Accidental purchase of in-game diamonds by my middle child.

beadyallen

Hi,

I'm not sure this is the correct section to be posting in, but hopefully someone will be able to point me elsewhere if required.

In summary, I've found that over 3 days last week, my young son managed to purchase >£2000 of virtual diamonds within the game "Forge Of Empires" using my PayPal credentials :eek: . Usually we let him play with his older brother on a dedicated user account on my laptop - to stop exactly this sort of thing. In a rush though, he got logged in under my user account (laptop user, I don't play FOE) which meant the PayPal page would auto-populate the password.

I discovered the purchases on Friday day (he played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and immediately contacted my bank to cancel the payments. Luckily they hadn't gone out of my account yet (were due to be paid by DD today).

I've contacted PayPal and requested the payments be cancelled because they were unauthorised, but they've replied denying this request, claiming the payments were authorised. Which leaves me wondering what "unauthorised" would actually look like!

I've also contacted the games company support, and received a reply on Friday afternoon along the lines of "We'll probably refund you but please don't cancel any more payments because we get charged by paypal each time you do. We'll deal with things next week". This sounds suspect to me... and they haven't been in contact yet today - despite two emails from me.

As things stand, PayPal have re-requested the payments which are due tomorrow. I ~think~ I can cancel it again with the bank.

any advice about how to proceed will be very gratefully received.

Cheers

Ben

KatrinaWaves

Its not suspect. Paypal do charge for chargeback and it can jeopardise their business account.

How to proceed? Look after your internet security better. The only person who has done something wrong here is you, not paypal,and not the game company. Also teach your son the value of money...

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

beadyallen wrote: »

Hi,

I'm not sure this is the correct section to be posting in, but hopefully someone will be able to point me elsewhere if required.

In summary, I've found that over 3 days last week, my young son managed to purchase >£2000 of virtual diamonds within the game "Forge Of Empires" using my PayPal credentials :eek: . Usually we let him play with his older brother on a dedicated user account on my laptop - to stop exactly this sort of thing. In a rush though, he got logged in under my user account (laptop user, I don't play FOE) which meant the PayPal page would auto-populate the password.

I discovered the purchases on Friday day (he played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and immediately contacted my bank to cancel the payments. Luckily they hadn't gone out of my account yet (were due to be paid by DD today).

I've contacted PayPal and requested the payments be cancelled because they were unauthorised, but they've replied denying this request, claiming the payments were authorised. Which leaves me wondering what "unauthorised" would actually look like!

I've also contacted the games company support, and received a reply on Friday afternoon along the lines of "We'll probably refund you but please don't cancel any more payments because we get charged by paypal each time you do. We'll deal with things next week". This sounds suspect to me... and they haven't been in contact yet today - despite two emails from me.

As things stand, PayPal have re-requested the payments which are due tomorrow. I ~think~ I can cancel it again with the bank.

any advice about how to proceed will be very gratefully received.

Cheers

Ben

Don’t give out your password !

tehone

beadyallen wrote: »

Usually we let him play with his older brother on a dedicated user account on my laptop - to stop exactly this sort of thing. In a rush though, he got logged in under my user account (laptop user, I don't play FOE) which meant the PayPal page would auto-populate the password.

I discovered the purchases on Friday day (he played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and immediately contacted my bank to cancel the payments.

So if you logged him in by mistake on Tuesday, what's your excuse for Wednesday and Thursday. Why did the older brother not do anything? All sounds a bit fishy to me

The bottom line is you made a mistake, nobody else

baza52

you're son was happy to get the diamonds but i bet you're not feeling too grand about it

swingaloo

If your son is old enough to play the game and old enough to know how to make the purchases then surely he is old enough to know he is doing wrong.

DCFC79

beadyallen wrote: »

Hi,

I'm not sure this is the correct section to be posting in, but hopefully someone will be able to point me elsewhere if required.

In summary, I've found that over 3 days last week, my young son managed to purchase >£2000 of virtual diamonds within the game "Forge Of Empires" using my PayPal credentials :eek: . Usually we let him play with his older brother on a dedicated user account on my laptop - to stop exactly this sort of thing. In a rush though, he got logged in under my user account (laptop user, I don't play FOE) which meant the PayPal page would auto-populate the password.

I discovered the purchases on Friday day (he played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and immediately contacted my bank to cancel the payments. Luckily they hadn't gone out of my account yet (were due to be paid by DD today).

I've contacted PayPal and requested the payments be cancelled because they were unauthorised, but they've replied denying this request, claiming the payments were authorised. Which leaves me wondering what "unauthorised" would actually look like!

I've also contacted the games company support, and received a reply on Friday afternoon along the lines of "We'll probably refund you but please don't cancel any more payments because we get charged by paypal each time you do. We'll deal with things next week". This sounds suspect to me... and they haven't been in contact yet today - despite two emails from me.

As things stand, PayPal have re-requested the payments which are due tomorrow. I ~think~ I can cancel it again with the bank.

any advice about how to proceed will be very gratefully received.

Cheers

Ben

Have extra security precautions setup on your account.

I cant see a refund happening, as far as the card co/paypal are concerned it was you who bought the coins.

I bet your paypal password is auto filled yes, remove this option.

ndf9876

Was this via a browser or an Android \ Apple device?

EDIT - I re-read the post and you've said laptop, so that answers my question.

I'm afraid in that case my suggestion would be to rely on the goodwill of the company in question - expect your in-game account to be permanently banned though (if that matters here).

Ergates

beadyallen wrote: »

I've also contacted the games company support, and received a reply on Friday afternoon along the lines of "We'll probably refund you but please don't cancel any more payments because we get charged by paypal each time you do. We'll deal with things next week". This sounds suspect to me... and they haven't been in contact yet today - despite two emails from me.

Sounds reasonable to me. Most of the larger, more reputable gaming companies will refund purchases made by children on adults accounts - it's the type of thing that happens fairly frequently.

It will indeed cost them money when you cancel the payments - which is especially annoying for them given that this is *your mistake*.

Give them a chance to sort this out. Remember, again, this is *your* fault, not theirs. "Suspect" isn't really the appropriate word here, is it. You are, essentially, hoping they'll do you a favour for the sake of good will.