Child stole over $3k

[Anonymous]

My 9 year old stole over $3k on online gaming purchases. He stole my husband and I’s password in order to make purchases and I’m just exhausted/defeated. He didn’t stop because it was wrong, he stopped because there was no money left/was getting declined. I have a newborn baby less than 6 weeks old that relies on formula and we can’t even get that because this kid who’s not that little (fully understood what he was doing), decided three thousand dollars worth of fortnite skins was more important. This is not the first time either! We changed our password and he stole it and money again. What do you do in this situation?

[Anonymous]

My 8 year old niece did the same, purchased a thousand dollars worth of robux with her mom’s Apple Card. She called the company, and they were able to restore the money. She was banned from Roblox.

[Anonymous]

You need to immediately contact Epic Games, explain that the purchases were unauthorized, and request a refund.

Obviously, your child needs a serious consequence, including shutting down the Fortnite account. But your kid does not understand what $3,000 is or how it would impact family safety/security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to immediately contact Epic Games, explain that the purchases were unauthorized, and request a refund.

Obviously, your child needs a serious consequence, including shutting down the Fortnite account. But your kid does not understand what $3,000 is or how it would impact family safety/security.

Agree with this. He probably doesn't completely understand the gravity of what he did. But he should absolutely not have access to a computer unmonitored anymore and he definitely shouldn't still have gaming accounts. You and your husband also need to lock down your passwords better.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how someone can steal THAT MUCH for online gaming. Over how long a period of time? Weeks? You caught it only when the card hit its limit and was declined?

Call the credit card number to report fraud. I think you may get the money back.

This kid needs serious discipline, OP. He needs to be scared straight. I would ban all devices for the summer. He can have a summer of reading and Legos, it will be good for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9 year old stole over $3k on online gaming purchases. He stole my husband and I’s password in order to make purchases and I’m just exhausted/defeated. He didn’t stop because it was wrong, he stopped because there was no money left/was getting declined. I have a newborn baby less than 6 weeks old that relies on formula and we can’t even get that because this kid who’s not that little (fully understood what he was doing), decided three thousand dollars worth of fortnite skins was more important. This is not the first time either! We changed our password and he stole it and money again. What do you do in this situation?

Why does your 9 year old have access to online gaming at all, is the first and most important question. You are exhausted and defeated and made at your 9 year old, but the person you should be mad at is yourself and your husband. If you hadn't engaged in lazy parenting, you wouldn't be in this situation. I also have a 9 year old, and he has no mechanism to "steal" from me to buy things in fortnite, because he doesn't have access to freaking fortnite (which is deeply age inappropriate.) and the fact that he's already done this? no more devices and online games at home, period, end of story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how someone can steal THAT MUCH for online gaming. Over how long a period of time? Weeks? You caught it only when the card hit its limit and was declined?

Call the credit card number to report fraud. I think you may get the money back.

This kid needs serious discipline, OP. He needs to be scared straight. I would ban all devices for the summer. He can have a summer of reading and Legos, it will be good for him.

Ban for the summer?? No, ban for years at this point. A 9 year old doesn't need access to online gaming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to immediately contact Epic Games, explain that the purchases were unauthorized, and request a refund.

Obviously, your child needs a serious consequence, including shutting down the Fortnite account. But your kid does not understand what $3,000 is or how it would impact family safety/security.

Agree with this. He probably doesn't completely understand the gravity of what he did. But he should absolutely not have access to a computer unmonitored anymore and he definitely shouldn't still have gaming accounts. You and your husband also need to lock down your passwords better.

What? You're not raising your kids right if they get to 9 years old and don't realize that stealing is not OK. If this happened over a period of time, they kid might not have counted how much money left the account, but the mere concept of paying money for something online only with parent authorization should have been ingrained a long time ago.

From OP's description, it really sounds as if her oldest is missing a huge chunk of ethics they should already master. This concerns me. The kid seems almost sociopathic, in that he doesn't care who he hurts or what the consequences are. Maybe a psychological evaluation is in order.

[Anonymous]

Call Epic first and explain and try to get some $ back. Then no more online games at all for this kid. Delet the account and don't open a new one. No passwords. Just throw the system out or lock it in a safe etc.

[Anonymous]

Is this a troll post? 9 year olds shouldn't be playing that game.

[Anonymous]

OMG

The child should not have access to the internet. At all. Period.

You should have cut him off after the first incident.

WTH is wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

See if you can get the one time forgiveness from Epic. Then, remove his device, change all the passwords on the accounts and the computer. I wouldn’t hesitate to tell him that baby Larla can’t eat because he spent all your money. Scare the crap out of him. If he’s doing it on a gaming system, sell the gaming system. I don’t care if you and your husband play it too. It’s gone. When you finally give him access to a computer again, you set up all the accounts yourself and he does not know the passwords. He wants anything, you have to plug in the numbers. My kid did not get his AppleID password until his 18th birthday and all charges had to be authorized by me. He hated it, but I did not care.

Also, where is your backup account or emergency credit card that you keep in reserve? Always have one because your account info could just as easily been stolen by hackers. Set the limits on your cards to alert you/require authorization to be pretty low. Also, stop using debit cards. Debit card misuse means that you have to convince the bank to reinstate your money if there’s a dispute. With a credit card, you don’t need to pay the charge while the dispute is ongoing.

[Anonymous]

Call for refund, get him banned!
No gaming for the summer only if he attends summer school; otherwise, a year! His choice.

You need to sign up for credit card notification on charges immediately moving forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to immediately contact Epic Games, explain that the purchases were unauthorized, and request a refund.

Obviously, your child needs a serious consequence, including shutting down the Fortnite account. But your kid does not understand what $3,000 is or how it would impact family safety/security.

Agree with this. He probably doesn't completely understand the gravity of what he did. But he should absolutely not have access to a computer unmonitored anymore and he definitely shouldn't still have gaming accounts. You and your husband also need to lock down your passwords better.

What? You're not raising your kids right if they get to 9 years old and don't realize that stealing is not OK. If this happened over a period of time, they kid might not have counted how much money left the account, but the mere concept of paying money for something online only with parent authorization should have been ingrained a long time ago.

From OP's description, it really sounds as if her oldest is missing a huge chunk of ethics they should already master. This concerns me. The kid seems almost sociopathic, in that he doesn't care who he hurts or what the consequences are. Maybe a psychological evaluation is in order.

I.meant more so that he probably didn't understand that the 3K put his family in that dire of a financial situation. He certainly knows (or should) that what he did was wrong. But I doubt he understands that this put his family in the position of not being able to eat.

[Anonymous]

Remove ALL access to the internet. Cold turkey. Phones, tablets, computers, gaming systems. He can play with legos and magnatiles until he earns the family trust back.