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Dad Furious After Six-Year-Old Son Bought £19,000 Monster Truck And Says Paypal Sent In Debt Collectors

Dad Furious After Six-Year-Old Son Bought £19,000 Monster Truck And Says Paypal Sent In Debt Collectors

Mohammad Faraji was billed nearly £20,000 for a truck his little boy had successfully bid for

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

An angry dad claims he's being chased by debt collectors after his six-year-old son bid £19,000 ($24,800) for a monster truck online.

When Mohammad Faraji, from Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, accidentally left his laptop logged on, he had no idea that his monster truck-obsessed son Ario had been browsing eBay behind his back.

That is, until he received the bill for a truck it appeared Ario had successfully bid for.

The truck that Ario fancied.
NCJMEDIA SYNDICATION

Mohammad, 45, said: "It's unbelievable that PayPal would pay it without sending any notification or contacting me to find out if I wanted to pay that amount of money."

Mohammad attempted to explain that the purchase, which happened in March, had been accidental - but the seller didn't want to cancel the sale and told the dad he could come and collect the truck.

PayPal insists Mohammad should work with eBay or the seller to resolve the problem, but he argues it's an issue with the payment system. PayPal says customers receive an email whenever they make a purchase on eBay.

Unable and unwilling to pay the staggering amount, Mohammad tried to have the transaction cancelled.

Mohammad said: "Nobody can force me to buy a £19,000 monster truck. I haven't got that kind of money in my bank account, and nobody in their right mind would buy a car for that much money without seeing it, but it still went through. For the amount of money they sent, there should have been some kind of extra security."

NCJMEDIA SYNDICATION

The takeaway worker says he knows he shouldn't have left his laptop logged on with his account details stored on the system - but insists it's not fair to make him pay £19,000 for the mistake.

Ario, who has now been banned from his father's laptop, didn't realise what he was doing - but his mistake has left his dad terrified of having to pay off the huge debt.

"It's been going on since March and I'm just getting more stressed, it's awful," Mohammad said, adding: "I know it's my fault that I hadn't checked my laptop and that it had saved the password - my son is only little but he's clever for his age and good with computers.

"He loves monster trucks, and the 29th of March is his birthday, on the 28th he said he wanted a truck, but I never guessed he wanted to buy a real monster truck for himself."

PA

A PayPal spokesperson said: "PayPal never loses sight of the fact that we are entrusted to look after people's money - we take this responsibility very seriously and have a robust process in place for purchases made in error.

"Once a customer makes a purchase on eBay and pays for it using PayPal, they receive emails from both PayPal and eBay confirming the transaction.

"PayPal's email to the customer following a transaction highlights the customer has 180 days to open a dispute in the Resolution Centre and also explains the process for contacting the seller directly.

"If the purchase was made in error, PayPal recommends contacting the seller directly to try to secure a resolution in the first instance. If this is unsuccessful, the buyer should contact eBay's customer services team and work with them on solving the specific issue."

Featured Image Credit: NCJMEDIA SYNDICATION

Topics: Money, Community, UK