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A mum was on the verge of cancelling Christmas after her son 'drained' her bank account by making purchases online.
Kayla Howard received a call from her bank after her account was emptied and went overdrawn - all while her seven-year-old son was playing Roblox.
Completely unknown to her, Kayla’s son had made numerous purchases for Robux - a currency used in the game - leaving her bank overdrawn.
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Kayla told 12News that her son, who has autism, ‘accidentally made multiple unauthorised purchased for Robux’ without her knowing - the purchases totalled $897.17 (£740) and she was also hit with additional overdraft fees.
Kayla said: “He's seven. He has autism. You know it's hard for him to recognise the consequences for his actions. That's what he's working [on].
"I'm trying my best not to cry, not to stress about it. I'm just trying to be as solution-focused about it as I can."
She added: "Sometimes as busy parents, we do overlook things.”
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The mum-of-four said the charges left her unable to pay her rent and she was all set to cancel Christmas, telling the news outlet ‘the timing couldn’t have been worse’.
However, Christmas was saved thanks to the kindness of strangers.
With her bank account truly into its overdraft and with rent to pay, Kayla decided to set up a GoFundMe page asking for donations to help out.
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On the fundraising page, she wrote: "I am a single mother of four children, working a full-time job, owning and running a small math tutoring business, and have no money left to meet myself and my children's basic needs.
"My bank account is currently -1244.52 as a result of the purchases and resulting overdraft fees."
And thankfully for her and her family, donations began to trickle in and she’s now had $10,350 (£8,592) in donations, more than eight times her original goal of $1,244 (£1,032).
In an update on the page, Kayla thanked donors for their kindness, writing: “Thank you so much to all of you for your generosity and words of support during this time! We met our goal and I couldn’t be more elated! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!”
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Last week, an uncle shared the harsh lesson he had taught on his nephew after the 10-year-old repeatedly used his grandma’s credit card to make Fortnite purchases.
The 10-year-old boy managed to sneakily spend $300 (£245) on his grandma’s card, much to his uncle’s disappointment.
After attempting to stay out of it, the uncle eventually got fed up with seeing his mum being taken for a ride, and decided he wanted to exact his ‘petty revenge’.
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Knowing that his mum would never demand the cash back herself, the bloke decided that on each birthday and Christmas he would give the money he’d usually spend on a gift for his nephew to his mum until the debt was repaid. Ouch.
Claire Reid