refund charges the customer claims is fraud? At what point does a customer have to accept some accountability?

Even the law has a statute of limitations for good reasons.

Axe

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And the statute of limitations is roughly 5 years in every single state. So that's irrelevant as this still falls under that timeline. And come on, if someone has a bank account likely in the 100k's, if the charges are small, like below the $100 range thats not something that is going to jump out at someone

not only are those relatively small charges not likely to ring any alarm bells, but there is a fairly lengthy process involved in challenging charges one believes to be fraudulent...including determining that they aren't authorized charges. It takes credit card companies and banks months to clear a dispute, sometimes as long as 6 months, so there is the possibility that she finally contacted Google after all other avenues were exhausted and not as a point of first contact.