Identity Theft-by your 10 year old?
Kevin Tofel, at GigaOm has written a post about identity theft. After a good bit of hand-wringing, and probably 4 letter words- he found out the unexpected charges were by one of his children. Please check out the post for details.
It seems one of his kids was ordering goldfish food for a free Goldfish app/game for their iPod. The child didn’t know there was a charge for all that fish food/bowl cleaner, etc.
Of course good ol Dad, in the face of all the hoopla about hacking at the iTunes store, assumed he’d been hacked-and had the charges reversed, password changed, and all those things you do when you think someone has scammed your account.
I think the money/ID theft lessons he and his kid learned are worth repeating here:
- Don’t leave an open credit card on your accounts. Most of us are guilty of this, with the excuse it saves time. But how much time will you spend trying to get your money back when someone does hack into your account.
- Make sure you teach your children that even “free” online games, can have hidden in-app charges. (nothin in life is free!)
- Check out the safety options available at the iTunes store, to keep minors from making un-authorized charges.
Reader Questions:
Do you allow your children access to your iTunes store account?
Do they have their own account, and if so, how do you fund it?
Tags: identity theft protection, iTunes account hacking, preventing identity theft, protecting your account
Both of my kids have their own iTunes account. We fund them *soley* by iTunes cards.
Yes, using the cards-you (or grandma) control the maximum amount spent!