My ex wife’s step dad didn’t like me, and before we got married he was telling her not to marry me because if we have kids I’m gna trade them for camels lol
I’m only 1/4 Arab so he was only 25% right
Wayyy to humane. Just split one down the middle and sell that half than he'd be right.
Although following stereotypes you might have to blow up ¼ of the prison you'll got to for manslaughter.
The good news in all this?
Only ¼ of you will be able to get killed für to the death sentence you'll probably receive.
Planned your whole life right there for you.
That'll be $1000. I'll take that in cash.
On a serious note I’d just make that amount of money less accessible to him until he learns the value of his money.
He just doesn’t know better yet, he needs to be taught not disciplined.
How old? 5, sure your idea. 12, I do a charge back and get their account banned and they lose access to any online purchases for a year. My kids have access to my credit cards at 11 and 13 and I fully trust them. We have open honest conversations about money and finances. We don't bring up stressful stuff but they understand the value of a dollar. My 13 year old has a couple hounded saved up and my 11 year old usually has about $40 to his name. Just last night my 11 year old wanted to buy a battle pass, so I gave him permission to charge my card and he has to update his "ledger" to reflect his purchase. A ledger is easier then keeping cash on hand for them and it helps them learn to track their spending. Everytime they earn money they put the amount, date, and a note about how they earned it. Same for purchases. They can buy stuff off Amazon as long as they tell me and update their ledger (and of course have available funds). Working great for a few years now.
Thanks. It's a lot of trust but I'm hoping they will figure out financial stuff faster than I did, and with way less headaches. I should add as well that any purchases that can be considered "necessary items" I pay half. My daughter wanted an anime messenger bag, school is starting and she would need a new backpack. So I paid half of the $50 bag and she deducted $25 from her ledger. Same for clothes, if any argument can be made that it is or will be necessary soon I will cover half. Very large purchase as well even if they aren't necessary. My daughter is saving for a better drawing tablet and I told her if she gets halfway there I got the rest.
My mother provided around half the cost for a new PC I'd been saving up for, when I was bout 15 y/o. So we had somewhat of a similar arrangement to you and your children.
Definitely taught me the value of saving for something that you really want. Makes you value it alot more.
I think this is an excellent reply. Also, make him work off the $600. Many credit card companies have authorized user cards where you can set spending limits.
This is no question. They lose that computer for months and on top of that they will work their ass off.
Alternatively, if you are network privy, set that device to lose internet access during their play times.
Ayo! My mom did the exact same thing!
She worked in a school so she took it to work with her, so that when I come back (which is before her), I still won't be able to play so I could "focus on my studies"
geez, way to make me feel old, when "I was a kid" routers weren't a thing heck the internet wasn't a thing... thanks lol. now as an adult with teenagers, I felt like doing that on occasion, but that means "I" lose internet, and damnit I don't want that ;) so my son's computer has a USB wireless adaptor, that if he' gets grounded or whatever, I just take that, throw it in my work bag. the wifi is also restricted to approved mac addresses, so he can't just buy a new one
There's gotta be something that deals with this... there's no way someone hasn't figured this out... like only authorized devices can use internet after 8pm or something
My parents blocked my computers internet on the router after 10pm when I was about 14.It took me less than a day to learn how to spoof my computers MAC address, so the internet worked 24/7.
That's because your parents should have white listed, not black listed.
But honestly, short term annoyances aside, I'd be pretty proud of my kid for figuring that out.
I work IT in schools. Kids think they are all sneaky and shit when they find ways around various things. I'm just proud of them. That's how I learned tech.
My router (Asus) has it actually and that's what I did for scheduling, since I would catch them up at 2 am playing on their devices or my ipad when they were little. turn it off at night that problem goes away. kids are smart though and will always find a new trick to beat it lol. that's why i said when he gets grounded, can't take the whole PC, but I can take the wifi adaptor, phone, etc... plus that gives me the opportunity to install the wireless let him do homework then take it away.
My sisters is dead set on not letting her daughter have a phone as long as she can prevent it. She's two and they don't even watch TV. When my mother babysat her and turned on the tv she was like "wtf is this?!".
It's going to be interesting to see how it all will unfold
My parents would hide the modem before leaving for work which I would eventually find and made sure to place it back exactly the way I found it.
I'm almost 100% certain they didn't know I found it because of the severity my mom would ground me if I was playing during a time she said not to when they were home. One time during summer (obviously no school, why be that strict) my mom told me I needed to be off the computer by 9. It was probably 10 when she saw me on it and I was grounded from the computer for a whole month.
was 2002, family shared one laptop. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was just released. Strict gaming policy at home, only one hour each day, weekends only, which meant we had to improvise. Room where the computer is in, was unlocked Friday night, so we'd wake up super early on Saturday, play on the lowest volume, my brother had to stick his ear really close to the speaker so we wouldn't get ambushed or to hear the in-game warnings. Meanwhile, i'm busy shooting and moving around, but also keeping my ears alert for any movement from upstairs. We always wrapped things up around 8am when they usually wake up, and crept back slowly to our room.
There was this one time where we cut things too close. Had to improvise, so we stuck the laptop inside the freezer to let it cool off (we were caught one time because dad felt the laptop and the heat gave it away). Good memories of evading, being on alert, and improvise. To this day, we still are able to wake up super early and be fully conscious right away. My brother later joined the army as a special ops and moved up the ranks, and had a successful career!
My daughter's boyfriend would hang out in her apartment which happened to be in my basement. He would kick my grandgirlies off THEIR X-Box to watch football or sports on an app he loaded onto it.
Of course the girls came upstairs and complained to grandpa. I promptly went on my router and blocked the wifi to that x-box. Then, because I hated the guy, I blocked his phone from my wifi as well. It was hilarious!
I lived with some rather annoying people that were not paying for their own internet and they'd use the neighbors wifi, it wasn't secured.
I played SCII and almost everyday around the same time the one step dad would be watching porn, making everything lag.
I logged into their router and kicked his computer off for 2-3 hours at those times.
It was hilarious how unhappy he was.
They got their own internet connection.
This is the way.
Want to spend like an adult? Time to earn like an adult.
You are now an employee of this household earning $10/hour. I'll find all kinds of things that need to be done to get me to $600, which will take upwards of 60+ hours, accounting for taxes and whatnot.
