Teen using PayPal to pay strangers for game items

[Anonymous]

Is this safe? It looks like random people sell different things online related to the games my kid plays. Is it safe to be paying individuals with PayPal? I can see charges to Dave P etc. has anyone else’s kids do this? I am looking for answers regarding the security of this and my son’s safety. Not looking for parental advice as to why he is permitted to use PayPal. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

It’s probably safe from a financial/identity perspective. But what platform is he using to find and communicate with the sellers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably safe from a financial/identity perspective. But what platform is he using to find and communicate with the sellers?

+1

PayPal is pretty safe, as long as your account is secure and it's linked to a credit card with fraud protection (rather than your bank account). But the games where he's being contacted by random strangers definitely aren't.


Yeah, lots of people worry about grooming and pedophiles and stuff with young kids, but there's plenty of virtual danger out there as well. These people are experts at manipulation. If adults can be convinced to run out and "pay their back taxes" with Target gift cards (yes, this was an actual phone scam a few years back, and people really did it), there's no telling what they can get a kid, or even a teen, to do.

You don't say how old your son is, but younger teens especially can get really caught up in the games, and they forget all the real-world common-sense rules. If someone insists on making a fast trade for an item your kid really wants, and threatens to go to someone else if they don't get what they're asking for right now, your kid might not slow down long enough to wonder whether what this person is asking is really a good idea.

And any time a kid has access to an account linked to a credit card or bank account, there's a risk of someone manipulating them to give out information that might give a scammer access to it. This was a big thing with Fortnite recently. At best, scammers cleaned out everything the victim had built up within the game, but in a number of cases they were able to get the credit card number linked to the account.


I'd say PayPal is fine, if you teach him how to use it properly, but proceed with caution on the random-stranger thing in general. Teens have to learn to manage all this stuff sometime, but they still need guidance, and you have to protect your own financial interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably safe from a financial/identity perspective. But what platform is he using to find and communicate with the sellers?

+1

PayPal is pretty safe, as long as your account is secure and it's linked to a credit card with fraud protection (rather than your bank account). But the games where he's being contacted by random strangers definitely aren't.


Yeah, lots of people worry about grooming and pedophiles and stuff with young kids, but there's plenty of virtual danger out there as well. These people are experts at manipulation. If adults can be convinced to run out and "pay their back taxes" with Target gift cards (yes, this was an actual phone scam a few years back, and people really did it), there's no telling what they can get a kid, or even a teen, to do.

You don't say how old your son is, but younger teens especially can get really caught up in the games, and they forget all the real-world common-sense rules. If someone insists on making a fast trade for an item your kid really wants, and threatens to go to someone else if they don't get what they're asking for right now, your kid might not slow down long enough to wonder whether what this person is asking is really a good idea.

And any time a kid has access to an account linked to a credit card or bank account, there's a risk of someone manipulating them to give out information that might give a scammer access to it. This was a big thing with Fortnite recently. At best, scammers cleaned out everything the victim had built up within the game, but in a number of cases they were able to get the credit card number linked to the account.


I'd say PayPal is fine, if you teach him how to use it properly, but proceed with caution on the random-stranger thing in general. Teens have to learn to manage all this stuff sometime, but they still need guidance, and you have to protect your own financial interests.

+1. This is excellent advice. The potential danger is the interaction with random strangers online, not the use of paypal.

[Anonymous]

My DS (14) does a lot of gaming and I always require Paypal for payment of games or payment to individuals for things in games. It much safer than inputting your credit card into the games site, etc. The key is only I have the password and I use two-step authentication with Paypal. He can't buy anything unless it goes through me first. He determines if it's a legit offer, if he really wants the game, or the in-game item, then he pays me first. Then, I authorize it through Paypal.

If he gets scammed on trading or buying an item, then it's on him and he learns to be more careful next time. He did get hacked one time with one of his games. A player created a false login with trading and got his password. He got the account suspended while he took back control and then created some extra security steps to prevent in the future - plus reading up on how these guys work. He hasn't had a problem since. Almost all these places use PayPal, so I would definitely go that route. And as a previous poster said, make the primary payment your credit card though for extra protection.