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by theRealMe 1119 days ago
I don’t get why it was the bank’s fault/responsibility here? I would understand if we were talking about Apple or Roblox or something, but why the bank? It’s not like the bank got the money back from Roblox/apple.

I don’t think the bank refunding the money is, or should be, an admission of guilt. It was a “pay this amount of money to make this (wrongly directed) bad press go away”.

So in the end the public complaint was used as a cudgel to take money that wasn’t owed (from the bank).

3 comments

The bank could be liable because they’re supposed to authenticate the customer making the transaction. Either they did the authentication and the kid passed it (banks fault for bad auth) or they didn’t do authentication for a better UX and it’s still their fault.
Since when is authentication UX inside of a game the responsibility of the individual bank? That would be super crappy if every bank had their own auth ux in every digital platform.
Most banks have a 2FA system involved, especially for transactions that fall outside the trend. It's used primarily to combat identity theft. It's no different in the case a kid does it (conceptually, can't speak for legalities).
3DSecure? Ultimately the bank takes the call on whether to authenticate a 3DS transaction.
> It’s not like the bank got the money back from Roblox/apple.

You know in a chargeback (what the mother most likely did)...the bank claws the money back from the company right?

Additionally, why would their fraud algo not detect "hundreds of transactions" back to back. That is instantly a red flag to almost every bank I've known.

Ha, I managed to block my credit card after three premium purchases from war gaming. Took me three days to reach someone at the bank to get it activated again. So yes, I think the bank could have caught those transactions. Hard to tell so without details. Still, those transactions should fall under the easy to cancel category.
I didn't comment on whether it was the bank's fault or not, I merely wish there wasn't a difference in outcomes depending on whether you complain to the media or not.