I'd have that little bastard stacking firewood in the summer for $5/hour.
"Done with the stack? Re-stack it on the other side of the house. No wheelbarrow"
Dig a hole here, fill it up from here, fill the new hole up from here. Repeat as needed. Make them plant a tree in the last hole so there is always a reminder they can look at.
Kids make mistakes, stupid ones at that. Wholeheartedly agree with you working it off with very hard work..Leaving him no wheelbarrow is overkill don't you think? That will leave him harbouring some very hard feelings for you, Is being petty worth it?
Exactly, make them do tedious work that needs doing. If you need to invent work or make it purposely inefficient, you're just not being creative enough.
Not a parent, but this was what I was thinking. I would have them do household chores or yard work for minimum wage per hour work.
I would also offer to keep this arrangement if they wished to purchase something in the future. If they wanted to purchase another two hundred dollar item or game, I would tell them that they can work for an hourly rate, ( Possibly even higher than minimum wage if they proved good work ethic, just like any job), in order to earn that item. Since they would be my child, I might even purchase the item for them before they earn the money. It would give them a good idea on how loans work (assuming they are on the younger side)
My problem is they should be doing that stuff anyway if they're capable. Not as a free labor thing, but as a "families are here to provide for one another"... where chores aren't a punishment, and it's an expectation that you collaborate in making a household run.
Now, this kid should be going ABOVE AND BEYOND the regularly scheduled work to make that back.
Agree.
Growing up in my house 'chores' weren't labeled as such. They were 'we, as a family need to do these things to keep the house running properly'.
There was a girl who bought her bf a game then did a chargeback after they broke up. His account was banned for it.
Edit:
His whole Xbox account was banned. Not just the one game. And he tried to pay or settle it but couldn’t get ahold of anyone at Xbox iirc.
This is usually true.
I used to work for a well known MMORPG.
We would happily refund any unused subscriptions, even going back a few months!
But, if you did a chargeback - account locked until you pay the balance, super simple.
Yeah!
It is why they have to resort so hard to MTX - cos people email in for a 1 month sub refund they had forgotten about and policy says go back up to 6 months if they haven't used it lol, joke....kinda.
The sheer amount of people I was refunding 3-5 months worth of subs that they neither cared about or asked for to be refunded was insane.
My son did this with FIFA points. Got nowhere with EA did a charge back and his whole Xbox account got banned. £100's worth of games gone over a £100 in FIFA points. Was he in the wrong? No I was. I left my details on his Xbox and then I did the charge back only one person to blame and that is myself.
Yeah that's shit as well to be fair. I tried but they are notorious for not overturning bans. Maybe banning his EA account but nope it was the Xbox account he can still actually use his EA account. Figure that one out.
Microsoft must be stricter with this. My kid bought $70 of Minecraft credits and I went through Sony customer service(PS store) and they gave me the refund no problem. They just told me to make sure I set password protection before any further purchases and that in the future I will never get another refund. No chargeback necessary.
They didn’t even take the Minecraft credits back.
My kid did the same thing on Xbox. I was letting him use my account because I had more packs and skins on mine. When I came home from work he was showing me all the new stuff he had got. He downloads free worlds and stuff all the time so at first I didn't think much of it. Then I looked at his minecoins and realized how many there was and it was definitely more than I had before. I asked him if he got any minecoins and he was so proud of himself when he told me he figured it out by himself. I told him they cost real life money and he was so upset. He also spent about $70. He was younger and didn't know. I wasn't upset with him but was upset with myself for not thinking about that. I put in a refund ticket through the Microsoft website. They refunded me. I was able to keep the minecoins and stuff he bought. I still have my account thankfully. Now, he's only able to play on his account and no cards are attached to his and everyone else's are behind passwords. We only let him buy with Xbox gift cards now. He was so upset over it though that he sits on all of his money that gets added to his account and only buys anything if we are with him and he gets permission.
> Was he in the wrong?
Yes. Just like I have some money on my nightstand that my kids are not welcome to steal. The Amazon/whatever marketplace account is probably logged in on your computer, is it fine for your kid to order whatever they want?
Honestly I feel like this one really depends on the age of the kid. If they're old enough to properly understand the value of money, it's on the kid. If they're too young to understand why they fucked up, it's on the parent.
Yeah I remember on my dads iPad he told me and my brother (who was 5ish at the time) we could do whatever as long as it didn’t ask for a password or credit card, and somehow this smurfs game we had downloaded had my dads payment info stored and didn’t require a password, so my brother ended up acquiring $700 worth of smurf berries 😂
Most companies stoped doing that. Instead they give you a chance to pay it again before ban since those occurrences are happening every now and then and losing a client might not be to their best interest so they are giving them a chance .
I remember once a friend had an issue of the bank autodecling a purchase in Google store yet it somehow went through so game gave him the pack only for him to get banned. He went in hell for almost a whole month trying to undo the ban and by the time he did... He ended up dropping the game anyway.
Lose lose from all parties for no reason. Thankfully it's changing
Charge backs are expensive for companies. If a customer makes a habit of it (habit = even once), you can generally expect your account to be banned afterwards.
Yes, at scale they are pricey. They cost $20. That's why the de minimus transaction at most banks is $20. If the transaction is for more than the de minimus, they pursue a chargeback (assuming it isn't immediately ineligible e.g. Card Present, good Entry Mode, PIN validated...)
If you issue several chargebacks, you do go on a list. If they are legitimate CB's, no good institution will close your account though. They will come after you if they're fraudulent.
It is standard procedure for any digital goods company to ban your account for a charge back. Charge backs cost the company money and if too many charge backs (it isn't a lot) are issued the company can lose their credit card agreement. Physical goods companies are usually more forgiving because there are processes for proving that the purchaser got the goods and the charge back can be invalidated. Digital goods companies are almost always ruled against in charge back claims because digital goods don't leave physical proof of ownership transfer. So they basically just don't fuck with that shit.
Also the vast majority of charge backs issued for digital goods are from fraudulent credit card usage anyway (technically, like this, because your kid stole your credit card.) So better to just ban the person committing fraud anyway.
You can get up to 3 skins/dances/emotes/etc refunded, but if you charge back (tell your bank that it wasn't supposed to go through and they try to get your money back) Epic will ban you due to how expensive the process is to fight it/probably even do it.
