The craziest part of this story, for me, is it was on the dad’s _company_ credit card. Which might not be as surprising except the reason it was already on file is because the dad used his company’s (not _his_ company, the company he works for as an employee) credit card to buy Roblox for his son previously.
Is this common? I’ve had access to company credit cards before on a one-off basis (never in my name). Do people legitimately make this mistake? “oops, I put it on the company cards”?
I havent had a company card for a while, but when i had one the end of the month auditing was exhausting, I dreaded having to put together the report... Unfortunately for me, no one else wanted to take on the responsibility so I just had to do that for years...
I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to put personal expenses on my company card but I anyway always have to upload a receipt and for personal expenses I will have to reimburse them (FAANG).
This isn't a bad system because it allows for use in case of absolute emergency, but you have the safeguard of anyway requiring a receipt and a justification.
When I had a corpo card that was basically it - I can use it for any personal spending as long as it's reimbursed by the next payment. Which could get a bit scary in theory because there was no reasonable limit on it as far as I can tell. "I wonder if I could buy a helicopter on that card" (or other weird things) was a running joke.
The article just says he used that card. They did not say it wasn't paid off.
I used to have a company credit card which I didn't use much--and avoided using whenever I could because I got more personal benefits on my own card (and that was a pretty universal attitude among most people to the annoyance of the powers that be). We were personally responsible for the monthly bills ourselves in any case. Never had a corporate card that the company just paid off no questions asked.
Do people legitimately make this mistake? “oops, I put it on the company cards”?
i've done this with like a cup of coffee but not something like a game for my kids! What happens in my case is the charge is not approved for reimbursement and it's up to me to pay the bill. I feel bad for that father.
edit: it's a corporate card but it's in my name so I can actually charge whatever i want but the company only reimburses approved charges, whatever is left over is up to me to pay. As a sibling comment said, what everyone does is use their regular personal cards for the rewards/loyalty points and then submit receipts for reimbursement manually.
Is this common? I’ve had access to company credit cards before on a one-off basis (never in my name). Do people legitimately make this mistake? “oops, I put it on the company cards”?
It's worse than that, because he specifically entered the company card to pay for robux. It's not like he added the company card for an earlier (company) purchase and then it accidentally got used.
Dave said he entered the company card himself to buy Robux for his son, and it then sat saved on the Google account that also carries his work email, calendar, and files. Dave did not say why he used the company card for that purchase.
Moreover I can't think of any reason why he would be using the company card in the first place. In any company with proper controls you'd have to justify every expense and/or reimburse. It's just simpler to use a personal card, unless he was trying to embezzle some money.
I have a company card on a permanent basis. I have not added it to Apple Pay exactly for this reason, I don’t want to risk accidentally selecting it for a private purchase.
There are so many things wrong with this story before you even get to the headline.
From the information in the article, I can’t really blame Google for this one. This was a series of deliberate blunders on the part of the father. The first blunder was letting a 9 year old have a YouTube account.
Putting aside whether a 9 year old should be making videos, the father should have been the one with the account and managing the channel.
Question is if it’s reasonable for the father to guess letting the kid use the account would let the kid do this kind of charged. I would say no and put the blame on google.
I blame youtube. I feel like any online service provider has a duty to verify your identity on transactions over $10k USD by default and that should be enshrined in law. Honestly maybe lower.
I feel something is horribly wrong with these ad-companies if there is no contact and automatic approval for spending over 100k on ads... From seemingly small and unknown entity.
I would expect some verification or contact, but maybe I just don't understand how world operates...
When I was 9, long ago in the dial-up age, I dialed into a long distance number within our area code and we got a $100 charge for my using Active Worlds.
This is one reason why I don't save my payment method for anything. No saved payment method means one less way for surprise charges.
The craziest part of this story, for me, is it was on the dad’s _company_ credit card. Which might not be as surprising except the reason it was already on file is because the dad used his company’s (not _his_ company, the company he works for as an employee) credit card to buy Roblox for his son previously.
