This one mother from Kelantan found that out the hard and expensive way.
Costly mistake
Nor Liyana Abdullah had the shock of her life when she discovered that RM2,600 went missing from her bank account when she was attempting to pay for an online purchase recently.She told Malay Mail that she had no rrecollection of using the money to make any purchases or payments.
"One of the days last week, I wanted to purchase some accessories online on an e-commerce platform, but was denied purchasing because I only had a RM2.00 balance," she was quoted as saying.
It was when she checked her e-mails that the found out what happened to her money: some one has used the money to purchase mobile games.
"I checked my emails but this one took me off guard as it stated that I had used RM2,600 and the purchases to some online games were successful.
"Oddly enough, I’ve never received a TAC (Transaction Authorisation Code) on my new handphone’s number regarding the purchase of the game," she was quoted as saying.
After some digging, Nor Liyana later discovered that her 13-year-old twin sons were the culprit behind the purchase.
She told Malay Mail that she had lent her old smartphone to them to use for their daily Teaching and Learning at Home (PdPR) sessions, but unfortunately, the mischievious kids had other plans.
She explained that they managed to decipher her password on her Google Play account to buy the games as the same password was also used for her Google e-mail.
She added that the verification could have been done via her e-mail, hence she did not receive any TAC on her phone.
Bank rejected claims
When she questioned the twins, they admitted to the wrongdoing but it was too little too late.Nor Liyana told the news portal that she had tried to get the bank to cancel the transactions, but they rejected it.
"Although I tried to contact my bank to claim my money, it was unsuccessful as the fault was mine to have given the freedom to my sons to use my handphone and access my particulars.
"Being a secondary school teacher myself, I was busy with my own school work and my own PdPR lessons so I entrusted my two sons to just use the phone for their studies," she was quoted as saying.
She added that after this expensive lesson, she's blocked her debit card, changed her password and even deleted the apps on the old smartphone.
She even installed an app on the phone to monitor the kids' online activities.
Sigh, we feel so bad for her. What an expensive lesson this is!