6 ms·

Teenager spends $20k of parents’ money on Twitch donations without them knowing

46 points by URfejk 6y ago

mvid 6y ago
The fact that it is twitch is really not important to the story, it’s basically a kid who robbed his parents
- uncoder0 6y ago
  Yeah the donations don't go through Amazon unless it was gifted subs, subscription or bits.
- raffraffraff 6y ago
  Yeah. I don't have kids so I have no idea how I'd actually react in that situation, but I'm pretty sure I'd sell all his stuff, change the locks, rent out his room and completely disown him.
  - scrollaway 6y ago
    Good thing you don't have kids then, because that sort of parenting would just guarantee to make things worse for you and the teenager. This is a parenting failure in the first place.
    - saurik 6y ago
      (I would read the comment you are responding to as sarcasm making the same point that this is a "parenting failure".)
      - birdyrooster 6y ago
        No, that is literally how many people think on the daily.
    - amoitnga 6y ago
      curious to know what is better solution of this problem?
- bsder 6y ago
  It's also a case of "never use a debit card". "debit cards" have far fewer protections and opportunities for chargebacks than credit cards in the US.
finaliteration 6y ago
My bank has a feature where I can get an email for every transaction at or over a certain amount. I set it to $0.01 awhile back so that I could see transactions come in without having to constantly log in to my account online. As a parent myself this story makes me really glad I did.
- mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
  I wonder if there are any banks / credit card companies that would allow you to auto-disable the card if daily/weekly spending exceeds a threshold of your choosing. Would be a nice feature allowing you to easily prevent high dollar fraud. Sort of a self-imposed, periodically resetting limit that you can manually override if needed.
  - finaliteration 6y ago
    My bank does allow setting a per transaction limit, but nothing on a daily or weekly basis from what I can see. I agree it would be a great feature for controlling spending, or for setting reasonable limits for kids and teens.
    - toomuchtodo 6y ago
      The canonical method for this is to setup a checking account for your child, provision a debit card for them, and transfer funds in as needed from your own accounts they have no access to (so the blast radius is limited to the amount you transfer into their account). This breaks down if your kid discovers your banking credentials (use 2FA!), transfers funds without your knowledge, and you refuse to press charges. You could also issue an authorized user American Express card to your child if they're old enough (13 is the minimum age), and enable spending limits (they are the only issuer I'm aware of that has this feature, Citi only supports it for their Costco card and the Barclays implementation is very limited). This only works if where your kid needs to spend accepts Amex of course, and will not protect you from "friendly fraud". Parenting is hard.
      - 6y ago
danielfoster 6y ago
I feel bad for the parent, who took responsibility and admitted fault. I don’t see why Twitch can’t undo the transactions, which were clearly fraudulent.
- Schiendelman 6y ago
  If not Twitch, the credit card issuer.
  - bsder 6y ago
    "Debit card" not "credit card". That's one of the problems. People think you get the same level of protection on a debit card that you do on a credit card, and that's simply not true. In the US, never use debit cards. Always use a credit card.
    - gumby 6y ago
      It’s difficult but possible to get your bank to issue you an ATM card that is not a debit card. The banks have an incentive to get you to use a debit card as it has none of the protections credit cards do.
- birdyrooster 6y ago
  Why would the streamers even want the proceeds from fraudulent transactions? It's dirty money no matter how you look at it.
- bzb3 6y ago
  He's probably loaded, which is why he can pay for this (instead of charging back) and why the teen didn't think this was such a big deal.
  - around_here 6y ago
    “Years of savings” being $20k and “loaded” are incompatible.
mrburton 6y ago
Lucky me, growing up my mom didn't make more than $8k a year - this would have been impossible for me to do lol. It was also impossible for me to eat properly and have new cloths... Did I say lucky me? :/
diebeforei485 6y ago
Twitch should refund them. This is ridiculous.
Seasonwreckage 6y ago
Back in the day, a better f*uck you was becoming straight-edge gothic punk.
boublepop 6y ago
Am I reading this wrong or is this just a case of a person stealing money/commuting fraud, and every institution involved being ready to act if charges are pushed, but a mother wanting to shield her son by not pushing charges for the crime he admittedly committed... but still wanting the institutions to act as though changes had been pushed? I get that she wants to protect her kid, but at this point she really has to sit down and make the decision and figure out if she wants the 20k and will press charges for what literally transpired. Or if she would prefer to protect her kid and pretend nothing happened. Wanting to go both ways and have the receivers of the funds individually reimbursed her just so she can pretend her son didn’t steel the funds out of her account by lifting her password just seems utterly absurd.
- mindslight 6y ago
  The problem with this binary thinking is that the justice system has become horribly draconian, so a parent would never willingly entangle their child into it unless all other options had failed. One shouldn't have to effectively disown their son just to have the system handle unauthorized transactions as unauthorized. Really the donations themselves should be easily refundable, especially as they were done with a reversible payment system.
  - dmix 6y ago
    > Really the donations themselves should be easily refundable So what does this have to do with the justice system exactly?
    - mindslight 6y ago
      The comment I responded to was making the point that Twitch was willing to refund if charges were pressed. The donations are the only non-reversible step here - if the money were still sitting in the son's account, the parents could easily transfer it back.
    - elliekelly 6y ago
      FTA: > “Unless I press charges against my son, they will not help as this is considered friendly fraud.” They being the bank. So unless Twitch/Amazon or the Streamers are willing to give her a refund she’s between a $20,000 rock and her son doing hard time.
koksik202 6y ago
Saving account with notice period, if you have life's savings put them separate so can't be accessed immediately. Unfortunately kids don't understand home economics and end up causing harm only to realize it was wrong when it is all too late
thinkski 6y ago
Electronic payment mechanisms reduce friction, making it easy to spend money you wouldn’t otherwise, and lack adequate protections against inadvertent spending. This is why many vendors are happy to eat the 3-5% credit cards and online payment systems take — they make more overall. Guess where that’s coming from. Easy to blame the parent. Could have give their child cash instead of a debit card. But that’s like the transportation industry building a highway with a massive hole in the middle of it and blaming drivers for driving into it.
2squirrels 6y ago
No protections in place and blindly trusted her kid. It is her responsibility to manage her passwords, not Amazon / twitch / whoever else. A shitty situation for sure but if she wants the $ press charges, if she doesn’t want to press charges then she must forego the 20k. Not as simple as that to her, but to everyone else it is.