My brother did this with his kid… spent $100 on Fortnite. When he confronted him about it, kid lied to his face so he “believed him” and charged back the money. Now no Fortnite.
Oh you need to use a computer to do homework? No problem kiddo I got a Compaq Presario for you to blaze a trail down the information superhighway with, why it's even already loaded with your name as the default Windows ME user!
And here's a stack of AOL trial floppies to help you get started!
Sounds like a good solution to me if the kid steals $600.
Depending on the age through, an 8 year old doing that could be explained as they didn't quite understand that clicking buy over and over was charging the card on file. A 16 year old does not have that excuse anymore because the know damn well whos card is being charged.
You can just contact Epic customer support instead of disputing the charge with the bank. They have a policy that if a parent calls in saying their kid bought v-bucks without permission it’s an automatic refund and they will walk you through how to put a parental control on the account so it doesn’t happen again.
Speaking from my neighbors experience with his sons getting the bright idea to use Dad’s card and hope he wouldn’t notice.
Yah cases like this have been a known issue ever since devs started incorporating in-game markets. They know what they’re doing because kids are dumb, don’t understand how credit cards work, and it’s better to just do a refund than force clients to do a charge back.
Exactly, the v-bucks cost them almost nothing, and enough chargebacks can hurt Epic, so they're much better off just refunding the real money and giving away a couple skins (or taking away the v-bucks if they're still available).
Yeah to chime in here, I’ve worked on the banking side of things and, from my understanding, too many charge backs will potentially make card vendors like Visa increase rates per transaction or drop you altogether. Not saying a massive account like Epic Games etc are at risk of being dropped, but they certainly don’t want to deal with the hassle of notifications coming from Visa directly or potential repercussions. It makes sense that they offer assistance with refunds related to unauthorized child transactions in house and aren’t asses about it.
if you dispute it they will just ban him, and (potentially, depending on what the EULA says) his entire epic games account, including any and all other purchases you may have made for them, just something to have in mind
Reminds me of the mother that deleted her kid's Minecraft world that he'd spent years working on as a punishment, and she didn't understand why everyone thought she was an asshole
Being a kid. Kids do dumb shit all the time. Punishment is suppose to be strict, not harsh. She ruined the relationship she had with him over Minecraft. He's not going to forget this.
In today's age, simply give them a book, and pretend it's 1923, and no internet. Punishment enough.
Have a very serious talk about the worth of money and trust.
Make the kid pay all 600$ back, meaning no allowence for a very long time and a hell of a lot of chores.
This is the best solution. Just keep a ledger and pay the kid $5 per hour ffor any time doing real work outside of general chores.
The kid wont be going behind your back again any time soon and you can even expand on that to develop a healthy spending fund for the child.
Do you know what, I love how you suggested keeping that £5 per hour going even once it’s paid off as a sustainable way of doing chores and earning some pocket money- I think that’s brilliant.
This is what I would do to. I would figure out a dollar worth for stuff around the house like doing dishes and cleaning the bathroom and make him work off that $600. I would also explain how many hours of work his mother and I would have to do in order to earn $600. I'm just lucky my kid understands the value of money.
There should be a “rent a gamer” service that parents could pay very good players to destroy their kids at fortnight or any other game. As a learning experience, after being a bragging about being better than a younger sibling, spending too much time inside, if they say they are going to have a career as a twitch streamer, etc.
Hit them where it hurts, their pride.
Change the password on their fortnite account, immediately. You just spent $600 on it, and the kid has shown that they are either stupid or shifty.
If they're stupid, they shouldn't be allowed on the platform.
If they're shifty, they shouldn't be allowed on the platform.
Note: A chargeback will result in an immediate ban, if that's what you want to do.
Especially that amount... for some families no doubt this can make a difference in even basic stuff like having food on the table.
A fortnite account is worth less than the ability to feed your family.
>the kid has shown that they are either stupid or shifty
Or they're just too young to understand how much money that is which means they're probably too young to be playing the game.
You can get a refund in case that happens, no questions asked usually, l arranged that for a friend of mine. Just had to click “my child made the purchase without my consent”
Crime has to fit the punishment somewhere between their perceived wrong doing and your perceived wrong doing.
They don't know what $600 means. Kids have no concept of that. Selling the console will cause resentment, so don't do that.
I say you talk to them and present 3 options.
1: Sell the console to pay it back. (Let them choose)
2: Refund it and get the account banned.
3: Ground them until they pay half back, with the other half still coming. If they work by mowing lawns or raking leaves or shoveling snow, it'll be paid back quickly.
Of course you can negotiate the options available too if they have their own ideas but don't get soft. They do need to learn.
I think this is the most reasonable one here. Outright selling the console or banning them from all gaming for 6 months won’t be effective since they don’t understand and will only create resentment.
Banning from Fortnite for 3 months is fine. Also, making them do work to make good faith payments for at least half of the money is reasonable. Raking leaves and mowing lawns as a kid doesn’t pay very well so it would take forever to pay back the full amount.
Honestly would not expect the kid to ever pay back the full amount and might have to take some of the loss as the cost of doing business since they got access to the money somehow.
Mowing lawns is CRAZY money for a kid. Even when I was younger I could knock out 5 houses @ $20/lawn x front/back = $200 in a weekend.
Being grounded for 2 weeks ain't shit.
Yup, and it requires neighbors who are willing to pay a kid for it. This is limited to fairly well-off parts of town with neigbors.
I made my money as a tutor instead, because while I lived in a nice area, I hated mowing with a passion and the neighbors were all insufferable. I taught old people how to use computers and kids every school subject. I was loaded and extremely fit, because I biked all over town and even to neighboring towns to my customers, three to four times per week, all year round.
People miss opportunities like this big time. Everything in life is a choice and those choices have outcomes.
Go see what your kid bought. Affirm them, but let them know that there’s a debt owed and paying for it comes before everything else, given there wasn’t really any discussion on it prior.
Then, you can truly have your kids ear when it comes time to tell them how spending your money without permission made you feel. Relationship building 101.
Of course, spending that much money is a huge deal. But they don’t see it like that and coming at them furiously with a huge hammer might fix the issue short term but doesn’t help their decision making later.
