Online Gaming site have robbed 11 year old! Help!

[FionaMax]

Hi,

my 11 year old Grandson has managed to sign up to an online gaming site for over 18s and £30.00 has gone from his bank account.

He has a Visa Electron card with Halifax and, egged on by a 10 year old classmate, entered the details along with their previous address (they moved over 2 and a half years ago). This should have raised questions as the account was opened after they moved.

Halifax have refused to do anything and the gaming site, King.com, have blocked his parents messages and will not refund. The money does not appear to be in the gaming account and we can get no explanation as to where it went or what it was used for. The gaming site is based in Malta so we are not sure who to contact over this.

My Son (his Dad) is beside himself and cannot believe that it is so easy for a child to sign up for something like this with no security checks.

Surely it is illegal to sign up an 11 year old to an over 18s gaming site?

I should add that my Grandson has been properly punished for this.

[Conniff]

Have a look at the link and give them a ring, they might be able to help or throw some light on how you go about it.

 

Gambling Commission - Contact Us

[buzby]

Perhaps he's had a useful lesson? Halifax are correct - the responsibility lies with the cardholder, he legitimately made the purchase on an overseas website, so the Gambling Commission have no interest in non UK outfits - other than perhaps noting the issue for their annual report.

 

It was his money to spend (or waste) so egged-on or not, the purchase decision was his. Credit Cards are restricted to 18 and over for this very reason. As it is not illegal for anyone over 10 to have a card, the expectation is that their guardians will 'keep an eye', failing this, not permit them to use a debit card (perhaps opting for a pre-pay debit card instead).

[huggy41]

My Son (his Dad) is beside himself and cannot believe that it is so easy for a child to sign up for something like this with no security checks.

Surely it is illegal to sign up an 11 year old to an over 18s gaming site?

I should add that my Grandson has been properly punished for this.

 

What security checks could they have done ? they were under the inpression they were dealing with an honest trustworthy 18+ year old.

[Kraken1]

A minor can't enter into most types of contract, with some exceptions. I don't think that access to a website, designed for over 18s will be included in this.

 

On checking the site, it would appear to be a UK based company offering, essentially the chance to win cash for playing games? Is this true?

 

There might be some sort of age restricted sales violation stuff going, on. Might be an idea to speak with a tame Tradring standards chap (if you can find one) to see if this is a goer.

 

Are you sure that the £30 was not actually spent on trying these games and did just disappear? Me, I'd check the browser history to see how many pages were visited.

[DarkSea]

I looked at the site today (I have come across it before with some Adobe Flash development stuff) since I wasn't really aware there was any over-18 stuff to it.

 

It just seems to be the gold account thing that is 18+ only. In order to "upgrade" my account to it I had to check the "i am over 18" box, and also provide my date of birth on a page after it. Although this only seemed to cost a max of £20, the site adds another £10 bonus to that. I'm by no means an expert, but I always thought even 1 of those checks is legally enough?

[Mrs E Blackadder]

No-one is going to thank me for saying this, but this is what happens when children are left with a computer and no supervision. At 10, most children are quite capable of finding their way around the internet and will look at almost anything they shouldn't.

 

Hopefully the young man will have learned his lesson. The £30 has been gambled away by him, so maybe he now realises that a) gambling rarely pays, b) I have been punished by mum & dad, c) I'm £30 down and now I can't spend that money on something I really want.

 

I think that ultimately everyone you contact will say the same thing, which is that the responsibility lies with the child/parents and that you will have to put it down to experience.

[rebel11]

Hi fiona

 

What you could do is contact Consumer Direct, see if they can pass it onto Trading Standards.. Your could of course send them a SAR request, but that would cost £10.

Also you should be able to get a history on the account, there should be some facility to look at transactions.

[huggy41]

look at it this way the Company did not decieve your child.your child decieved the company if he had won and withdrew any money then he would of infact obtained money by deception which is a very serious criminal offence. much the same as the DCA'S do when going for debt's that are statute barred.

[huggy41]

look at it this way the Company did not decieve your child.your child decieved the company if he had won and withdrew any money then he would of infact obtained money by deception which is a very serious criminal offence. much the same as the DCA'S do when going for debt's that are statute barred.

[buzby]

And the fact the company is in Malta...? Trading Standards would be their usual helpful self here.

[huggys boss]

 

What you could do is contact Consumer Direct, see if they can pass it onto Trading Standards.. Your could of course send them a SAR request, but that would cost £10.

