Fornite V-Buck spending spree sees kids purchase 65,000 points

The family of one Reddit user’s generosity cost him dearly when his young niece and nephew managed to purchase 65,000 V-Bucks, the in-game currency of Fortnite, before he’d realized what happened.

The poster on Reddit says that he gave access to his PlayStation Network account to his niece and nephew so that they would have access to a wider selection of games. The two children managed to spend over $500, money that was marked for another family member’s holiday to visit her family.

In the post, the user clarifies that he isn’t mad at the children for the move. He instead places blame on himself for not being more aware of what kids might be able to do given access to a PlayStation Network account and an installation of Fortnite.

“I’m mad at myself. I didn’t think it was possible, but then I should have done more research,” the user said.

It was a message from the father of the children that revealed what had happened, as he asked if it was normal for the kids to have 65,000 V-Bucks.

Despite having controls whereby a purchase would need a card verification number, if someone were to draw funds from the card directly into the PSN wallet, that would effectively bypass the extra level of security. To compound things, the email account set up with the PSN account was not one that was attached to the user’s phone. So he was not receiving the purchase confirmation emails that would have alerted him far sooner to what was occurring.

V-Bucks can be used to purchase cosmetic additions to Fortnite, such as character skins, weapon designs, outfits, dances, and other collectible items. The PlayStation store does not have a procedure in place for accidental purchases such as this and will only offer PSN credit as compensation.

With Fortnite extremely popular amongst young gamers, parents and relatives should make sure that there is adequate protection in place to prevent accidental purchases like this.