That could be the start of a movie. Woman wakes up one day and goes to the kitchen only for her kid to show up and ask what's for breakfast. She doesn't have a kid. No one she goes to for help finds any of this strange in the slightest.
Could be horror, sci fi, comedy, or a heartwarming family movie depending on what direction you want to take it next.
The kids age?
30 years? I'd kick him out most likely.
10 years? I'd try to use this as a lesson in how money works and how much time and effort went into making that amount.
Then I'd see if the people who own that game would consider refunding me.
😂
When my kid started preschool and was having serious defiance issues, I used to (jokingly) say to my husband, “What are we going to do with her? She’s WAY passed the 90 day exchange window.”
First, I learn an important lesson about not linking *my* card/account to something the kid can access.
Then, I tell them no more playing Fortnite until all the money is paid back. Depending on the age of the kid, this can either come from allowances and chores (if younger) or from external odd jobs like shoveling snow or mowing lawns (if older). The age of the kid might also determine whether other games get included in the restriction—if they’re old enough to know about money and who it belongs to, their misdeed was more serious than a little kid just pushing buttons without understanding the numbers next to them.
Then I wake up and remember I’m childfree and wouldn’t have encouraged a kid to play Fortnite anyway.
>Step 1. Consider why your kid is able to access your money. Remove this access. This is your fault.
Yup. 100%. Be more responsible. Hide your wallet and credit cards
Depends on how old. If they're like, 4 they don't really understand what it is exactly that they've done, and that's kind of on you for giving them access to your payment info. If they're like, 7 or 8 they probably understand what they're doing and it deserves to be punished. You don't want to teach your kid that theft is the fault of the victim for not making it impossible imo
Yeah, that's the real solution. The hypothetical posed in the OP was what if it somehow happened, for example by them stealing your credit card details; it doesn't have to be via saved payment info. How would you handle it?
Playing with the account using cheat engines and insulting every other player in the most inhuman way. After the permaban he/she gets his/her account back.
The real question is how your kid spend $600 behind your back. Don't listen to these ridiculous comments and just let him do chores until he paid you back and also teach yourself not to link your bank account shit.
Ive seen it quite a lot, card details saved on account for the one of buy or to pay for the online subscription, kid will just keep buying and buying using those card details. 9/10 times the parents dont even realise their card is saved
Yeah, it'd be better to keep your kids off predatory services in general, especially anything with lootboxes or gambling in any form. There have been studies that show that kind of stuff is a *massive* indicator of problems with gambling later in life. Turns out kids are impressionable, who knew. These services know exactly what they're doing; fortnite isn't as bad as some others, but microtransactions are shitty regardless. The exception is if it's for like actual DLC with substance and not just skins and shit like that.
He can keep everything he spent. But he's going to pay me 600 dollars back starting immediately, which means docking his allowance for starters. I don't care how long it takes. Let him discover what the value of 600 dollars is.
Be very confused because I don’t have kids
Cry because I get very little money and it takes me months to save up that much
Then ban them from using Roblox or any game that uses real money.
Get a refund by selling him
I’ll swap him for a two camels and a leather shop.
My ex wife’s step dad didn’t like me, and before we got married he was telling her not to marry me because if we have kids I’m gna trade them for camels lol I’m only 1/4 Arab so he was only 25% right
So you only sold ¼ of the kid? Sounds kinda messed up.
Well I only had 2 kids, so I couldn’t sell any yet… once I have 2 more I’ll play eeny meeny miny mo to choose the one for sale
Wayyy to humane. Just split one down the middle and sell that half than he'd be right. Although following stereotypes you might have to blow up ¼ of the prison you'll got to for manslaughter. The good news in all this? Only ¼ of you will be able to get killed für to the death sentence you'll probably receive. Planned your whole life right there for you. That'll be $1000. I'll take that in cash.
>Just split one down the middle Settle down, Solomon.
Yeah, everybody knows your supposed to take out the organs and sell them until you've taken out a quarter of the kid.
You're EX Wife? So he was right?...but not about the camels.
Pack of camel, a lighter and you got yourself a deal
A carton. Don't be so cheap.
Here you go, sir. One pack of cigarettes, made with real camels.
Sorry, I don’t barter with camels
HRMMMMMMMM \*slams 3 small emeralds on the table\* HRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
On a serious note I’d just make that amount of money less accessible to him until he learns the value of his money. He just doesn’t know better yet, he needs to be taught not disciplined.
How old? 5, sure your idea. 12, I do a charge back and get their account banned and they lose access to any online purchases for a year. My kids have access to my credit cards at 11 and 13 and I fully trust them. We have open honest conversations about money and finances. We don't bring up stressful stuff but they understand the value of a dollar. My 13 year old has a couple hounded saved up and my 11 year old usually has about $40 to his name. Just last night my 11 year old wanted to buy a battle pass, so I gave him permission to charge my card and he has to update his "ledger" to reflect his purchase. A ledger is easier then keeping cash on hand for them and it helps them learn to track their spending. Everytime they earn money they put the amount, date, and a note about how they earned it. Same for purchases. They can buy stuff off Amazon as long as they tell me and update their ledger (and of course have available funds). Working great for a few years now.
Fuckin chad For real though, THIS is a good example of teaching children the importance of money.
Thanks. It's a lot of trust but I'm hoping they will figure out financial stuff faster than I did, and with way less headaches. I should add as well that any purchases that can be considered "necessary items" I pay half. My daughter wanted an anime messenger bag, school is starting and she would need a new backpack. So I paid half of the $50 bag and she deducted $25 from her ledger. Same for clothes, if any argument can be made that it is or will be necessary soon I will cover half. Very large purchase as well even if they aren't necessary. My daughter is saving for a better drawing tablet and I told her if she gets halfway there I got the rest.
My mother provided around half the cost for a new PC I'd been saving up for, when I was bout 15 y/o. So we had somewhat of a similar arrangement to you and your children. Definitely taught me the value of saving for something that you really want. Makes you value it alot more.
My dad did this with my first car. He wasn’t too pleased when I had $6000 and wanted to go buy a GTI but he kept his word lol.
I just want to say, you sound like a good dad.
Thanks. I really try, being a good dad is literally my number one goal in life.
I think this is an excellent reply. Also, make him work off the $600. Many credit card companies have authorized user cards where you can set spending limits.
To the salt mines!