46 points by URfejk 6y ago

mvid 6y ago

The fact that it is twitch is really not important to the story, it’s basically a kid who robbed his parents

uncoder0 6y ago
Yeah the donations don't go through Amazon unless it was gifted subs, subscription or bits.
raffraffraff 6y ago
Yeah. I don't have kids so I have no idea how I'd actually react in that situation, but I'm pretty sure I'd sell all his stuff, change the locks, rent out his room and completely disown him.
- scrollaway 6y ago
  Good thing you don't have kids then, because that sort of parenting would just guarantee to make things worse for you and the teenager. This is a parenting failure in the first place.
  - saurik 6y ago
    (I would read the comment you are responding to as sarcasm making the same point that this is a "parenting failure".)
    - birdyrooster 6y ago
      No, that is literally how many people think on the daily.
  - amoitnga 6y ago
    curious to know what is better solution of this problem?
bsder 6y ago
It's also a case of "never use a debit card". "debit cards" have far fewer protections and opportunities for chargebacks than credit cards in the US.

finaliteration 6y ago

My bank has a feature where I can get an email for every transaction at or over a certain amount. I set it to $0.01 awhile back so that I could see transactions come in without having to constantly log in to my account online. As a parent myself this story makes me really glad I did.

mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
I wonder if there are any banks / credit card companies that would allow you to auto-disable the card if daily/weekly spending exceeds a threshold of your choosing. Would be a nice feature allowing you to easily prevent high dollar fraud. Sort of a self-imposed, periodically resetting limit that you can manually override if needed.
- finaliteration 6y ago
  My bank does allow setting a per transaction limit, but nothing on a daily or weekly basis from what I can see. I agree it would be a great feature for controlling spending, or for setting reasonable limits for kids and teens.
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
    The canonical method for this is to setup a checking account for your child, provision a debit card for them, and transfer funds in as needed from your own accounts they have no access to (so the blast radius is limited to the amount you transfer into their account). This breaks down if your kid discovers your banking credentials (use 2FA!), transfers funds without your knowledge, and you refuse to press charges. You could also issue an authorized user American Express card to your child if they're old enough (13 is the minimum age), and enable spending limits (they are the only issuer I'm aware of that has this feature, Citi only supports it for their Costco card and the Barclays implementation is very limited). This only works if where your kid needs to spend accepts Amex of course, and will not protect you from "friendly fraud". Parenting is hard.
    - 6y ago

danielfoster 6y ago

I feel bad for the parent, who took responsibility and admitted fault. I don’t see why Twitch can’t undo the transactions, which were clearly fraudulent.