 

Why? At the end of the day, the young man in question knew what he was doing. He had to put in a date of birth to make himself at least 7 years older than he actually is, and he will have had to tick a box to state he was over 18.

 

As far as I can see, he was not ripped off or conned, and after looking at King.com, if he has paid £30 then he may have credited his account twice, because the only deposit links that I can find are for £10 and £20, I cannot find a £30.

 

It is a lesson learned. I wonder, if he had won more than £30, would he have withdrawn it back into his bank account and not told his parents at all?

[buzby]

In the good old days, you used to be asked if you were 'Over 21' (then later 'Over 18'), and was a tick box. I can remember routinely ticking these without a moments notice, so nothing has really changed. Luckily, I never saw the fun in gambling.

[rebel11]

Trading Standards do random checks on retailers to see if kids are sold alcohol underage don't they, so there is a general principle that they should invesigate for many reasons. Maybe this is a common problem for that site. Don't try and argue the unarguable, thats why were rip off Britain, we bury our heads in the sand and it encourages these companies to do as they like, Oh like the banks have done.

 

Why? At the end of the day, the young man in question knew what he was doing. He had to put in a date of birth to make himself at least 7 years older than he actually is, and he will have had to tick a box to state he was over 18.

 

As far as I can see, he was not ripped off or conned, and after looking at King.com, if he has paid £30 then he may have credited his account twice, because the only deposit links that I can find are for £10 and £20, I cannot find a £30.

 

It is a lesson learned. I wonder, if he had won more than £30, would he have withdrawn it back into his bank account and not told his parents at all?

[DarkSea]

The thing is a retailer has the person in question right in front of them, and can then request proof of age/id if they do not think the person looks more than old enough.

 

An online business has none of that, all they could do is ask if the person is over 18 and take the answer as the truth. What more would you have them do?

[Westmeand Fan]

with gambling websites they should do extra checks like other parts of the industry like bookmakers by getting id like passport, driving licence etc to confirm they are 18 or over.

 

The company is in the wrong for not doing enough checks to confirm that your son was old enough to gamble, take this further because if this had happened in other parts of the industry like bookmakers their would be serious consequences for them.

[buzby]

Unrealistic. Nice idea, but a barrier to commerce. What of Premium Rate phone numbers. Than they guarantee calls are being made with the bill payers permission, or that they are over 18? No of course not. Now this is a Maltese company, so not covered by UK rules.

[Guest wino]

I thought you had to be 16 to get a debit card?

[buzby]

It has been steadily reduced, I think it is 10 for Barclays. However none of this matters for the Pre-Pay debit cards, which often have no limits anyway (as there is no bank account involved).

[Kraken1]

looking at the ts and cs. it doesn't appear to be foreign:

 

Midasplayer.com Limited of 62 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LT, a company registered in England under registration number 4534247

[buzby]

OP stated it was a Maltese outfit. In much the same way Paypal is in London, but registered in Luxembourg, it falls under EU not UK law. On that basis, a Maltese presence is not controlled from the UK.

[griffzilla]

I have a king account.... you deposit money, and then you play games against other users, with the chance to win more than your initial stake.

 

I don't see how they could have stolen this £30.

 

Has your son played, and lost, £30 worth of games? This info is available through the site, on the "my account" then "account statement" links

[huggys boss]

with gambling websites they should do extra checks like other parts of the industry like bookmakers by getting id like passport, driving licence etc to confirm they are 18 or over.

 

 

 

We have an online account with Betfred and they did not ask us for any additional ID!

 

I have also played on many bingo sites and registered my debit card and again all they ask is that you check a box to confirm you are over 18.

[Kraken1]

OP stated it was a Maltese outfit. In much the same way paypal is in London, but registered in Luxembourg, it falls under EU not UK law. On that basis, a Maltese presence is not controlled from the UK.

 

Looks like the OP was wrong.

[Mrs E Blackadder]

I thought you had to be 16 to get a debit card?

 

 

Sadly not these days, Wino.

 

My son was sent one when he got to 13. They sent letters about it to him before hand, but frankly I was appalled that they considered it a good idea to send these cards out more or less whether you liked it or not. Their argument was that it teaches children responsibility with money from an early age, particularly if mum and dad keep an eye on them. Nothing like passing the buck!

 

Thankfully my son actually chose to hand the card to me as he was aware of the difficulties his father and I had encountered with debt and he didn't feel ready to be left with a card that meant he could go online and buy just about anything he fancied as long as there was money in his account. Some yougsters probably have emptied their accounts without the knowledge of their parents.