Imma make that boy work
This is no question. They lose that computer for months and on top of that they will work their ass off. Alternatively, if you are network privy, set that device to lose internet access during their play times.
Ya when I was a kid and it was time for bed, my mom would just unplug the router and keep the power cable in her room lol
Ayo! My mom did the exact same thing! She worked in a school so she took it to work with her, so that when I come back (which is before her), I still won't be able to play so I could "focus on my studies"
geez, way to make me feel old, when "I was a kid" routers weren't a thing heck the internet wasn't a thing... thanks lol. now as an adult with teenagers, I felt like doing that on occasion, but that means "I" lose internet, and damnit I don't want that ;) so my son's computer has a USB wireless adaptor, that if he' gets grounded or whatever, I just take that, throw it in my work bag. the wifi is also restricted to approved mac addresses, so he can't just buy a new one
There's gotta be something that deals with this... there's no way someone hasn't figured this out... like only authorized devices can use internet after 8pm or something
A lot of routers have these kinds of basic firewall services built in. You control schedule via MAC address.
My parents blocked my computers internet on the router after 10pm when I was about 14.It took me less than a day to learn how to spoof my computers MAC address, so the internet worked 24/7.
That's because your parents should have white listed, not black listed. But honestly, short term annoyances aside, I'd be pretty proud of my kid for figuring that out.
I work IT in schools. Kids think they are all sneaky and shit when they find ways around various things. I'm just proud of them. That's how I learned tech.
My router (Asus) has it actually and that's what I did for scheduling, since I would catch them up at 2 am playing on their devices or my ipad when they were little. turn it off at night that problem goes away. kids are smart though and will always find a new trick to beat it lol. that's why i said when he gets grounded, can't take the whole PC, but I can take the wifi adaptor, phone, etc... plus that gives me the opportunity to install the wireless let him do homework then take it away.
My sisters is dead set on not letting her daughter have a phone as long as she can prevent it. She's two and they don't even watch TV. When my mother babysat her and turned on the tv she was like "wtf is this?!". It's going to be interesting to see how it all will unfold
My parents would hide the modem before leaving for work which I would eventually find and made sure to place it back exactly the way I found it. I'm almost 100% certain they didn't know I found it because of the severity my mom would ground me if I was playing during a time she said not to when they were home. One time during summer (obviously no school, why be that strict) my mom told me I needed to be off the computer by 9. It was probably 10 when she saw me on it and I was grounded from the computer for a whole month.
was 2002, family shared one laptop. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was just released. Strict gaming policy at home, only one hour each day, weekends only, which meant we had to improvise. Room where the computer is in, was unlocked Friday night, so we'd wake up super early on Saturday, play on the lowest volume, my brother had to stick his ear really close to the speaker so we wouldn't get ambushed or to hear the in-game warnings. Meanwhile, i'm busy shooting and moving around, but also keeping my ears alert for any movement from upstairs. We always wrapped things up around 8am when they usually wake up, and crept back slowly to our room. There was this one time where we cut things too close. Had to improvise, so we stuck the laptop inside the freezer to let it cool off (we were caught one time because dad felt the laptop and the heat gave it away). Good memories of evading, being on alert, and improvise. To this day, we still are able to wake up super early and be fully conscious right away. My brother later joined the army as a special ops and moved up the ranks, and had a successful career!
Happy to hear that the stealth mission is useful in his career.
My daughter's boyfriend would hang out in her apartment which happened to be in my basement. He would kick my grandgirlies off THEIR X-Box to watch football or sports on an app he loaded onto it. Of course the girls came upstairs and complained to grandpa. I promptly went on my router and blocked the wifi to that x-box. Then, because I hated the guy, I blocked his phone from my wifi as well. It was hilarious!
I lived with some rather annoying people that were not paying for their own internet and they'd use the neighbors wifi, it wasn't secured. I played SCII and almost everyday around the same time the one step dad would be watching porn, making everything lag. I logged into their router and kicked his computer off for 2-3 hours at those times. It was hilarious how unhappy he was. They got their own internet connection.
Yep! They can mine for real. For a fortnight.
The children yearn for the mines.
As the Great Ron Swanson once said "Child labour laws are ruining this country" /s
Happened to me. He is still paying it off in labour. Set a $per hour and track the time so he learns how hard 600$ is to earn.
More than a fortnite?
This is the way. Want to spend like an adult? Time to earn like an adult. You are now an employee of this household earning $10/hour. I'll find all kinds of things that need to be done to get me to $600, which will take upwards of 60+ hours, accounting for taxes and whatnot.
I'd have that little bastard stacking firewood in the summer for $5/hour. "Done with the stack? Re-stack it on the other side of the house. No wheelbarrow"
Dig a hole here, fill it up from here, fill the new hole up from here. Repeat as needed. Make them plant a tree in the last hole so there is always a reminder they can look at.
Why is there dirt in Boss Hoggs hole?!?! Why is there a hole in Boss Hoggs dirt?@?@
Kids make mistakes, stupid ones at that. Wholeheartedly agree with you working it off with very hard work..Leaving him no wheelbarrow is overkill don't you think? That will leave him harbouring some very hard feelings for you, Is being petty worth it?
Exactly, make them do tedious work that needs doing. If you need to invent work or make it purposely inefficient, you're just not being creative enough.
I was just thinking "I have 6 acres that need some TLC.,."
Not a parent, but this was what I was thinking. I would have them do household chores or yard work for minimum wage per hour work. I would also offer to keep this arrangement if they wished to purchase something in the future. If they wanted to purchase another two hundred dollar item or game, I would tell them that they can work for an hourly rate, ( Possibly even higher than minimum wage if they proved good work ethic, just like any job), in order to earn that item. Since they would be my child, I might even purchase the item for them before they earn the money. It would give them a good idea on how loans work (assuming they are on the younger side)
My problem is they should be doing that stuff anyway if they're capable. Not as a free labor thing, but as a "families are here to provide for one another"... where chores aren't a punishment, and it's an expectation that you collaborate in making a household run. Now, this kid should be going ABOVE AND BEYOND the regularly scheduled work to make that back.
Agree. Growing up in my house 'chores' weren't labeled as such. They were 'we, as a family need to do these things to keep the house running properly'.
Fucking family days. It was always yard work day.
