- To expect ds to get a refund (Habbo)

[tiredmomma]

Ds plays an online game called Habbo, over the weekend his ac was hacked and his items stolen.

Just to give an idea of what its all about
It costs 50 pounds for just under 500 credits (I paid for these), this allows the player to buy furniture/pets/upgrade their look etc for their virtual person.
Ds had managed to make a profit on the game by buying and selling furniture to other Habbo's, all this is within the rules of the game.

Having read the FAQ section it seems that his stolen items will not be refunded, as Habbo deem it to be player error when something like this happens.
EG - player divulges their password to someone else or entered a fake Habbo site and had a key-logger programme installed on their pc.

Ds is very computer savvy and has played this game for the last 3 years or so, he knows what not to fall for. He has seen it happen to others and is very careful where he goes and what he does on line, and above all knows that if he spent his credits unwisely he would have no more.

Its a lot of money to lose, so aibu?

I hate to say it, but its a lot of money to spend on an online game in the first place...

I doubt you can get any sort of refund though if it states it in the rules.

I don't know how Habbo works but I play an online game called Neopets and on that you can buy clothing for your Neopets with real money in the instances that an account has been compromised all Neocash have always been returned to the account owner.

I reccomend you go through their help system if they have one and point out whats gone missing if they're a decent company they will track the items remove the users account who has them and return these items to your son it just might take a while.

i think habbo are known for putting loads of crap on your pc

this appears to be Habbos help system you're best off sending a request through this to see if they're actually any good with customer support.

Thanks guys for the replys,

I Should have said that I have sent a request through the help tool, but to be honest don't expect to get much joy from them, although when I had a problem buying the last credits (was double charged)they sorted it out fairly quickly. Its just in the Faq section it sounds pretty final about stolen items not being refunded.

Ah squeakytoy You're right it is a lot of money to spend, but I've only bought credits for ds twice in 3 years. We don't do pocket money here, but good effort is rewarded .

janetsplanet, I can't say that I have noticed anything unusual on the pc since ds started playing, I also have an acc (very rarely use it but ds knows I have it and am on his friends list :o )I have good antivirus and malware removal so no worries there.

Your DS might be savvy with the computer game but someone else's DC is moreso. Good luck getting the virtual stuff back.

The exact same thing happened to my sister OP, no refund. :(

TorcherQueenie I thought it was just me playing Neopets

I agree GotArt there is always someone better, by savvy I suppose what I mean is he is not stupid enough to fall for the 'hey dude follow this link and it'll get ya free creds' scams that regularly go around online games like this one.

We have however received a reply from Habbo asking for more info regarding ds acc so maybe its not as cut and dried as a straight out no refunds? We live in hope

I wasn't aware Habbo accounts could be hacked. If he has any kind of malware, that's his problem and not Habbo's, surely? (Disclaimer: it's been over 7 years since I was on that site, so maybe their security is different now or something.)

Oh no SESF !! don't tell me that

looks like I am going to have to check out this neopets game !

My dd used to play habbo, people are always asking for passwords etc - btw it's full of groomers and I'm not being dramatic, I banned dd from going on there after seeing some of the stuff said on there. It's a nasty site.

Yeah rinabean his best friend was hacked last year too, and he is as security concious as ds. One point though ds does not have malware on his pc - he has a malware removal tool which he uses to scan for anything dodgy, and to date his pc is squeaky clean.

Pumpster, is it full of groomers? Friends dd had problems on Habbo and I'm trying to talk her into going to the police. She thinks it's a waste of time.

Oh I know you are not being dramatic Pumpster I have seen the messages people send each other on this site, I used to cringe but I use it now to have a good discussion with ds about how people conduct themselves on line ( eh I sound all holier than thou now don't I? ) ds has fun on the site tho and gets to chat with people all over the world (if they are really who they say they are lol), also I know he is beside me at 9pm and not roaming the streets.

Well, I found a post on a hacking site from 2008 that says you can bruteforce Habbo passwords. If they now have a limited number of attempts before you're locked out then there's no way Habbo are at fault, but if not that's a security flaw. Most kids think their computers are safe, but they don't tend to be that careful with their internet usage. I mean, for god's sake, he's on Habbo Hotel!

Trouble was my dd added people to msn that she thought were her 'friends' (despite the fact she knew she wasnt allowed to).
I read some of these conversations and was horrified, they were adults posing as teenagers and engaging her in very dodgy exchanges.
She wasn't even doing this in her room! She has not had msn since and I have set up very stringent controls.
So even if your children aren't silly enough to add strangers to msn-it's very worrying that people pose as kids on this site!

Yes, Habbo is a very nasty site
Some of the things said on there make me that these things are said by 10 yr old kids.

I doubt you'll get a refund, OP, but it's worth an extra call/email. Has your DS changed his passwords etc?

Lol rinabean I take your point :o

Out of curiosity Pumpster how old is your dd? what kind of exchanges were they? like where do you live/go to school kind of stuff?

I saw a very good ad at a internet safety talk on in my ds school recently, a mum opening the door to a variety of people asking to speak to her child - a rocker/drunk/half dressed woman/ seedy looking guy and then cut to a clip of the child on the internet - the caption says something like you wouldn't let these people in to your child's room why let them in through the computer ?

Very true tho ya need eyes everywhere.

I am a 50yo bald man sitting in my undies of course

Yeah laosvher that was the first thing he did when he logged on and discovered what had happened. He has different passwords for everything.

I wont give up without a fight, thats for sure.

Just a thought, but, could it be one of his RL friends stealing from him? Just a thought. They would/could possibly know his passwords.

ok i asked DS for advice as he used to go on habbo a lot.
when you swear, the words get out. so people would say 'hey when you put you password here it gets ** out.
of course the person tried it and it wasnt out. the hacker then had your password.

this was a few yrs ago though so maybe security is better. DS said a lot of people fell for it and he almost did himself

sheseversofamous Good to see another Neopets fan! I spend far too long/too much money on that site

tiredmomma It might be worth asking your son if he knows of any 'cookie grabbing' going on. On Neopets these were actually on the website so not the players fault at all. Neopets is a good site perhaps not so much for young boys but theres no swearing and the boards and neomail messages are all monitored for scam attempts/unproper content and you are not allowed to share any private details like your MSN or even post photos of yourself.

Only getting back to this now sorry,

GotArt I don't think so because he only has one real life friend on Habbo and when the two of them are here its like covert opps lol they sit on opposite sides of the room so they cant see each others passwords.

Yeah Janentsplanet thats true I have seen that happen for myself and lots of kids fall for it, don't know if it still goes on I must ask ds.

I had to google cookie grabing TorcherQueenie - I will ask ds has he ever heard of it thanks.

We got a second email yesterday asking for more info so at least they are looking into it, I don't expect to hear more until Monday or Tuesday at the earliest but I'll let ya know how it goes.

Thanks all for the replies !