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

The daily mail continues to report nothing but bullshit

The daily mail strikes again!

The bullshit O-meter:

Where did he think it was coming from? He damn sure didn't have 1k in his bank account if he had one at all.

A thousand pounds is for damn sure alot to Bill. Its even more lvies he can save.

Putting money on him not being old enough for it.

Ding ding! Next time check the settings jackass.

He knows his times tables and aparantly he knows how to get away with spending 1k too! She's just beyond full of shit. I know when I was a kid I was monitored when I was playing games or I weren't allowed to play them.

Ding ding! The daily mail breaks the bullshit o-meter again!

 

I've read that in the METRO too (you know, the free shitty "tube-newspaper")

Actually, that boy sounds like me... like 15 years ago, I caused a $2000 phone bill because I was so proud and happy of having a modem now (and I was browsing day and night Amiga BBS systems)

Good old times!

 

a) How do you rack up debt on a debit card? If you haven't got the money it won't give it to you. Either she has a credit card or she is some form of stupid bitch.

b) This really highlights what a disgrace the DLC market has become. £1000 on extras... they used to be given for free (albeit subsidsed by the developer) to support the community, polish a product and thank their fans. Now we have to pay for patches to fix the problems they created. Also how much of this content was ready before the game was published but they left it out intentionally to sell to you again later? I'm not against expansions but this brave new world takes the piss.

c) If she is that skint she would have noticed the micropayments each week. You would wonder why there is more than one charge to your account for XBL and why you can't afford some bananas or whatever this week. Stupid bitch!

d) Why was he on XBL without pubes?

e) Why were no parental controls applied?

f) Why would the payment options not ask at least for the CVV2 each time there was a new purchase? It would be more hassle than typing no details but less hassle than retyping everything.

g) I've ran up huge telephone bills myself albeit on the Dreamcast days so I do know how spending can get out of control. Getting an ISP that wasn't pay per minute was hard for us and you don't realise how fast it all adds up when you're chatting shit in some lobby or questing. That said she should have supervised him if she cannot trust him. Even then she should have supervised him regardless. XBL isn't a subsitute for good parenting or a nanny.

 

The kid knew what he was doing. In order to rack up that kind of bill he was purchasing games left and right. I'm pretty sure theres a pop up (haven't been on live in awhile) that shows in plain english that your about to purchase something and you need points to do it.

He must have been purchasing tons of points then buying the games. Then cried when caught. If he was just playing COD online like all the other kids there would be no charge besides his Live yearly fee.

 

I really have to question the mother's motives...how does she NOT notice this activities on SIX MONTHS of card statements???

 

Costs for dialup internet were invisible until the bill came through. Every pound that kid spent was thrust in his face, "do you want to buy that, are you sure you want to spend this, it will cost you money".

More quality reporting from the UK's tabloids.

 

£1082!!!!!! On DLC????? Simple, take the 360 off the little shit-house and put the frigger eBay. Also, you can't bleat to the press that you're on your uppers and need two jobs to survive and not notice that amount of money going from your account, that's nearly £200 a month for Christs sake. And why has she mentioned that her second job is as a singer? It's in no way pertinent to the story except to attempt to drum up more work.

 

If she's so short on money why would she buy him an Xbox ELITE (the most expensive package) and Live? Even until I was 13 I used to graft for the bit of pocket money I got and still do.

 

Not only that, but look under the TV, there's a Virgin/NTL set-top box. How many Pay-Per-View bills has he rung up on that without her knowing? You can see the look in his eyes, he knows he's shit it and knows his old doll hasn't got a hope in hell of getting her brass back. Do it for one, gotta do it for all and that would open the floodgates for thousands of chancers trying there luck.

 

She looks like she can earn that in a few days 'pounding' the pavement ;-)

 

I was in Strood the other day. It's in the middle of Medway, which is often considered the birthplace of the chav. Strood is the most depressing place I've ever been. There's nothing there! I saw 10 closed pubs and only 1 that was apparently open. I would rather go to Pripyat, the town closest to the Chernobyl nuclear plant, than go back there.

How is it that she didn't notice these charges on her statement for six months?!? That's impossible! Yes, the money should only come out if it is available... but that said, banks sometimes do let you go in the red for their advantage.