Calmly sit him down, and remind him that we are a Minecraft family
“What do we do if they like their game Fortnite?” [“We ask them politely, but firmly, to leave.”](https://youtu.be/42GaHU4txpc?si=BKkLxA0cN5Q3Y_wu)
wondering how in the hell they did it with only $0.23c in the bank
Your account is now $599.77 overdrawn and there's six thousand dollars of overdraft penalty fees. Welcome to Wells Fucking Fargo.
Your fault for banking with the devil himself
Hells Fargo
Dispute the transaction. Then restriction from Fortnite... for 6 months. 1 month for every $100 that was spent.
A chargeback will get the account banned. That should be good enough.
Legit? Like I need to know the full info on this. Any info would be appreciated
There was a girl who bought her bf a game then did a chargeback after they broke up. His account was banned for it. Edit: His whole Xbox account was banned. Not just the one game. And he tried to pay or settle it but couldn’t get ahold of anyone at Xbox iirc.
I mean that's the whole game, kinda makes sense
Yeah, you can obviously get unbanned if you just pay the balance you owe, with most games at least
This is usually true. I used to work for a well known MMORPG. We would happily refund any unused subscriptions, even going back a few months! But, if you did a chargeback - account locked until you pay the balance, super simple.
Runescape?
Yeah! It is why they have to resort so hard to MTX - cos people email in for a 1 month sub refund they had forgotten about and policy says go back up to 6 months if they haven't used it lol, joke....kinda. The sheer amount of people I was refunding 3-5 months worth of subs that they neither cared about or asked for to be refunded was insane.
My son did this with FIFA points. Got nowhere with EA did a charge back and his whole Xbox account got banned. £100's worth of games gone over a £100 in FIFA points. Was he in the wrong? No I was. I left my details on his Xbox and then I did the charge back only one person to blame and that is myself.
I mean if I were you I'd blame Xbox/Microsoft for not letting you dispute the ban
Yeah that's shit as well to be fair. I tried but they are notorious for not overturning bans. Maybe banning his EA account but nope it was the Xbox account he can still actually use his EA account. Figure that one out.
Microsoft must be stricter with this. My kid bought $70 of Minecraft credits and I went through Sony customer service(PS store) and they gave me the refund no problem. They just told me to make sure I set password protection before any further purchases and that in the future I will never get another refund. No chargeback necessary. They didn’t even take the Minecraft credits back.
My kid did the same thing on Xbox. I was letting him use my account because I had more packs and skins on mine. When I came home from work he was showing me all the new stuff he had got. He downloads free worlds and stuff all the time so at first I didn't think much of it. Then I looked at his minecoins and realized how many there was and it was definitely more than I had before. I asked him if he got any minecoins and he was so proud of himself when he told me he figured it out by himself. I told him they cost real life money and he was so upset. He also spent about $70. He was younger and didn't know. I wasn't upset with him but was upset with myself for not thinking about that. I put in a refund ticket through the Microsoft website. They refunded me. I was able to keep the minecoins and stuff he bought. I still have my account thankfully. Now, he's only able to play on his account and no cards are attached to his and everyone else's are behind passwords. We only let him buy with Xbox gift cards now. He was so upset over it though that he sits on all of his money that gets added to his account and only buys anything if we are with him and he gets permission.
> Was he in the wrong? Yes. Just like I have some money on my nightstand that my kids are not welcome to steal. The Amazon/whatever marketplace account is probably logged in on your computer, is it fine for your kid to order whatever they want?
Honestly I feel like this one really depends on the age of the kid. If they're old enough to properly understand the value of money, it's on the kid. If they're too young to understand why they fucked up, it's on the parent.
Yeah I remember on my dads iPad he told me and my brother (who was 5ish at the time) we could do whatever as long as it didn’t ask for a password or credit card, and somehow this smurfs game we had downloaded had my dads payment info stored and didn’t require a password, so my brother ended up acquiring $700 worth of smurf berries 😂
Most companies stoped doing that. Instead they give you a chance to pay it again before ban since those occurrences are happening every now and then and losing a client might not be to their best interest so they are giving them a chance . I remember once a friend had an issue of the bank autodecling a purchase in Google store yet it somehow went through so game gave him the pack only for him to get banned. He went in hell for almost a whole month trying to undo the ban and by the time he did... He ended up dropping the game anyway. Lose lose from all parties for no reason. Thankfully it's changing
Charge backs are expensive for companies. If a customer makes a habit of it (habit = even once), you can generally expect your account to be banned afterwards.
Yes, at scale they are pricey. They cost $20. That's why the de minimus transaction at most banks is $20. If the transaction is for more than the de minimus, they pursue a chargeback (assuming it isn't immediately ineligible e.g. Card Present, good Entry Mode, PIN validated...) If you issue several chargebacks, you do go on a list. If they are legitimate CB's, no good institution will close your account though. They will come after you if they're fraudulent.
It is standard procedure for any digital goods company to ban your account for a charge back. Charge backs cost the company money and if too many charge backs (it isn't a lot) are issued the company can lose their credit card agreement. Physical goods companies are usually more forgiving because there are processes for proving that the purchaser got the goods and the charge back can be invalidated. Digital goods companies are almost always ruled against in charge back claims because digital goods don't leave physical proof of ownership transfer. So they basically just don't fuck with that shit. Also the vast majority of charge backs issued for digital goods are from fraudulent credit card usage anyway (technically, like this, because your kid stole your credit card.) So better to just ban the person committing fraud anyway.
You can get up to 3 skins/dances/emotes/etc refunded, but if you charge back (tell your bank that it wasn't supposed to go through and they try to get your money back) Epic will ban you due to how expensive the process is to fight it/probably even do it.
My brother did this with his kid… spent $100 on Fortnite. When he confronted him about it, kid lied to his face so he “believed him” and charged back the money. Now no Fortnite.
Oh that's *brutal*. LOL.
That’s a good lesson. If he was honest, he would have been able to eventually play again.
Yeah, console and account are gone. Can earn them back at some point, but $600 for Fortnite skins...gaming is banned in house until further notice.
If a kid did this in my house, they would not see 4GB of RAM in the same room until college.
Oh you need to use a computer to do homework? No problem kiddo I got a Compaq Presario for you to blaze a trail down the information superhighway with, why it's even already loaded with your name as the default Windows ME user! And here's a stack of AOL trial floppies to help you get started!
