Friend upset after I reported hacked account to the police

[ThisHappyBiscuit]

So my sons account got hacked by a friend of mines son who gave the details to someone to hack into. When this was all happening I said if my son's accounts password isn't given to me then im guna have to contact the police and my friend said "do it". So I did call when I didn't get the password. Ive gone upto my friend today and she's said do you really think you should be talking to me? I said why what's the matter? She said well we are under criminal investigation cause of you and we shouldn't be talking. I said well you told me to contact them and she said well it was to shut you up (in so many words) cause you were going off on one. Im really upset because I thought she was my friend and im just so lost now because I literally have no friends outside of my life. Can I just have some friendly words of encouragement because I'm just so lost and feeling so alone right now.

Did you tell the mum there is no criminal investigation under way then? It’s not unimportant, but you managed to get back into the account, so reporting it to the police and then being surprised the friendship is over doesn’t quite make sense to me. Why would you even want to be friends with her?

Yeah she tried to but the kid didn't give me the correct password for him to get into it. So thats when id said enough is enough and called the police. It wasnt until much later I tried logging into the account on my phone that it worked with the passkey I had. We were very fortunate.

So your friends son did exactly the same as your son and passed a password on. The root of this is your kid passing his password on, and it’s a bunch of ten year olds being stupid on a game and 45 quid was spent as they had the password.

im stunned yoh told the police in the first place, as you got into the account, never mind said you didn’t want to press charges, like a/that was your decision and b/ they would even consider prosecuting a ten year old for spending 45 quid on someone else’s game/

what a waste of police time.

This is the bit I don’t get. Why on earth would OP think this woman would still want to be her friend after this. It’s so extreme.

I said that to her. I said shes done nothing wrong and she said she still doesnt think I should be talking to her since theres a criminal investigation. Because i thought with her saying call the police "just do it xx" were her exact words I wouldn't have thought that id be treated like that. And the fact she said she only said it to shut me up because I was going off on one was hurtful. But id only realised that after I had the conversation with her.

Well i assumed it was the best process. But to blame the victim of a crime is surely not the best practice? My son passed his details onto one of his friends who they fell out and then his ex friend gave his account details away. It may seem un important to you but to me this is serious. Its still a crime. Surely this would stop them from doing anything like this in future and stop them from committing again?

Because I thought with her encouragement of me going to the police it was going to be ok.

This seems bizarre. One of my kids had an account hacked, and I mean hacked - they didn’t go giving their password out then wonder why it all went pear shaped. They were an older teenager at the time, and I can’t recall the specifics but it was a Blizzard, or Steam account or something like that.

Instead of charging off to the police they went to Blizzard/Steam or whatever it was, there was a mechanism to contact them and they investigated, kicked the other people out, helped child with password reset, factor authentications and they made good on losses/damage incurred. Seemed much more sensible than going to the police, especially as it was identified the hackers came from another country, think maybe Russia from memory, or something like that.

Surely Roblox could regain control of the account and may have even offered to make good on what happened while the account was not in your son’s possession?

Because these people were known to me. Not someone in Russia. Surely its better to contact the police so they're known to them rather than just reporting it to roblox for them to just make another account and hack someone else again.

She didn’t encourage anything. “Just do it” would imply to me she’s fed up and wants to shut you down, which is exactly what she did mean as she told you so. Not great from her, but you’ve said she did actually try to help and had no more luck than you so she was probably fed up. Anyway what’s done is done, the friendship is over and hopefully you can all move on.

What part of the information that hacking is a crime that comes with a potential prison sentence, are you struggling with?

Yes you may be able to get stuff back via the account help, but that doesn't undo the fact that his account was accessed without permission by a third party, and £45 worth of in-game items was stolen.

So now these kids have broke the law TWICE.

And you're wondering what the problem is?

Do you not get nuance? Because I would have known she wasn’t in any way serious. I am astounded you would report a 10 year old to the police for this.

Good grief. It’s 3 ten year olds. The kids fell out, your kid did something stupid, so did her kid, after they fell out. the third kid spent 45 quid on the game, you got control back, all you had to do was call Roblox if you couldn’t get control but you did. You could have spoken to the other boys parents.

all so much drama. And such an utter waste of police time. Of course she said do it to shut you up, as you were threatening her. And of course you’re no longer friends, you can’t seriously expect her to be your friend after you call the police on her child for passing the password on and ask them to go and give him a telling off;

So you're ok with kids committing crimes, like fraud, hacking, and theft, and just letting it go are you?

No wonder kids these days have zero respect for the law.

Calm down no one is sending a 10 year old to jail over this. 😂

Are you ok? Seriously?

The third kid didn't spend £45. He stole it. There is a difference.

Well the context of the message she had sent me was "just do it" with 2 X's. So to me she was being serious. So wheres the cut off then for reporting a 10 year old? So let them get away with murder because of their age? Let them hurt other people because you deem it acceptable a 10 year old should get away with a criminal offence? You wouldn't let an adult do it so whys a child any different from consequence?

There wasn’t even any money spent, it was items already purchased that were transferred to the other child’s account by the third party. It’s an absolutely mean and daft thing for the other kids to do but it didn’t need to be taken to the extreme, it could have been sorted between parents.

OP does your school not have a police officer? Ours does, and this is the exact kind of thing I’d be asking them to have a chat with the kids about.

Have you actually had a response from the police as I can't imagine them taking this too seriously? Also have you contacted Roblox?

Ok the person who said OP doesn’t get nuance was spot on. Because there is a slight difference between a Roblox “hacking” and MURDER.

I tried but they kept giving me incorrect passwords. I basically called the police to have a word with um. It wasnt to press charges and i said it clearly to the officer that came round. Just enough to scare them not to doing it ever again.

Murder doesn’t compare to passing on a Roblox password. And it’s not surprising she wasn’t serious about wanting you to report her child to the police.

Yeah, they're taking it seriously. Ive had emails from their fraud teams keeping me updated on it.

I'm fine. Ignoring kids doing this, and letting it slide, and not letting them know how serious this is, is how they learn its fine to do.

My son recently had his microsoft account hacked.. he lost everything, 10 years of xbox, £1000's of pounds worth of stuff. and we can't get it back.

Hacking is illegal, and it hurts people. You can't just let it slide because otherwise they don't realise how serious it is.

You do not ignore anyone hacking and stealing like its no big deal, it IS a big deal

At what point of your child breaking into something and stealing stuff do you act? Someones school bag with their lunch money in it? Your handbag with your purse? How about your car, or your home?
When does your child being a thief stop being 'not a big deal'??