11 Year Old Racks Up $1,750 Xbox Live Bill

Microsoft stored my credit card number on both my sons xbox and at microsoft. I made a purchase of one game (hydro-thunder) and my details were logged for future purchases. I made this purchase on 12th dec 2010 and there was no "OPTION" to store or not to store my details.

Besides which, at the end of the day......it was a kid who racked up charges for games to play with yet the multi-billion dollar company is gonna own his (and his mums) ass. They make more in a minute for mass produced crap they wrote once (games I mean) than most xbox players will ever have combined.

You'd all rather see a single-mum (with what looks like a child with mental problems) being forced to pay Bill (yes , i know he's left supposedly) £1000 for a bunch of games for kids.

You lot are sad as fuck......considering most of you stole your OS from microsoft in the first place you've got some cheek coming in here backing them up.

Hypocrytical bastards the lot of you :mad:
 
THOMO said:
Microsoft stored my credit card number on both my sons xbox and at microsoft. I made a purchase of one game (hydro-thunder) and my details were logged for future purchases. I made this purchase on 12th dec 2010 and there was no "OPTION" to store or not to store my details.

Besides which, at the end of the day......it was a kid who racked up charges for games to play with yet the multi-billion dollar company is gonna own his (and his mums) ass. They make more in a minute for mass produced crap they wrote once (games I mean) than most xbox players will ever have combined.

You'd all rather see a single-mum (with what looks like a child with mental problems) being forced to pay Bill (yes , i know he's left supposedly) £1000 for a bunch of games for kids.

You lot are sad as fuck......considering most of you stole your OS from microsoft in the first place you've got some cheek coming in here backing them up.

Hypocrytical bastards the lot of you :mad:
Click to expand...

2/10

lurk more imo
 
THOMO said:
You lot are sad as fuck......considering most of you stole your OS from microsoft in the first place you've got some cheek coming in here backing them up.

Hypocrytical bastards the lot of you :mad:
Click to expand...

You brits are a funny lot. Don't you have some tea and cucumber sandwiches to be eating right now?
 
Look, I undersand the sentiment o wanting blame the mother, but this is complete bullshit. The kid is only 11, and it really is unfair for M$ to allow children to rack up charges through XBOX live. Sure we are all geniuses, but the average kid at that age just cannot be held to the standard of understanding the value of money to the extent that an easy charge should be thought about..... wait!!! holy shit!!!! That kid is ugly!!!
 
I think everyone would be best off if Microsoft refunded all of the money....


.... and deleted their XBox Live account in its entirety.
 
The truth is, you can not trust children to do the right thing, as their brains are not fully developed.

They can - on a whim - decide they don't care about money and go on a shopping spring. Having worked or not, they don't have the same concept of money as an adult does.

The problem with these system sis that it is impossible for parents (even when there are two of them) to constantly monitor everything the kid does on their console (or phone for that matter).

The online store operators, like the PS3 store, the Xbox store, iTunes, various mobile ringtone stores, etc.) know this, so they make it as easy as possible for kids to abuse the system.

For example, if a parent adds a credit card to the Xbox store to allow a kid to buy a game, there is NO WAY TO REMOVE THE CREDIT CARD without replacing it with another card. There is also no way to password protect the system, so irresponsible kids can go nuts.

This is part of the business plan of these companies. They create them intentionally to prevent parents from being able to put controls in place just so that the kids can run up ridiculous bills and they can reply "sorry, not our problem".

It ought to be illegal.

Another thing I should mention is that all kids mature at different rates. Just because some are more mature at a certain age, does not mean all will be. It is more biological than a matter of parenting. Secondly, your memories of how mature you personally were at 11, are likely wildly inaccurate. I felt like I was an adult at 11-13. Kids automatically - will feel more mature than they are, and most people have very selective memories going back and thinking about that time in their lives.
 
XvMMvX said:
You people on here claiming how hard you had it and had "jobs" at 11 are full of shit.

You may have had chores to do, or did some odd things around your neighborhood, but you certainly didn't have a job.
Click to expand...