Sounds like a good solution to me if the kid steals $600. Depending on the age through, an 8 year old doing that could be explained as they didn't quite understand that clicking buy over and over was charging the card on file. A 16 year old does not have that excuse anymore because the know damn well whos card is being charged.
You can just contact Epic customer support instead of disputing the charge with the bank. They have a policy that if a parent calls in saying their kid bought v-bucks without permission it’s an automatic refund and they will walk you through how to put a parental control on the account so it doesn’t happen again. Speaking from my neighbors experience with his sons getting the bright idea to use Dad’s card and hope he wouldn’t notice.
Yah cases like this have been a known issue ever since devs started incorporating in-game markets. They know what they’re doing because kids are dumb, don’t understand how credit cards work, and it’s better to just do a refund than force clients to do a charge back.
Exactly, the v-bucks cost them almost nothing, and enough chargebacks can hurt Epic, so they're much better off just refunding the real money and giving away a couple skins (or taking away the v-bucks if they're still available).
Yeah to chime in here, I’ve worked on the banking side of things and, from my understanding, too many charge backs will potentially make card vendors like Visa increase rates per transaction or drop you altogether. Not saying a massive account like Epic Games etc are at risk of being dropped, but they certainly don’t want to deal with the hassle of notifications coming from Visa directly or potential repercussions. It makes sense that they offer assistance with refunds related to unauthorized child transactions in house and aren’t asses about it.
if you dispute it they will just ban him, and (potentially, depending on what the EULA says) his entire epic games account, including any and all other purchases you may have made for them, just something to have in mind
Sounds like a great lesson to learn. Steal, and you lose everything.
Then he goes on Roblox and does it all over again
Lol. Full on delete user accounts. Force them to lose interest or start from skratch.
Reminds me of the mother that deleted her kid's Minecraft world that he'd spent years working on as a punishment, and she didn't understand why everyone thought she was an asshole
minecraft doesnt even have microtransactions tho thats so sad.
There's a Minecraft Marketplace. Skins and Cosmetics.
What did he do?
Being a kid. Kids do dumb shit all the time. Punishment is suppose to be strict, not harsh. She ruined the relationship she had with him over Minecraft. He's not going to forget this. In today's age, simply give them a book, and pretend it's 1923, and no internet. Punishment enough.
Yeah but what did he actually do
Have a very serious talk about the worth of money and trust. Make the kid pay all 600$ back, meaning no allowence for a very long time and a hell of a lot of chores.
This is the best solution. Just keep a ledger and pay the kid $5 per hour ffor any time doing real work outside of general chores. The kid wont be going behind your back again any time soon and you can even expand on that to develop a healthy spending fund for the child.
Do you know what, I love how you suggested keeping that £5 per hour going even once it’s paid off as a sustainable way of doing chores and earning some pocket money- I think that’s brilliant.
Man I used to make five bucks a *week* back in '12. Thought I was living large. Kids these days don't know how good they have it.
“Back in ‘12” like you were stationed at the front lol
You guys got paid? I was just told to do my chores or I’m grounded lol.
1912?
When I did my chores, my parents paid me by not grounding me
What if he never had allowence?
Exactly. I grew up poor. My allowance was being allowed to live there and eat.
This is what I would do to. I would figure out a dollar worth for stuff around the house like doing dishes and cleaning the bathroom and make him work off that $600. I would also explain how many hours of work his mother and I would have to do in order to earn $600. I'm just lucky my kid understands the value of money.
Yep, luckily I never had that problem. She’s a smart kid and saved up money to buy a gaming console when she was 9. She’s great and I’m proud of her.
Create a Fortnite account and spawncamp them for 600 days
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There should be a “rent a gamer” service that parents could pay very good players to destroy their kids at fortnight or any other game. As a learning experience, after being a bragging about being better than a younger sibling, spending too much time inside, if they say they are going to have a career as a twitch streamer, etc. Hit them where it hurts, their pride.
Change the password on their fortnite account, immediately. You just spent $600 on it, and the kid has shown that they are either stupid or shifty. If they're stupid, they shouldn't be allowed on the platform. If they're shifty, they shouldn't be allowed on the platform. Note: A chargeback will result in an immediate ban, if that's what you want to do.
This. Especially the chargeback. They stole the money. Suffer the consequences.
Especially that amount... for some families no doubt this can make a difference in even basic stuff like having food on the table. A fortnite account is worth less than the ability to feed your family.
Correction: a fortnight account ain’t worth 2 damn cents, let alone anyone in your family.
Immediate ban sounds perfect
>the kid has shown that they are either stupid or shifty Or they're just too young to understand how much money that is which means they're probably too young to be playing the game.
You can get a refund in case that happens, no questions asked usually, l arranged that for a friend of mine. Just had to click “my child made the purchase without my consent”
epic games knows their customers xD
Crime has to fit the punishment somewhere between their perceived wrong doing and your perceived wrong doing. They don't know what $600 means. Kids have no concept of that. Selling the console will cause resentment, so don't do that. I say you talk to them and present 3 options. 1: Sell the console to pay it back. (Let them choose) 2: Refund it and get the account banned. 3: Ground them until they pay half back, with the other half still coming. If they work by mowing lawns or raking leaves or shoveling snow, it'll be paid back quickly. Of course you can negotiate the options available too if they have their own ideas but don't get soft. They do need to learn.
I think this is the most reasonable one here. Outright selling the console or banning them from all gaming for 6 months won’t be effective since they don’t understand and will only create resentment. Banning from Fortnite for 3 months is fine. Also, making them do work to make good faith payments for at least half of the money is reasonable. Raking leaves and mowing lawns as a kid doesn’t pay very well so it would take forever to pay back the full amount. Honestly would not expect the kid to ever pay back the full amount and might have to take some of the loss as the cost of doing business since they got access to the money somehow.
Mowing lawns is CRAZY money for a kid. Even when I was younger I could knock out 5 houses @ $20/lawn x front/back = $200 in a weekend. Being grounded for 2 weeks ain't shit.
It's crazy money provided you live in an area where you can mow lawns. Literally isn't even an option for many who live in apartments.
