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

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Evil Microsoft has victimized another poor 11 year old and his mother. What is a single parent to do against a major corporation like Microsoft stealing her money? :rolleyes:

'It is ridiculous to allow someone of his age to make payments without any checks being done. 'When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money. You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy.
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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?
 
Yea when I was 11 I worked for money also. He is 11 not 5, he knew what he was doing.
 
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.
 
I love how the parents don't hold accountability these days. Spend a bit of time with your kids and ask about their hobbies and interests. God FORBID you take 5 minutes out of your soap operas.

Kid shoots up a school? Must have been GTA or bullies
Kid rapes a neighbors dog? Sexual frustration with bullies or games
Kid kills another? Bullies
Kid steals? Frustration at X or Y

Really...lets get honest. Spend time with your kids, they aren't just there to look at. Stop blaming everything else but yourself.
 
Something needs to be done about the amount of 11 year olds on xbox live. This is getting ridiculous.
 
Man, that is one weird looking, devious 11 year old.

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Look, he's old enough to play Dead Space 2, he's old enough to understand that nothing in this world is free. You can never account for bad parenting, and that's obviously what this is.
 
Snooble said:
Kid shoots up a school? Must have been GTA or bullies
Kid rapes a neighbors dog? Sexual frustration with bullies or games
Kid kills another? Bullies
Kid steals? Frustration at X or Y
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Your forgetting one of the biggest culprits: Rap Music. It can be blamed for everything
 
niconx said:
Yea when I was 11 I worked for money also. He is 11 not 5, he knew what he was doing.
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Yeah, there's no way I believe an 11 year old doesn't yet understand the concept of money.

Here's why he did it though:
'I haven't punished him because he feels bad enough and I know he won't do it again.'

She also let it happen over a SIX MONTH period. Why let him continue doing it and then finally decide after six months you should be able to complain and get all your money back?
 
I can sympathize with her problem of not being able to remove her credit card from the xbox though. MS made it so the only way to do that is to close the account. They also recently changed it so that if you use a credit card, you are purchasing a subscription, and not just a service plan. I used to just purchase 3 months of service whenever I wanted to play, and let my account go back down to a silver account when I wasn't using it. They of course decided not to inform me of this change, so now I am stuck with paying for time I don't plan on using. The only alternative is to delete an account that I have had for 7 years.
 
The lady is trying to discipline Microsoft and not her own son.
No wonder shit like this happens.
 
THOMO said:
Microsoft are to blame for automatically storing credit card numbers. This incident couldn't have taken place otherwise.
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Parental controls prevents this. Period. Parenting FAIL all the way around. That's it, plain and simple.
 
maybe now she'll actually watch what her son is doing and keep him from causing trouble.


probably not. most people are too stupid to connect those dots.
 
Steve said:
Parental controls prevents this. Period. Parenting FAIL all the way around. That's it, plain and simple.
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Beat me to it. Every console has a check box where you enter your credit card asking you if you want the console or server to remember your credit card details so you don't have to fill it out again. Either the mother checked the box or the mother entrusted the credit card to her son. She fucked up. Not Microsoft.
 
You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy.
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uhm... WTF???

At that age I was working already as well.
And if that had been me, I would've been reprimanded, punished, yelled at and spanked, all at the same time. Then I would've had to pay it off.
That kid better grow up, wake up and take responsibility, otherwise he’ll just be another useless piece of crap.
I think this is all just to try and get Microsoft to give her money back.

I haven't punished him because he feels bad enough and I know he won't do it again. .
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LOL yea right, I can already imagine how this went:

Kid: “Mommy I’m so sorry I abused the debit card, I wont do it again”
Mom: That’s ok sweetie, it’s not our fault. – It’s Microsoft’s fault for giving me the option of inputting my debit card details in to the xbox.
Kid: Yea, Microsoft is evil, let’s give them a lesson mommy.

This is just wrong, I mean, sure she’s a single mom, so things can be tough, but that is no excuse for bad parenting.
 
Even from a seated position I can discern that she is not pulling off those leather boots and skirt.
 
I'd buy that the mom had no idea that this was possible, and didn't know how to use parental controls. I'd also buy that the mom was too preoccupied to notice the charges until they started stacking up. But I don't buy for a second that the kid didn't know what he was doing. He most likely tried to keep the charges small for the first few months so his mom wouldn't notice. If he hadn't been greedy he may have gotten away with this for years before his mom noticed.
 
