So all parents cherish a child’s first…first steps, first words, first day of kindergarten, first scam. Wait…first what?! Yes, a six year old child scammed Amazon. Six year old vs Amazon: cute or warning sign?
So let me explain. For her sixth birthday, her mom let little Caitlyn order a Barbie doll from her mother’s account. She did. But this was when mommy was watching. However, she asked her mom could she look and track the Barbie’s package. This is when Caitlyn found the ‘add the cart’ button. Not only did she find it, but she used it. And she used it a lot.
Because the next day, one box didn’t arrive at their Utah house. Several of them did. In fact, imagine the shock on mom’s face when she saw several boxes on her stoop. The total came out to $350. The content not only included the Barbie, but other toys and video games. Caitlyn’s older cousin, Ria, posted a picture of the child posing with a smirk on her face and crossed arms on Twitter. Ria talked about how her cousin bought over $300 worth of toys without her parents finding out. So what happened to Caitlyn? According to Ria, she wasn’t punished, but they returned all the toys Caitlyn ordered except for the Barbie.
Caitlyn’s episode isn’t a unique one. I’m reading several incidents on Twitter where kids are using the easy add to cart and pay buttons to buy to the max. This is a huge flaw for the world’s largest IT service company. In our Boston computer service shop, while searching for a part for a computer repair job, I accidentally pressed the purchase button for the wrong part. Luckily, I was able to correct the issue. But what if a professional adult scammer sees this and goes to town with your credit/debit card Amazon already has on file? Six year old vs Amazon: Cute or warning sign? If it is a warning sign, then what should we do about it?