Tiktoker steals £ 2,000 from a child, the Telegraph manages to do justice
After TikTok and Apple refused reimbursement, a mother went to a Telegraph reporter to recover the £ 2,000 stolen from her daughter.
He leaves the smartphone in his daughter’s hand for a few days, then the chilling discovery by looking at the statement: – 2000 pounds, all spent in donations on TikTok . The assistance of Apple and her social network do not deign an answer. A desperate mother wrote to Telegraph reporter Katie Morley that she luckily managed to reconstruct what happened and recover the full amount squandered by the child.
“On December 29, my youngest daughter, who is ten years old and has learning problems, was playing on her smartphone when she fell victim to a girl posting videos of her dancing on TikTok,” her mother told the British newspaper. “She tricked her into giving her over £ 2,000 in a short time.”
The mother also explained that she promptly contacted both Apple and TikTok, encountering resistance from both companies. No refunds . No exception. The woman added that she had sent several emails to Apple’s Irish headquarters, getting no response.
Katie Morley is a reporter for the Telegraph, for whom she curates a column called ‘ Consumer Champion ‘. In a nutshell: you bail out the newspaper’s readers by trying to resolve disputes with companies by exploiting your role as a journalist.
It is true that there is a setting to activate parental control and avoid these problems, but it is equally true that the reader only has to use her smartphone on her daughter on a couple of occasions. £ 2,000 seems like excessive punishment to me
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Morley writes.
After Karie Morley qualified as a reporter, TikTok and Apple suddenly showed interest in investigating what happened. TikTok responded very quickly, however reiterating that the money was donated in accordance with its policies. In short, all legitimate and, once again, the refund is denied.
Not satisfied, the journalist urged the social network to provide further explanations, discovering that the account of the tiktoker who had stolen the large sum of money was then suspended. Bingo. After yet another email and yet another conversation on the phone with a public relations officer of the social, TikTok finally admits the fraudulent nature of the transactions . “After conducting a more thorough investigation, we learned that the reported account actually violated our guidelines prohibiting fraud.” Apparently, the girl boasted that she was able to increase the followers of any account by asking for a cash payment for her “services”. Obviously a lie. After the payment, the victim of the scam did not get a single additional follower.
The story gets its happy ending: Apple repaid the £ 2,000 to the mother, who in the meantime has finally learned her lesson and protected her credit cards with a PIN.
But for everyone else? Not all consumers can count on the help of a seasoned reporter, and it is frankly alarming that the refund was issued solely due to the reporter’s insistence. “It is unacceptable that TikTok did not verify the fraudulent nature of the transactions after the first email,” Morley writes. Even more alarming is that social networks continue to have almost non-existent customer service. For a mother who manages to recover the money that was stolen from her, there are thousands more who will never see a dime back.
