Roblox

ej2201

My friend’s 11 year old son who has special needs has spent over £3000 in Roblox. From the 4th to 10th April there were 167 transactions totalling over 2K. This has left her with nothing. The bank wont take any responsibility and i have submitted a form to Roblox asking for her money back. Very disappointed with Natwest bank. Considering my friend is registered blind the bank didnt contact her to inform her of the recent activity. I would have thought 167 transactions in such a short space of time would be considered as suspicious transactions. The card has been stopped but there pending transactions that the bank have said they cant stop. We think the card details were stored in her google account from along time ago and the parental stuff is set up on the tablet.  The first she knew of this was when the card was declined so she called the bank. Being in isolation and having sight loss has made this situation hundred times worse and not sure where to start. My friend has done a complaint to Natwest but all of this takes times. Any suggestions on the best way to proceed. 

pinkshoes

NatWest tend to stop large unusual payments, not lots of small ones. 

My son plays Roblox. You have to purchase their credits which involves setting up a payment method. Each time you purchase, it makes it very clear that this is what you are doing. So 167 times he has been asked this and agreed to the payment.

This is not NatWest’s fault.

Clearly the 11 year old needs more supervision. He should have his own login on the computer so no payment methods are linked.

£5 a week pocket money and birthday and Christmas presents for the next 3 years should cover it!

Aylesbury_Duck

I think the first step to take is to have your friend allow you to operate as her advocate with Natwest.  That may need her to call to set it up.  Natwest ought to be able to deal with a customer with visual impairment but in all honesty this needs addressing quickly and if you're happy to be her advocate in the matter, that would probably speed things up when it comes to reading statements, emails, etc.

Once you've done that, you need an accurate, up-to-date statement of all the transactions.  There are people on here who can help (one regular poster has dealt with things like this before for a card company) so hopefully when you have some more detail, someone can help.

rach_k

I honestly don't think your friend being blind has anything to do with it as, presumably, she has adaptations to allow her to check her bank account.  What it really comes down to is parental supervision.  If she isn't able to monitor her son's usage of Roblox properly, he shouldn't be on there.  Honestly, there are FAR worse things that could happen to an unsupervised child on something like that than him spending all her money.  There are some really horrible people on there, so take it as a lesson.  

It's still worth waiting for a reply from Roblox - they have been fair when I've dealt with them but they haven't done anything wrong and neither has the bank, so she's hoping for a goodwill gesture.

ej2201

You clearly have some knowledge on these things. Can you advise me what adaptions Natwest have for visually impaired people? 

[Deleted User]

 My son has roblox but can't purchase anything without my fingerprint. Not her banks fault she didn't set up any of the provided security features. 

Nannytone

I am blind and bank with NatWest. I'm not aware of anything specific that NatWest itself does for their blind customers but all of my devices have speaking software and so I can keep a tight check on everything. As has been said already it is really silly to allow a child access to your bank account

ej2201

She doesn't have any of that. Unless u know what to ask for no one tells you. She only went blind a year ago. What software does that or what do you have? He doesn't have access to her account. We think the details were saved when she purchased something. 

Undervalued

ej2201 said:

She doesn't have any of that. Unless u know what to ask for no one tells you. She only went blind a year ago. What software does that or what do you have? He doesn't have access to her account. We think the details were saved when she purchased something. 

Well he clearly did! 

She may not have intended him to but, as you say, details were probably saved and that means anybody using her login on that computer (please don't say there was no login setup!!!) could have spent her money. 

Presumably these 167 payments (averaging a little under £20 each) must have been made over some weeks or months? Surely she must somehow keep track of her account? I appreciate being blind makes this vastly more difficult but if it is possible for her to use the computer and authorise payments when she wishes, I am at a loss to understand how so many transactions could be missed? If not the transactions the balance of the account must have been steadily dropping. Unless she is really quite well off this is a large amount that most people would notice.

What finally brought it to her attention?

DCFC79

ej2201 said:

She doesn't have any of that. Unless u know what to ask for no one tells you. She only went blind a year ago. What software does that or what do you have? He doesn't have access to her account. We think the details were saved when she purchased something. 

Does she have adequate measures in place eg password lock ?

If in place then the purchases wouldn't have happened.

Id tell her (or you do it if she allows it) to remove the card details asap.

ej2201

Undervalued said:

ej2201 said:

She doesn't have any of that. Unless u know what to ask for no one tells you. She only went blind a year ago. What software does that or what do you have? He doesn't have access to her account. We think the details were saved when she purchased something. 

Well he clearly did! 

She may not have intended him to but, as you say, details were probably saved and that means anybody using her login on that computer (please don't say there was no login setup!!!) could have spent her money. 

Presumably these 167 payments (averaging a little under £20 each) must have been made over some weeks or months? Surely she must somehow keep track of her account? I appreciate being blind makes this vastly more difficult but if it is possible for her to use the computer and authorise payments when she wishes, I am at a loss to understand how so many transactions could be missed? If not the transactions the balance of the account must have been steadily dropping. Unless she is really quite well off this is a large amount that most people would notice.

What finally brought it to her attention?

The post clearly states from 4th to the 10th! She went to use her card and it declined. At the end of the day all she is looking for is any advice to try and recover the money instead of judgemental comments.  I hope to god you never make a mistake and need someones help. Unfortunately Natwest gave her a large overdraft which is why all the transactions went through. Another long story!  She currently has no PA’s going in and hasnt been given any advice from the bank or any other organisation on how to check her own account so is reliant on home help. The transactions before last week were very small and clearly hadn't been flagged by the PA’s who she had been asking to check her statements for her. Unless you have any advice as to how she can keep track of her own finances or any way she can  recover any of the money id appreciate it if you all kept your judgemental comments to yourself. Shes made an innocent mistake which has now landed her in debt.