Irish take Christmas quite serious. They are a family oriented people already, who are furthermore quite religious. Combine that with cold temperatures, some good mashed potatoes, and some great Guinness, and you know you’ve got quite the family feast waiting. Not for one family in Cork though, as a 14-year-old boy was able to drain his mother’s bank account playing FIFA18.
The mother from Cork, who does not wish to be named, had bought PlayStation's FIFA 18 game for her 14-year-old using her debit card, which means it was automatically linked to the young boy’s purchasing 'points' while playing, and the setting was made in the store according to her, so there were no alerts that they would cost money.
When earlier this weekend she tried to withdraw some money to go for Christmas groceries, she found the message ‘insufficient funds’ and that her entire month's wages and worse still, a bonus, were gone.
<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z_7Gz_RFLnE" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The mother told an Irish radio station: “I get paid monthly so my pay cheque went in last Friday for four weeks’ wages and they took the whole month’s pay out of the card.”
“He just didn’t understand but every ten points was costing him more money. I think you need the points to move players but I am not aware of how it works.”
“When purchasing the game or playing it they don’t tell you that this has a cost element. He didn’t have to do anything or click anything to activate my card. He never knew that when he was clicking away the money was being taken out of my account.”
Sony, the company behind PlayStation, has been informed of the unfortunate situation, but so far has refused to return the money spent on the game.
“I contacted PlayStation and they told me that it was an adults' game. I explained he was 14 and he didn’t understand he was playing with money. He didn’t have to do anything or click anything to activate my card.
“I had to take my son out of school after speaking to the bank so that he could go home and take everything offline as money was still going out of my account.”
Source:
