Wednesday 15 February 2017

We learned a lesson the hard way.....

This isn't a dig at the Smiggle website. They have been nothing but helpful! This is a warning of what a 9 year old can do on a computer when they are unsupervised for such a short time....

Stu leaves himself logged into nearly everything on his computer....Ellie goes on it now and again and will usually go on the Cbeebies/CBBC website, she plays Minecraft and Roblox that's about it.....She will browse shopping sites but Stu rarely shops online so isn't logged in to those....He did leave himself logged into PayPal though....

Ellie visited the Smiggle website.....In case you didn't know Smiggle sells stationery aimed at kids....I saw her on it at the weekend and thought she was just browsing like she does with websites like Argos, Smyths and Toys R US....Making a list of things she wants like she usually does....

Yesterday I checked my fella's bank to see that a direct debit had came out and noticed another for £70.95 had came out too and was paid to Paypal. Stu was at work so I couldn't log into anything and see what it was for. I had to wait until he got in from work which caused me so much stress.....

He logged straight into PayPal and seen that a payment had gone to Smiggle for £155!! £85 off his PayPal balance and the rest out of his bank account.....

Excuse the black marks...I wanted to blank out personal details.

It turns out that Ellie my 9 year old had placed an order. She bought books, pencils, pens, rubbers, etc, etc.....She went on the website, filled her basket, made an account using a totally made up email address, clicked pay with Paypal and because Stu was automatically logged in the order went through....

Ellie doesn't know what email address she used. It wasn't hers so there was no way to log into the website to do anything.....We noticed on the PayPal receipt that the address is wrong but it is one of our neighbours. Stu had to knock on their door to say they will be getting a parcel for Ellie to their house....They were quite understanding. Phew! 

We got straight on the phone to Smiggle and spoke to a lovely lady who I think was trying not to laugh....We were not at that point of being able to laugh about it at the time....She gave us some great advice and said the order has been dispatched so they can't cancel it but as soon as the order arrives get in touch with them and we can return it for a refund....She was so helpful and understanding. Phew!

Luckily we will get our money back eventually....We have learned a lesson the hard way. 

Ellie knew exactly what she was doing. She knew if she bought something someone had to pay. She said she thought there was enough money in the bank....She knew it was wrong and is now serving a ban off the computer....She actually had the cheek to ask if we can keep everything....No, no, no! She is sorry but not sorry at the same time....

It seemed so easy for Ellie to go onto the site and spend over £150. It has given us quite a scare. It just goes to show even 5 minutes of being unsupervised on the computer can cause a whole heap of trouble and I feel so guilty for that....

At the same time it was a relief to see that Ellie had been shopping online....I had spent all afternoon worrying and stressing thinking Stu's PayPal had been hacked and they were working on taking the rest of the money out of the bank.

Our lesson has been learned.....Now we are making sure we log out of everything especially on the main computer and supervision will be stricter.

17 comments :

  1. Oh dear! I do worry about Olivia doing this too but touch wood she hasn't yet except for a £4 stress ball off amazon! I don't let her on my laptop now she has found use her own tablet. Glad you are able to get a refund though xx

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    1. It is very worrying...We were so lucky we managed to get it refunded.
      Thank you x

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  2. Oh my goodness!You don't think a 9 year old would have any idea how to do it do you?!Mind you my 7 year old surprises me sometimes with the things he knows so I'm definitely going to have to get into the habit of locking my computer when I'm not using it!

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    1. Ahh! Kids are so clever now a days but I didn't think she would have been able to manage it. She even managed to put a phone number and email address in. lol They were wrong and made up but she had them.

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  3. It's great that you've shared this as it may save someone from suffering the same misfortune. I'm glad to hear you got it sorted :)

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  4. Oh goodness what a nightmare I do worry about my kids doing this x

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  5. What a nightmare. I'm hoping this doesn't happen with my two, but their so gadget savvy that I'm sure it will at some point!!

    - Kate x
    A British Sparkle

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    1. It is such a worry especially when kids are so clever with gadgets. Eek x

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  6. Oh no! What a nightmare. So glad Smiggle were so helpful. A really important lesson for all parents. Thanks for sharing this!

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    1. Smiggle were absolutely amazing! It gave them such a giggle. We are the talk of the office. We rang on Monday to see when we would be refunded and someone we never spoke to knew of our dilemma. lol Oops

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  7. Hi Kim, not sure if my comment went through as our internet connection went just as I posted it... Mumble, mumble x

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    1. hehehe! Ugh! Nothing worse than the internet connection dropping x

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  8. What a nightmare! Its so great that Smiggle were so helpful though. It just goes to show how computer literate children are these days.

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    1. Smiggle were amazing! I couldn't have asked for more from them.
      It is scary how much kids know about computers.
      Thank you!

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  9. Oops. Never thought about how easy it could be for kids to do this. But brought back a memory from my own childhood. I "borrowed" my parents chequebook and wrote a cheque in pencil, signing it with my own name and posted it off to join a club. And of course the bank sent it back unpaid to my parents. Think it was for something like 50p, but I got into big trouble.

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