Yes, you would think she would read the instructions better and think before giving an 11 year old an Xbox with Internet access. Perhaps Microsoft should document the parental controls better, though? Can't say I saw anything in my box, but that was back in 2006.

However, I must agree that Microsoft are awful with their billing. It is easy to get a card 'stuck' on your account, and very difficult, if not impossible, to remove one. I asked them to remove my expired card and they refused! I also had problems where they automatically renewed my Gold subscription, despite my debit card being several months expired. I asked them how this was possible, as they didn't have my new card details, nor my authorisation to do so. They didn't give a shit - they told me they can still take payment from my account!

I also had problems when trying to use my Halifax Visa debit card on Xbox Live. For those not in the UK, Halifax is one of our major banks, and a Visa card practically works like a standard Visa card - often, you'll find websites don't distinguish between the two. I had plenty in my account, I'd used my card on eBay, Amazon, HMV, Play.com, in shops such as Starbucks and Waterstones and even on US websites with no problem. However, Microsoft's system didn't recognise my card! When I contacted them, they said there's nothing they can do - go buy a Gold card in a shop!

Yup, Microsoft's payment system SUCKS.

Back to the kid... he does have pubes, they're just on his head! Maybe she should stop paying for his perm and put that money towards his debt?

Of course the kid knew what he was doing. You have to purchase the points BEFORE you can buy the DLC. It comes up with multiple messages telling you costs (in points and money) when buying points and downloading content.

BTW Kev, you should have taken up phreaking lol

 

Ouch. Were you aware of the bill? Or was it something a bit shonky? Also she wants to teach him responsibility. She should have him out washing cars in his neighbour hood or something. Me and my brother used to make a killing doing that back in the summer. £40/day at one point

 

Err, did you hear the bit where I said how crap the neighbourhood is? I saw a used car garage. There was nothing of great moment on the forecourt... but you go into the sales office and it's full of crap! It's a used cars / bric-a-brac shop! I doubt he'd make much money washing cars. I saw houses so small, the front doors were probably not much more than a foot wide!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snaptophobic/4634473889/

By the way, that was some pretty poor reporting from the Daily Mail. Other media institutions mention other factors, such as why she didn't notice the charges for 6 months:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-12393233

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway_messenger/news/2011/february/7/xbox_bill.aspx

The latter is run by Kent Messenger group, for which she works as a multimedia executive! You'd think an executive would have a decent pay... and know to stay out of the press with stories like this!

I would have thought that, if you're getting letters about direct debits bouncing, you'd have checked your statement by visiting/calling your bank! Also, don't you notice when you go to a cashpoint that your available balance is sod all?

Incidentally...

...said Ms. Matthews, Multimedia Executive at KM Group, whilst sitting on her leather sofa in front of her 32" LCD TV, Virgin cable box and Xbox 360 Elite (the most expensive Xbox), all perched on the parquet flooring.

Singers, by the way, should be earning £150 a night.

Oh yes, she's really hard up!

 

They should have spent the money on haircuts that weren't from the 70's.

ShameofEngland.gif

They're a pair of retards and it's typical Daily Mail scare-tactics. People in the UK are trying to get rid of their responsibilities. If she doesn't have much money, why do they have a fucking 360?

 

Xbox displaying a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 television - they get no sympathy from me

 

The Daily Mail is know for shit. So fucking what if the kid was stupid enough to spend that much. So what if the mother was too fucking dumb to notice or even not lock her card in the family settings. So what if she's a single mother. Does that give them more of an angle to blame Microsoft? NO.

News these days is so sad. Who cares about some dumb mother and her over spending son. It's nothing to do with the world we live in.

By the way, Yes, to buy games from live you need to buy points with a credit card. The kid knew dam well that he was spending money. She should be kicking the kids arse but no. A good way to scam some cash in sympathy. Fucking losers! These type of people just piss me off.

yakumo

 

x

 

Daily Mail are almost funny.
I agree, the kid musta had a clue, was merely busted.

Tho its suddenly alot more annoying that when testing we had to devote so much time to proper use of Child XBL accounts when its painfully obvious most parents don't bother to take an interest or set accounts as child accounts haha. Not all kids need the boundaries but my lord ha

Tho i say this with fond memories of making a 2nd account on my dreamcast/dreamkey on day of release when dreamkey told me I was slightly too young for a large and interesting area of the internet lol.

 

She's just looking for attention in her career. Her youtube attempt must have failed.