I have no idea how the hell this is even possible but a 10-year-old kid in Nebraska is facing felony-with-an-F charges for using his grandmother’s credit card to spend $US800 on a video game online. Authorities and local media say the game is Minecraft. The hell?
If there is even $US800 worth of skin packs for Minecraft in the Xbox Live Marketplace, I am not aware of it, and I doubt you could rack up a bill that high in in-app purchases for the mobile edition of the game, either. But that is what cops in Lincoln, Neb. and media, including the Associated Press, are alleging.
The unnamed kid is said to have used his 74-year-old grandma’s credit card to rack up the purchases. She notified the bank after seeing suspicious activity, and the bank told her to file a police report, after which it would then cancel the charges. That landed her grandson in trouble with the law.
The case has been referred to prosecutors; the boy is under suspicion of felony theft.
Seriously $US800? There are a ton of scam games out there, but in even the most DLC-heavy mainstream titles I have no idea how you could come close to $US800 (excepting Ultimate Team modes in sports games) much less through something like Minecraft. Maybe he filled up an online wallet with $US800 and then spent a portion of it on the game?
Police: Boy spent $US800 in Minecraft online game using grandmother’s credit card [The Journal-Star, h/t bwanist.]
To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.
Comments
23 responses to “10-Year-Old Faces Felony After Cops Say He Spent $US800… On Minecraft?!”
Sure it was the kid… I bet it was the grandma building her minecraft empire….the kid is just a scapegoat 😛
Only reasons I’m ever going to have kids. 1. Let them take the blame for in game purchases. 2. Mow the lawns.
Most expensive. Lawnmower. Ever.
Maybe he got conned, maybe he gave her credit card number to some randoms on Minecraft in exchange for some mythical in game swag.
I want mythical in-game swag!
PM me your credit card info and I’ll sort you out
No problem, I can hook you up. Now I’ll just need your credit card details…
EDIT: @shadow beat me to it.
dont trust these people….send me your credit details and I will keep them nice and safe for you……
Ignore them, I’m the only licensed wallet inspector in these parts.
Oh no…..the wallet inspectors turned up…….you had best hand your credit card details to them.
What? You work in the game industry and you do not know of a game that charges the most for DLC?
Here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/
A total of $3103.59 USD for DLC only
Wow.
Yeah, that was the first thing that came to mind when I read that part too.
Not sure I’d call Train Simulator mainstream. Definitely the game that came to my mind though.
Rock Band is up there too…
Not to mention the fact that Kotaku US itself has reported several times on kids that rack up thousands of dollars in charges playing mobile games, or the semi-regular stories of Chinese people racking up large MMO debts and the fact they already reported on the Train Simulator DLC being over $2000 to fully buy.
Well, some of the bigger MC Servers have running costs, so they offer the chance for people to donate small amounts in exchange for perks and ranks. Keeps them running, and adds a little bit of personalization.
Though it looks like this kid went way overboard with the ego donations.
How is it a felony? $800 isn’t a huge amount in the scheme of (crimey) things.
Or was it because there was a CC used…
So you won’t mind if I nick $800 from your bank account? It isn’t a huge amount after all :p
In the US, “felony” is a pretty serious crime. To quote wikipedia-
“In the United States, where the felony/misdemeanor distinction is still widely applied, the federal government defines a felony as a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year. If punishable by exactly one year or less, it is classified as a misdemeanor.”
Though I’m guessing they probably wouldn’t execute a 10 year old. Unless he was using the money to pirate music, of course.
When talking about crime though, its not a huge amount. That’s down the low end of things. Same category as stealing an iPhone, they cost about that much. Sucks if it happens to you, but I still can’t see it as a felony.
Surprised nobody has looked at Star Citizen’s starter packs yet, surely they could be considered DLCs. One pack itself is $5k, granted you get the beefiest virtual item of all but still it’s $5k.
Was curious…google some other new stories involving kids and unbelievable police reactions…was not disappointed.
http://nypost.com/2013/01/30/cops-handcuff-and-interrogate-boy-7-for-hours-over-missing-5-family/