However, Brendan repeatedly clicked on additions and extensions - racking up a £1082.52 debt to her account over six months.
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So she DOESN'T notice this on her card statements for SIX MONTHS and is now just bitching? WTF were her priorities for that six month period?
 
What about the part where you have to ADD points?


It's not like there is a "buy $1,750 in MS points" option on your console. Little Johhny Dumbass has to BUY points when he runs out. The most you can buy at a time is $74.99 for 6000 points.

The kid spent 144,000 points.

A movie cost 320 points
A XBL game averages 800 points

This kid must've been racking up the shit while his mom was asleep at the wheel.:eek:
 
My 11 year old daughter is quite aware of what money is. Unless the boy is quite a bit behind the curve I think it is not credible that he didn't realize how much he was spending. I don't think he was accidentally just not mentioning to his Mom that he was buying games online either.

I would like to see more clear warnings on web sites that they are going to store you card info for future purchases and give you the chance to opt out.

If she were a bit more computer savy she might have realized that prepaid points cards are a better option for such things. You need to teach kids responsibility, but it's often a good idea to limit the damage poor judgement can do untill they get a bit older and have learned from some less dramatic mistakes.

It would be a nice gesture by Microsoft to reduce the total amount some, but I don't feel they have any obligation to do so. His mother took responsibility when she entered her card info, and it is her job to teach her son responsibility. That can be a very difficult task, but there's no reason to shift blame to Microsoft.
 
yeah, right, because people/companies never hide charges on credit card bills where they are unseen/unrecognized among other charges. not saying MS is to blame but the way it all works it is easy to hide both the charges and the responsibility.
 
She may have a nice rack but there is nothing else there to justify that Rack. How do you even know that rack isnt deformed lol
 
flatrock said:
My 11 year old daughter is quite aware of what money is. Unless the boy is quite a bit behind the curve I think it is not credible that he didn't realize how much he was spending. I don't think he was accidentally just not mentioning to his Mom that he was buying games online either.

I would like to see more clear warnings on web sites that they are going to store you card info for future purchases and give you the chance to opt out.

If she were a bit more computer savy she might have realized that prepaid points cards are a better option for such things. You need to teach kids responsibility, but it's often a good idea to limit the damage poor judgement can do untill they get a bit older and have learned from some less dramatic mistakes.

It would be a nice gesture by Microsoft to reduce the total amount some, but I don't feel they have any obligation to do so. His mother took responsibility when she entered her card info, and it is her job to teach her son responsibility. That can be a very difficult task, but there's no reason to shift blame to Microsoft.
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I also have 11 year old and 5 year old girls. They both know what money is, but I wouldn't go so far as saying they know the value of it. Some days they act like money grow from trees and we have ample amount of it. They're always asking for Wii games and Barbie accessories. If left to their own device I have no doubt they would spend like hell to get what they want.

That's our job as adults to watch them, make sure they behave and remind them that money isn't infinite. They know deep down, but to rely on that is foolish.
 
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?
 
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?
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parental control.
 
LOL. This reminds me of that news story where that girl who riding her bike on some road (forgot which state) and she goes off the road or some shit falls gets hurt and sues the state and is awared like 50k. It's her fucking fault! She wasn't watching where she was going or doing and yet somehow this is the states responsibility? Better yet the taxpayers responsibility? hahaha What a sick world.

Same as this kid. Either he or his mother should have been paying attention. This has nothing to do with MSFT. We live in enough of an entitlement/nanny state we don't need any more dam controls in place. What we need is some damned responsibile parents/adults.

/endrant.
 
jiminator said:
yeah, right, because people/companies never hide charges on credit card bills where they are unseen/unrecognized among other charges. not saying MS is to blame but the way it all works it is easy to hide both the charges and the responsibility.
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You've never bought anything on Xbox Live, have you? There is no way to miss it or know what it is for. The charge to your account is instantaneous and it looks like this (in all caps):

02/01 MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE BILL.XBOX.COM WA $19.99

and you get an e-mail message telling you a transaction has been made and the points have been added to your account.
 
mmmmmdonuts said:
Your forgetting one of the biggest culprits: Rap Music. It can be blamed for everything
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No no rap music is lower on the todem pole. You must remember it's all about the violent video games. They are the root of all evil. :rolleyes:
 
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