The increasing prevalence of smartphones in day-to-day life has also impacted the behavior of children by affecting their attention span and putting them at risk of game addiction. Something similar happened to Donna Jacob from Sydney, Australia, whose seven-year-old son used her credit card to buy a $9,800 miniature toy from eBay. The preschooler splurged the amount on a rare "Golden Billy Banana" toy from the Coles Stikeez collectible range, The Mirror reported.
When Online Shopping Becomes Child's Play
According to the Daily Star, the Coles Stikeez collectibles are part of a campaign that encourages children to eat more fruits and vegetables. The lineup has gained popularity for character figurines such as Copper Carrot and Carlo Cucumber, which are traded among kids in playgrounds.
Among these characters, the golden version of ‘Billy Banana’ is a prized possession for kids because it is extremely hard to find and popular among collectors. The 47-year-old’s young kid, who has autism, is also a huge fan of the rare collectible range, according to 7News. When he asked his mum to buy him the costly figurine, she didn't pay heed.
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After that, he got hold of her laptop and combed through the web looking for his favorite toy. He finally found the golden banana figurine being auctioned off on the popular reselling platform eBay. However, the listed bids were much more than what he had initially asked for. Since Donna's credit card details were saved in her browser, the kid was successful in placing the highest bid before making the payment for the toy.
The child eventually ended up spending $9,859, and the worst part was that Donna had no clue about the purchase. It was only a day later that she came to know about it when she received a confirmation of the purchase.
An Uphill Battle
Donna immediately contacted the seller to explain the error that led to the purchase and asked for a refund, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as the seller didn't respond. Finally, she reached out to eBay to get her money back. However, Donna claimed that eBay told her that the incident was a case of "friendly fraud" and that the chances of her retrieving the money were low. Hence, she repeatedly contacted her bank, PayPal, and eBay making requests for a refund.
Ultimately, eBay agreed to refund the amount and in a statement, the company said, "eBay understands there are unique circumstances in this case. As a result, the buyer will receive a refund for the purchase," 7News reported. Donna is now calling for stricter protocols to be put into place to prevent such an incident from happening in the future. "I think it's just ludicrous this could happen," she told the news outlet.
She added that between PayPal and the bank, someone should have detected the unusual transaction and they should have stopped the transaction from happening.
As it turns out, Donna is not the only parent to regret allowing kids to access credit cards. According to a 2024 Lending Tree study, a majority of parents have given kids access to their money, and many of them faced terrible consequences.
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About 59% of parents in the study said their children had access to their credit or debit cards, and about 31% of them regretted this.