Is this common? I’ve had access to company credit cards before on a one-off basis (never in my name). Do people legitimately make this mistake? “oops, I put it on the company cards”?
if you can get away with putting it on the company card why not? (other than that time ayour 9 year old son spent 118k) hehe
I don't know, morals, perhaps?
Because it’s theft even if you don’t get caught.
Some people are not very smart.
I havent had a company card for a while, but when i had one the end of the month auditing was exhausting, I dreaded having to put together the report... Unfortunately for me, no one else wanted to take on the responsibility so I just had to do that for years...
I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to put personal expenses on my company card but I anyway always have to upload a receipt and for personal expenses I will have to reimburse them (FAANG).
This isn't a bad system because it allows for use in case of absolute emergency, but you have the safeguard of anyway requiring a receipt and a justification.
When I had a corpo card that was basically it - I can use it for any personal spending as long as it's reimbursed by the next payment. Which could get a bit scary in theory because there was no reasonable limit on it as far as I can tell. "I wonder if I could buy a helicopter on that card" (or other weird things) was a running joke.
The article just says he used that card. They did not say it wasn't paid off.
He also says in the video that he spent 20$ with the company card on ads. (which probably made it much easier for the kid to spend much more on it)
I used to have a company credit card which I didn't use much--and avoided using whenever I could because I got more personal benefits on my own card (and that was a pretty universal attitude among most people to the annoyance of the powers that be). We were personally responsible for the monthly bills ourselves in any case. Never had a corporate card that the company just paid off no questions asked.
i've done this with like a cup of coffee but not something like a game for my kids! What happens in my case is the charge is not approved for reimbursement and it's up to me to pay the bill. I feel bad for that father.
edit: it's a corporate card but it's in my name so I can actually charge whatever i want but the company only reimburses approved charges, whatever is left over is up to me to pay. As a sibling comment said, what everyone does is use their regular personal cards for the rewards/loyalty points and then submit receipts for reimbursement manually.
It's worse than that, because he specifically entered the company card to pay for robux. It's not like he added the company card for an earlier (company) purchase and then it accidentally got used.
Moreover I can't think of any reason why he would be using the company card in the first place. In any company with proper controls you'd have to justify every expense and/or reimburse. It's just simpler to use a personal card, unless he was trying to embezzle some money.
I have a company card on a permanent basis. I have not added it to Apple Pay exactly for this reason, I don’t want to risk accidentally selecting it for a private purchase.
This can be a fairly pure case study on the convergence rate of youtube ads.
Do not let that kid (or his dad) anywhere near an OpenClaw instance.
They should have to ask for the ccv every double in billing average.
Didn't the card have a limit?
Literally the first sentence in the article
"The button said approved every time as nobody had set a limit."
Corporate cards often have huge limits. See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49725666
There are so many things wrong with this story before you even get to the headline.
From the information in the article, I can’t really blame Google for this one. This was a series of deliberate blunders on the part of the father. The first blunder was letting a 9 year old have a YouTube account.
Putting aside whether a 9 year old should be making videos, the father should have been the one with the account and managing the channel.
The article doesn't call it out very loudly, but...
"to a company credit card the father had saved to his own Google account, which his son also used"
It sounds like the son didn't have an account. It was just the father's account, with billing info attached with no limits.
But how was the 9 year old able to do any of this unless they had access to some account?
It says his son also used it, so he gave a 9 year old access to it. Same difference.
Question is if it’s reasonable for the father to guess letting the kid use the account would let the kid do this kind of charged. I would say no and put the blame on google.
Well, at least he has the YouTube ads.
I blame youtube. I feel like any online service provider has a duty to verify your identity on transactions over $10k USD by default and that should be enshrined in law. Honestly maybe lower.
I feel something is horribly wrong with these ad-companies if there is no contact and automatic approval for spending over 100k on ads... From seemingly small and unknown entity.
I would expect some verification or contact, but maybe I just don't understand how world operates...
When I was 9, long ago in the dial-up age, I dialed into a long distance number within our area code and we got a $100 charge for my using Active Worlds.
Suddenly, I don't feel so bad about that anymore.