Schiendelman 6y ago
If not Twitch, the credit card issuer.
- bsder 6y ago
  "Debit card" not "credit card". That's one of the problems. People think you get the same level of protection on a debit card that you do on a credit card, and that's simply not true. In the US, never use debit cards. Always use a credit card.
  - gumby 6y ago
    It’s difficult but possible to get your bank to issue you an ATM card that is not a debit card. The banks have an incentive to get you to use a debit card as it has none of the protections credit cards do.
birdyrooster 6y ago
Why would the streamers even want the proceeds from fraudulent transactions? It's dirty money no matter how you look at it.
bzb3 6y ago
He's probably loaded, which is why he can pay for this (instead of charging back) and why the teen didn't think this was such a big deal.
- around_here 6y ago
  “Years of savings” being $20k and “loaded” are incompatible.

mrburton 6y ago

Lucky me, growing up my mom didn't make more than $8k a year - this would have been impossible for me to do lol. It was also impossible for me to eat properly and have new cloths... Did I say lucky me? :/

diebeforei485 6y ago

Twitch should refund them. This is ridiculous.

Seasonwreckage 6y ago

Back in the day, a better f*uck you was becoming straight-edge gothic punk.

boublepop 6y ago

Am I reading this wrong or is this just a case of a person stealing money/commuting fraud, and every institution involved being ready to act if charges are pushed, but a mother wanting to shield her son by not pushing charges for the crime he admittedly committed... but still wanting the institutions to act as though changes had been pushed? I get that she wants to protect her kid, but at this point she really has to sit down and make the decision and figure out if she wants the 20k and will press charges for what literally transpired. Or if she would prefer to protect her kid and pretend nothing happened. Wanting to go both ways and have the receivers of the funds individually reimbursed her just so she can pretend her son didn’t steel the funds out of her account by lifting her password just seems utterly absurd.

mindslight 6y ago
The problem with this binary thinking is that the justice system has become horribly draconian, so a parent would never willingly entangle their child into it unless all other options had failed. One shouldn't have to effectively disown their son just to have the system handle unauthorized transactions as unauthorized. Really the donations themselves should be easily refundable, especially as they were done with a reversible payment system.
- dmix 6y ago
  > Really the donations themselves should be easily refundable So what does this have to do with the justice system exactly?
  - mindslight 6y ago
    The comment I responded to was making the point that Twitch was willing to refund if charges were pressed. The donations are the only non-reversible step here - if the money were still sitting in the son's account, the parents could easily transfer it back.
  - elliekelly 6y ago
    FTA: > “Unless I press charges against my son, they will not help as this is considered friendly fraud.” They being the bank. So unless Twitch/Amazon or the Streamers are willing to give her a refund she’s between a $20,000 rock and her son doing hard time.

koksik202 6y ago

Saving account with notice period, if you have life's savings put them separate so can't be accessed immediately. Unfortunately kids don't understand home economics and end up causing harm only to realize it was wrong when it is all too late

thinkski 6y ago

Electronic payment mechanisms reduce friction, making it easy to spend money you wouldn’t otherwise, and lack adequate protections against inadvertent spending. This is why many vendors are happy to eat the 3-5% credit cards and online payment systems take — they make more overall. Guess where that’s coming from. Easy to blame the parent. Could have give their child cash instead of a debit card. But that’s like the transportation industry building a highway with a massive hole in the middle of it and blaming drivers for driving into it.

2squirrels 6y ago

No protections in place and blindly trusted her kid. It is her responsibility to manage her passwords, not Amazon / twitch / whoever else. A shitty situation for sure but if she wants the $ press charges, if she doesn’t want to press charges then she must forego the 20k. Not as simple as that to her, but to everyone else it is.