Reminds of a time at the ballpark when I was young. They built a "coaches office" thing and there was a phone in there. Coach's kids always hung out in there after all the other kids had gone home. They didn't block 900 #'s. We ran up what had to be thousands of dollars on WWF 900 calls before the phone was ripped out of the office.
Man that sucks but your kids got some balls. Flew a little too close to the sun. Got to teach him to quit while he's ahead.
Remind me to lock my phone and not share the passcode when my kids are old enough to pull shit off like that. That's one mistake you made - yeah, the kid shouldn't have snuck in and taken the phone, but he also shouldn't be able to get into it. As an outsider, it's quite hilarious. But yeah I'd be taking a bat to the Xbox (or, hiding it in my room to play after hours).
Oh there was more to the scam than just that. Sometimes he’d ask for my phone because he has one friend that had a PS4 so they couldn’t connect on the headsets while playing games and he’d use my cell speaker phone for that. I’m pretty sure that was partly what he used for cover too, though I know he legit was talking to his friend because I could hear them.
To be honest, it's not a college fund as much as it will be bail money. Might want to hang on to that.
holy balls. My kid wouldn’t have privileges to do....anything but work.....for a long time. My mom grounded me like this for 6 months when I got a D on my 9 weeks report card when I was 13. Straight A’s after that.
I think my biggest crime against my parents was my mom would give me $3-$5/day for lunch. I wouldn't starve myself but I would try to pocket $1-$2 a day that I kept in my bottom drawer. No idea what I was saving for but fast forward to my Mom finding like $100 in ones in my drawer. Unlike OP my Mom actually profited off my slyness/greed.
Move everything out of his room and take all of his belongings. Maybe put them in storage. Literally everything. Strip him to underwear and if he wants actual clothes, go steal them since he's a good thief
This is analogous to turning off an alarm system and burgling a house, not coding. This is criminal shit and not too clever. If my kid did something like this he'd be living in the stone age for a year. No screens at all.
What exactly do you get for a $100 loot box? and to buy over 20 of them?????? Explain this like i'm a suburban dad
Real convos w my teenage son: Me: "You're smart but your moral center seems to be 'fuck it, I will do what I can if I don't get caught.' That's how dickheads act. If you can just try and fly straight I will take care of you: side $ for dates, later curfew, minor rules exceptions. If you keep pressing the envelope, you kind of force me to turn this place into a siberian work camp. Then you're miserable and angry, and so am I. So how about you just get your shit together, eh?" Him: Stares blankly me: [rolls boulder up hill again]
Essentially you pay to get better guns faster. This little fuck is the annoying shit that somehow has every good fucking gun in the game vs me who just started and is talking all kinds of shit. I hope the rest of his adolescent life is miserable
Thankfully in COD gun balance is not that bad, anyone can get the meta pretty easily in some of the quicker game modes. But hopefully 9yo are not playing COD.
So basically you can just pay to start with the golden gun instead of having to fight up into the bathroom with the Klobb
Oh, he can't even start minecraft without me putting in a password each time. And my buying options on the console is definitely password'd.
My wife spent $10 on a yoga app (that she won’t use) yesterday I really needed this to make me feel better
Fortnite is more cosmetic stuff like skins to make the guns look cooler, different characters, dances and other shit. I haven’t played it in over a year so i could be wrong
How did it get up to 2K before you noticed it? Did he do all the damage in the same billing cycle since he was deleting the notifications?
Seems like your only real option is to report the "fraud" to your CC company and take the perma ban. It's really not that big of a deal because you can just make a new account. The new system comes out in a few months anyway so it's not like you need to play the previously bought games much longer. I guess you could call and see what customer support will do, but I doubt they will be very helpful. As for your son scamming you. Sorry, but this is as much on you as it is him. Having parental controls on purchases should be an absolute no brainer even if you have the most well behaved kid in the world. Shit, I've been at family get together's where one of the kids will grab the controller for his "turn", immediately go to the store and buy his favorite skin without asking anyone if it's ok. It really sucks that he racked up 2k+ in purchases, but again, it's on you as the parent to not leave that temptation out there.
Take his door off the hinges and everything else out of his room and leave him with only a mattress and a drawer with two changes of clothes in it
every time you go out to eat/get take out make your kid eat pb&j and deduct the price difference from the debt
You and your kid should become a chain gang because, by the sounds of it, you share some blame in all of this.