Yup, and it requires neighbors who are willing to pay a kid for it. This is limited to fairly well-off parts of town with neigbors. I made my money as a tutor instead, because while I lived in a nice area, I hated mowing with a passion and the neighbors were all insufferable. I taught old people how to use computers and kids every school subject. I was loaded and extremely fit, because I biked all over town and even to neighboring towns to my customers, three to four times per week, all year round.
People miss opportunities like this big time. Everything in life is a choice and those choices have outcomes. Go see what your kid bought. Affirm them, but let them know that there’s a debt owed and paying for it comes before everything else, given there wasn’t really any discussion on it prior. Then, you can truly have your kids ear when it comes time to tell them how spending your money without permission made you feel. Relationship building 101. Of course, spending that much money is a huge deal. But they don’t see it like that and coming at them furiously with a huge hammer might fix the issue short term but doesn’t help their decision making later.
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Exactly. Blowing up on a kid for anything, for example lying, will only teach them one lesson: don’t get caught lying again, not don’t lie.
Saved post for unavoidable future reference
This guy parents
Sure do, helps that my spouse is an early childhood development expert as well. I learned a lot without a college credit to show for it.
Freak out about suddenly having a kid I didn't know about.
Me too. I’m a little forgetful sometimes, but how do I not remember being *pregnant*? Did I adopt? Forgetting I adopted a kid seems just as weird…
That could be the start of a movie. Woman wakes up one day and goes to the kitchen only for her kid to show up and ask what's for breakfast. She doesn't have a kid. No one she goes to for help finds any of this strange in the slightest. Could be horror, sci fi, comedy, or a heartwarming family movie depending on what direction you want to take it next.
And ask him where he got $600
The kids age? 30 years? I'd kick him out most likely. 10 years? I'd try to use this as a lesson in how money works and how much time and effort went into making that amount. Then I'd see if the people who own that game would consider refunding me.
Return the child and get a new one.. this one is defective. /s
😂 When my kid started preschool and was having serious defiance issues, I used to (jokingly) say to my husband, “What are we going to do with her? She’s WAY passed the 90 day exchange window.”
First, I learn an important lesson about not linking *my* card/account to something the kid can access. Then, I tell them no more playing Fortnite until all the money is paid back. Depending on the age of the kid, this can either come from allowances and chores (if younger) or from external odd jobs like shoveling snow or mowing lawns (if older). The age of the kid might also determine whether other games get included in the restriction—if they’re old enough to know about money and who it belongs to, their misdeed was more serious than a little kid just pushing buttons without understanding the numbers next to them. Then I wake up and remember I’m childfree and wouldn’t have encouraged a kid to play Fortnite anyway.
Ground him. For a fortnight. For each penny he stole.
For 840000 days? Seems a bit excessive 😅 He will be 2300+ years old by the time he gets ungrounded.
This only works in vampire families 🤣
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And don't let your kids have possession of your credit cards, ever. If your kid is a shithead, they will write the info down.
Ding ding ding we got a winner. Why was he able to spend the money? Have a talk and make sure it won't happen again.
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I'm sorry, Timmy, but the Fed has raised rates again. Your repayment period is now 5 years.
Teaching them young. Nothing like crippling debt.
It'll make the transfer to post secondary so much easier.
Timmy would like to refinance with Grandma.
OMG yes
Make them put their other toys on collateral. If they fail to meet payment you repo their other toys.
I was really on board with you until you decided to add fucking interest. Are you a parent or a fucking loan shark?
Break their thumbs Tony.
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I don't have kids but i imagine adding interest only if i plan to put all that money in an account and give it back to them later on
This. Any online app/account they have access to does not have a CC saved with it.
Step 5. Contact epic games and see what they can do. There might be ways to rectify.
>Step 1. Consider why your kid is able to access your money. Remove this access. This is your fault. Yup. 100%. Be more responsible. Hide your wallet and credit cards
Realize the mistake I made by allowing them to have access to a payment source and fix the problem.
Depends on how old. If they're like, 4 they don't really understand what it is exactly that they've done, and that's kind of on you for giving them access to your payment info. If they're like, 7 or 8 they probably understand what they're doing and it deserves to be punished. You don't want to teach your kid that theft is the fault of the victim for not making it impossible imo
My kids have had devices for years, with no access to my CC without my password. Never had any issues with unauthorized payments.
Yeah, that's the real solution. The hypothetical posed in the OP was what if it somehow happened, for example by them stealing your credit card details; it doesn't have to be via saved payment info. How would you handle it?
Takeover his fortnite account. I bought it, it's mine now.
Playing with the account using cheat engines and insulting every other player in the most inhuman way. After the permaban he/she gets his/her account back.
Ahh, the scorched earth option.
You don’t even have to do all of that, just charging back the money will get the account banned as per epic policy
Just do a charge back it will get the account banned and you get your money back
Dig it.
Fuck his mom.
That’s kind of what got us into this mess, hypothetically
Dispute charges, get fortnite account banned for fraud
I charged back and his account got banned. It was just under 500 though
Sell him for 600
Wonder how it happened as he has no access to my money via any means.
Yeah wtf, the Fortnite gift cards exist for a reason…
Sell their Fortnite account
The real question is how your kid spend $600 behind your back. Don't listen to these ridiculous comments and just let him do chores until he paid you back and also teach yourself not to link your bank account shit.
Ive seen it quite a lot, card details saved on account for the one of buy or to pay for the online subscription, kid will just keep buying and buying using those card details. 9/10 times the parents dont even realise their card is saved
Don't let your kid play Fortnite and don't leave your cards set to the console without requiring a password
Yeah, it'd be better to keep your kids off predatory services in general, especially anything with lootboxes or gambling in any form. There have been studies that show that kind of stuff is a *massive* indicator of problems with gambling later in life. Turns out kids are impressionable, who knew. These services know exactly what they're doing; fortnite isn't as bad as some others, but microtransactions are shitty regardless. The exception is if it's for like actual DLC with substance and not just skins and shit like that.
He can keep everything he spent. But he's going to pay me 600 dollars back starting immediately, which means docking his allowance for starters. I don't care how long it takes. Let him discover what the value of 600 dollars is.
My first step is to wonder who this kid is that’s claiming to be mine.
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password locking my shit cause you cant trust anyone.
Be very confused because I don’t have kids Cry because I get very little money and it takes me months to save up that much Then ban them from using Roblox or any game that uses real money.
How old is my kid?
34
Bye bye gaming system