Zach Grant playing his Xbox Live
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Playing video games won't be the same for 14-year-old Zach Grant anymore.
"He hasn't played in two days. He doesn't know if he should," his mom Lisa told First Coast News.
On Tuesday night, Zach learned that the oldest advice in the parental handbook now applies to the virtual world too.
"Don't talk to strangers," Lisa said, "Bad things can happen when you're talking to people you don't know."
It started when he was chatting online through his Xbox Live game system. Through this system Zach can talk live with someone across town or on the other side of the planet while playing against them in the game.
He started a chat with someone with the screen name "Mr. Lamborghini," and he had something to offer that Zach had been asking his mom for for a while.
The other chatter used Microsoft Points as bait in a phishing scheme. He offered Zach the points in exchange for his father's account email address and password.
Zach even recorded Mr. Lamborghini's offer:
"What you have to do is send me an email address and a password and then get off the system for 15 minutes," is what was heard on the audio playback.
"You have 20 minutes to get me the email address and password. I am not a hacker," the person told Zach.
So when he gave up the information, his father's credit card numbers were exposed. And the scammer wasted no time buying movies and video games on the card.
"My husband woke up and couldn't sleep on Tuesday night, so he got up and checked his email," Lisa said. "And he saw all the bills from Microsoft."
Grant says the hacker charged around $500 to their card. She says they've cancelled the card, but the thief continues to try to use it.
Grant says she's working with the credit card company to get the money back.
She says they've called Microsoft, but have not heard anything back from them.
"You can't give people information," she said. "You can't let someone tell you they'll give you something in return, because that can really hurt your family."
It's a tough lesson, but Lisa says she's not mad at Zach. She says he just took the bait of a hacker looking for a quick score.
"I didn't blame him," she said. "I just want him to see how being careless can cause bad things to happen."
First Coast News