Look up the word perspective. We were 11 years old for crissakes. What would you have us do? Work at construction sites? :rolleyes:
 
Zarathustra[H];1036820485 said:
There is also no way to password protect the system, so irresponsible kids can go nuts.
Click to expand...

False. The system has Parental Controls built in.

Requires the parent to have a fucking clue, but you shouldn't be giving your 11 year old access to an online account without reading up on it.
 
Azhar said:
Look up the word perspective. We were 11 years old for crissakes. What would you have us do? Work at construction sites? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

He didn't say you should have had jobs. He's saying that you didn't have jobs.
 
This is why we are having less and less accountability here in North America.

People are quick to blame at everything but themselves when they do something wrong. What happened to old school parenting and discipline?

Spank the kid, dammit and then have him get a job to pay off the debt dollar by dollar.
 
kumquat said:
Who are all these people in this thread that had jobs at 11 years old?
Click to expand...

I had spent 3 years down the coal pit by the time I was 11, true it was better than my previous job as chimney sweep.

But it was worth it. A lovely warm bowl of gruel 3 times a day.

Good times.
 
THOMO said:
]You lot are sad as fuck......considering most of you stole your OS from microsoft in the first place you've got some cheek coming in here backing them up.

Hypocrytical bastards the lot of you :mad:
Click to expand...


Ahhh, I see...this is an anti-Microsoft thing you got going here. Okay, I get it. At least this explains your anger and namecalling over a situation that clearly doesn'st warrant it.

All anyone is saying here is that we expect that woman to be responsible for her own child (it is no one else job) and to be held accountable the same way ALL of us are held accountable when we screw up.


and to everyone THOMO is talking to...give back the stolen OS. :D
 
kumquat said:
False. The system has Parental Controls built in.

Requires the parent to have a fucking clue, but you shouldn't be giving your 11 year old access to an online account without reading up on it.
Click to expand...

Maybe it does now, but the last time I read up on it it did not, which is why I refused to enter my credit card on the machine. This was a few years ago though.

There absolutely NEEDS to be a "use card for one time purchase" option. Anything else is unethical when there are kids involved.
 
I bet a letter like this to Microsoft would work so much better:

Dear Microsoft,

My name is Asleep A. Thewheel, I am a single parent working two jobs to make ends meet. Wanting the best for my son, I bought little Squarepeg Roundhole (he took his father's name) an Xbox 360 Elite and subscribed him to Xbox Live.

I have very little time with my son and I am pretty retarded when it comes to the latest tech gadgets. I was unaware that the console even had parental controls and, for that reason, I failed to set up the Xbox so that my son couldn't access adult content or make unauthorized purchases. As a result of my negligence, my son was able to charge up $1,750 in content from Xbox Live over a 6 month period.

Oh, and I was unable to check my credit card statements for 6 months too because it is hard.

Anyhow, I am proposing a civil compromise in which I would bill Microsoft $1,750 for my services. In exchange for the use of my story and likeness rights in an ad campaign for idiotic parents that don't use parental controls, you would wipe my bill clean.

Sincerely A. Thewheel and Junior Squarepeg.
 
I'm going to repost this, since a large majority of the people here seem to be missing this part.

You do not get the option to not save your credit card information. There is no option. If you pay for something on your xbox using a credit card, all your info is saved so you don't have to put it in again, you have no choice in the matter (other than to not use a credit card). There is no checkbox, there is no "remove card" link, there is no "delete", there is no notification asking you to agree to this, it's just how xbox live works. There are only two ways to remove a credit card from your xbox live account. You can add a new card and remove the old one, or you can call up microsoft and have them delete the xbox live account (this has to be done immediately, so you lose the remainder of your subscription).

I'm still not defending this pair of idiots, just trying to show how much of a scam this xbox live service is.
 
SilverSliver said:
At 11 years old I had a job and knew very well the concept of money and how it worked. Kid stole from his mom. Period.

Would it be his mom's fault if she left her purse open on the table and he took the money that way?
Click to expand...
Nope its the purse's fault for having such an easy to open clasp!

