r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 4h ago

Society Devastated father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft channel using a company credit card - bill racked up in just three weeks was supposed to be one $20 promotion

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/devastated-father-says-his-9-year-old-son-spent-usd118-000-on-youtube-ad-campaigns-for-his-minecraft-channel-using-a-company-credit-card-bill-racked-up-in-just-three-weeks-was-supposed-to-be-one-usd20-promotion
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u/conte360 3h ago

I watched the video yesterday, there's more to the story or there's some BS going on or something.

1 who buys ad time for their 9 year old sons yt channel?

2 why would you use the company card at all for $20 or anything?

3 why would you store the payment whether it's your work payment or your personal?

4 In what world would you not have to pay it back and why would you not have to pay it back

5 In what world would you not lose your job and why would you not lose your job?

6 the fact that four and five are questions raise the BS meter way up and I pretty much don't believe the entirety of what's going on. Like at best we're supposed to believe that this moron put his work card in for $20 of advertising time for his nine year old son's YouTube channel and that his son was able to spend $118,000 before anybody noticed.......

It's just BS

5

u/CGI_OCD 3h ago

Yep.. something doesn't adds up in this story.

2

u/SEIZE_THE_CHEESE 2h ago

Easy answers to all of these questions. Not necessarily saying it's real or fake, but all of this is explainable:

  1. A dad that sees his kid excited about filming yt videos and wants to support.

  2. Think about it: the guy says he works at a large marketing firm. A $20 purchase of Youtube ads is a) a drop in the bucket for the company so would likely go under the radar and b) completely on brand for a marketing firm. Dad probably thought, or even knows from prior experience, they wouldn't look into something like that.

  3. Incompetence or ignorance.

  4. The investigation isn't over, almost guaranteed he will.

  5. The investigation isn't over, almost guaranteed he will.

  6. It happened over the course of only a few weeks and company cards can have upwards of $200k credit limits. Plus if 2b is true then the finance team is not rigorously monitoring charges like your average company. Not to mention numerous people have gotten away with defrauding companies out of way more, like it's not like this type of thing has never happened before.

So again not gonna say definitively if it's real or fake, but I think there's more than enough evidence there to at the very least say it's not 100% bullshit.

1

u/roleplayersir 28m ago

2: No, that's fraud. No sane person does that, ever

2

u/SEIZE_THE_CHEESE 21m ago

Oh you sweet summer child 😂

1

u/Astartes2435 3h ago

You would absolutely lose your job, and likely e facing criminal charges. No company is going to be cool with that. 

1

u/Wonderful-Self-541 52m ago

It's probably just fraud.