TechBoy said:
parents not doing their job and blaming others, how typical. Its like the boy thinks everything on the marketplace is free... Really she should have done her homework and would have easily found out that there are parental controls on the xbox 360.
Click to expand...
Well at least she didnt play the autistic card...

wizdum said:
Something needs to be done about the amount of 11 year olds on xbox live. This is getting ridiculous.
Click to expand...
God speed on that one. Who knew that a successful gaming platform would have a bunch of kids on it from time to time? /sarcasm
Katalysis said:
Man, that is one weird looking, devious 11 year old.

article-0-0D12BB8B000005DC-205_468x365.jpg
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I would still motorboat those suckas for a full minute. Then she could sing me her new single as I taught her how handle a hard drive.

eon said:
Nevertheless MS needs to still secure payment accounts. Like seriously, why cant I password protect my credit card so I can keep it stored but still not allow anyone to just fire up my 360 and buy stuff?
Click to expand...
Because they expect you to secure your own damn device. Something about perosnal responsibility. or What Azhar said...

THOMO said:
Hypocrytical bastards the lot of you :mad:
Click to expand...
How do you know the majority of the people here warez windows? I'm so [H], I got it got it for $30 with the student discount that was advertised on the homepage. But tell em why you mad son...
 
wizdum said:
I'm going to repost this, since a large majority of the people here seem to be missing this part.

You do not get the option to not save your credit card information. There is no option. If you pay for something on your xbox using a credit card, all your info is saved so you don't have to put it in again, you have no choice in the matter (other than to not use a credit card). There is no checkbox, there is no "remove card" link, there is no "delete", there is no notification asking you to agree to this, it's just how xbox live works. There are only two ways to remove a credit card from your xbox live account. You can add a new card and remove the old one, or you can call up microsoft and have them delete the xbox live account (this has to be done immediately, so you lose the remainder of your subscription).

I'm still not defending this pair of idiots, just trying to show how much of a scam this xbox live service is.
Click to expand...
qft, MS does very little to fool proof payment security on the xbox. Your payment accounts should by default be secured.
Kinda like when a bad seed cousin ran up my granny's cable bill with pay per view movies. Can you realistically expect someone like her to have the know how and foresight to put a password lock on her cable box?
 
wizdum said:
I'm going to repost this, since a large majority of the people here seem to be missing this part.

You do not get the option to not save your credit card information. There is no option. If you pay for something on your xbox using a credit card, all your info is saved so you don't have to put it in again, you have no choice in the matter (other than to not use a credit card). There is no checkbox, there is no "remove card" link, there is no "delete", there is no notification asking you to agree to this, it's just how xbox live works. There are only two ways to remove a credit card from your xbox live account. You can add a new card and remove the old one, or you can call up microsoft and have them delete the xbox live account (this has to be done immediately, so you lose the remainder of your subscription).

I'm still not defending this pair of idiots, just trying to show how much of a scam this xbox live service is.
Click to expand...

http://support.xbox.com/en-us/pages/xbox-live/how-to/parental-control.aspx

Just sayin.
 
THOMO said:
Microsoft stored my credit card number on both my sons xbox and at microsoft. I made a purchase of one game (hydro-thunder) and my details were logged for future purchases. I made this purchase on 12th dec 2010 and there was no "OPTION" to store or not to store my details.

Besides which, at the end of the day......it was a kid who racked up charges for games to play with yet the multi-billion dollar company is gonna own his (and his mums) ass. They make more in a minute for mass produced crap they wrote once (games I mean) than most xbox players will ever have combined.

You'd all rather see a single-mum (with what looks like a child with mental problems) being forced to pay Bill (yes , i know he's left supposedly) £1000 for a bunch of games for kids.

You lot are sad as fuck......considering most of you stole your OS from microsoft in the first place you've got some cheek coming in here backing them up.

Hypocrytical bastards the lot of you :mad:
Click to expand...

While it's debatable what ratio of blame belongs to which party I do have to agree with your last point. How's WL 1.9.6 working out for you guys? Ultimate on a gamers system? Please you don't fool anyone.
 
you know, back in the day when my sisters ran up the phone bill over a thousand dollars with long distance calls, my mother always blamed them....not the phone company.
 
there's no way that kid was oblivious... he *KNEW* he was racking up charges. whenever you buy a game, xbox points, etc.. a huge fat window pops up in front of you and confirms "YOU WILL BE CHARGED $XX.XX (XXX POINTS) TO MAKE THIS PURCHASE. DO YOU ACCEPT?"

then for 6 whole months, the mother doesnt notice random xbox fees on her credit card??
WOW.. JUST WOW
 
Look people, whatever you think about parent's responsiblity or what the kid should "know" - in most states any sale to a minor is NOT legally binding, the seller MUST offer a refund to the minor if that's what the parent wants.

In some states the age may be 18, in others maybe 13? In no case should a minor be legally obliged to make payment to a corporation. :rolleyes:
 
gibber said:
Look people, whatever you think about parent's responsiblity or what the kid should "know" - in most states any sale to a minor is NOT legally binding, the seller MUST offer a refund to the minor if that's what the parent wants.

In some states the age may be 18, in others maybe 13? In no case should a minor be legally obliged to make payment to a corporation. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Nice to know. BRB while I get my 11 year old daughter to buy that 60" plasma I've always wanted from Best Buy with my credit card. I can dispute the charges later.
 
georgexi said:
there's no way that kid was oblivious... he *KNEW* he was racking up charges. whenever you buy a game, xbox points, etc.. a huge fat window pops up in front of you and confirms "YOU WILL BE CHARGED $XX.XX (XXX POINTS) TO MAKE THIS PURCHASE. DO YOU ACCEPT?"

then for 6 whole months, the mother doesnt notice random xbox fees on her credit card??
WOW.. JUST WOW
Click to expand...

That is simply not relevant in case the person clicking "OK" is a minor. Any kind of "shrink wrap" or "click to agree" license is just a bunch of meaningless BS regardless if you are a minor or not, as far as I'm concerned. If there is not a signed document/contract/exchange of goods/services for money between two parties it is null and void.
 
Azhar said:
Nice to know. BRB while I get my 11 year old daughter to buy that 60" plasma I've always wanted from Best Buy with my credit card. I can dispute the charges later.
Click to expand...

Damn right - if Best Buy lets her buy it with YOUR credit card then of course they will be legally obliged to give a refund? Heck even if there weren't laws protecting minors, unless she is an "authorized account user" she's not an authorized account user, meaning, she's not authorized to use your card. Duh?
 
LOL, this thread is great, some great funny comments.

I don't know why this is even newsworthy, other than to make the mom look like a complete idiot, then it succeeds.

I can imagine the scenario on the day the mom bought the xbox for her kid:

Kid: "Oh mummy it's a xbox 360 just what I've always wanted!"

Mom: "I hope you know how that thing works, I can't even program my microwave, plus my reading comprehension is horrible! There's no way I can possibly understand complicated words like EULA, terms of service, Parental Controls, etc....so I'll just sit in the other room while you hook up the cables, and have fun with your new game!"

Kid: "Mummy I want to play with my friends it says I need money mummy please I need your debit card to make financial transactions with!!"

Mom: "Ok here you go, I will just let you have my card, so that you can enter in the information yourself so that way I don't have to see any details about what the charges will be, or if they are recurring charges, or anything. Also I can't do basic arithmetic, so I don't understand what the increasing numbers mean on my banking statements."

Seriously I can't believe people that that stupid. I guess I can be thankful not all people are that stupid, they just seem to be getting all the publicity for some reason. :rolleyes:
 
gibber said:
Look people, whatever you think about parent's responsiblity or what the kid should "know" - in most states any sale to a minor is NOT legally binding, the seller MUST offer a refund to the minor if that's what the parent wants.

In some states the age may be 18, in others maybe 13? In no case should a minor be legally obliged to make payment to a corporation. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The kid does not factor into the equation as far as billing goes. As soon as the mother's credit/debit/electronic check information is entered into it, that gives adult consent.

The sale to a minor did not happen, the debit card is in the mothers name, with the mothers checking account at whatever banking institution she goes to.

If the mother took 5 minutes to unbox the console, hook it up with her son, follow along with the initial xbox live account creation and payment information, everything is explained in clear instructions, step by step as to what is taking place, it lets you know to play online requires an xbox live gold, that by purchasing the 3 or 6 or year of service it enters you into a renewable subscription that auto renews, and your payment details are saved for any future purchases to make it "easy". This is why I always buy a pre-paid microsoft point card at a store and do it that way.

Bottom line is if you go in blind into something without doing the proper research, then you deserve what you get. The saying, "Look before you leap" holds true for a reason.
 
Zarathustra[H];1036820485 said:
The truth is, you can not trust children to do the right thing, as their brains are not fully developed.

They can - on a whim - decide they don't care about money and go on a shopping spring. Having worked or not, they don't have the same concept of money as an adult does.

The problem with these system sis that it is impossible for parents (even when there are two of them) to constantly monitor everything the kid does on their console (or phone for that matter).

The online store operators, like the PS3 store, the Xbox store, iTunes, various mobile ringtone stores, etc.) know this, so they make it as easy as possible for kids to abuse the system.

For example, if a parent adds a credit card to the Xbox store to allow a kid to buy a game, there is NO WAY TO REMOVE THE CREDIT CARD without replacing it with another card. There is also no way to password protect the system, so irresponsible kids can go nuts.

This is part of the business plan of these companies. They create them intentionally to prevent parents from being able to put controls in place just so that the kids can run up ridiculous bills and they can reply "sorry, not our problem".

It ought to be illegal.

Another thing I should mention is that all kids mature at different rates. Just because some are more mature at a certain age, does not mean all will be. It is more biological than a matter of parenting. Secondly, your memories of how mature you personally were at 11, are likely wildly inaccurate. I felt like I was an adult at 11-13. Kids automatically - will feel more mature than they are, and most people have very selective memories going back and thinking about that time in their lives.
Click to expand...
Just about everything you said is wrong.
 
drdoug99 said:
Seriously I can't believe people that that stupid. I guess I can be thankful not all people are that stupid, they just seem to be getting all the publicity for some reason. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hehe, lookit the people in this thread. They all have the same facts (for the most part) as we do yet find a way to have a really incorrect viewpoint on the whole matter. Some of these people are here right now, completely oblivious to their own ignorance.

Like someone said before, years ago when people's kids ran up the long distance bill, they blamed the kid not the phone company.
 
daafisch said:
He took advantage of what he was given, can't blame Microsoft for that.
Click to expand...

I agree 1000% with this.

The kid knew wtf he was doing, to put it into context my nephew is 11 and he has a 360 and he knows that you have to BUY games for it and you can buy DLC from it if you have a credit or debit card.

My nephew is so clued up on the 360 and its intricacies, he puts me to shame and I been in this game all my life, so if my nephew who is 11 can understand games = money, then this kid also knew, unless he is registered retarded, which having not read all of the link I dont know if he is or not, but judging by his hair, its a good bet that he isnt all their.

I think the kid knew what he was doing and that he raped his mom's ( the hooker look alike ) bank account because she probably told him off or some shit and now that she found out they are blaming it on MS in the hopes that they get a refund.

This is not MS's fault but MS will likely refund.
 
Another incident of failed parenting. That image of the boy and his mom cracks me up though. He's giving the camera a heck of a look.
 
I would also like to add, if she added her details into the 360 18 months ago, then why wait til now to start the "lost 1100 quid" drama.

No wonder MS are ignoring her, probably her son doesnt play those games anymore and is annoyed that he cant sell/exchange/trade them in like you can if you had a hardcopy and probably what all his school buddies do. I think this is a scam to get a refund on games he no longer plays because he cant trade/sell them.

I hope MS dont fall victim to this BS
 
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