Autistic teen scammed in WoW.

[Deleted]

I smell bullshit. Sounds like a scam. Make up a tearjerking story, start a gofundme and cash. Otherwise the mother is retarded to let autistic son have so much money, since clearly he cannot deal with it.

[Dotality]

Why the hell are majority of you act like elitist jerks? You disgust me, you legitimise crimes like these it's literally the same as beating the disabled person in wheelchair and taking their money and possibly even worse. You are bunch of disconnected millenials who have no touch with world or sick people and obviously have no clue how autism affects peoples life and how hard it is for families to deal with it but I bet my life you don't think twice before calling someone an autist in world of warcraft or any other game. Go do some charity work and get in touch with an actual real life instead of living in your bubbles. Disgusting.

It saddens me to see things like this and it's impossible not to lose faith in human kind

[Laerrus]

It sucks that happened to the kid. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to the boy to not be so trusting of other people.

[Azadina]

Ahh, thanks
But then I'd like to ask, as follow up, why does he have access to all of that at once? Again, I'm not familiar with other countries, but here we can transfer a fixed amount pr. day or week, whatever suits him. There are a number of ways to make sure this doesn't happen.

I still maintain that there are people around him who could've prevented this from happening, if they had stopped and thought for a second.

They went all in with the independence trial. Sadly, he laid all shadows of doubts to rest about his capability of managing his own finances. I'm personally not very sure if it will be an effective lesson, as it seems they are now 400 in the plus with partial bank refund along with the donation campaign.

[DesmondCreighton]

*surprised autistic face*

[Gamer8585]

I think the thing that's getting lost here is that scammers will usually build trust (sometimes for a long, long time), before fleecing a person.

Josh may have autism, but he:
1) Is able to successfully work though a collegiate curriculum.
2) To hold down a regular job
3) Live on his own
4) Save his money (honestly it sounds like he was doing better in this regard than most neurotypical people)

I highly doubt the scammer just walked up to him in the middle of SW/Org and asked for 1,400 pounds and "double-pinky-sweared" he would pay it back. He probably was a friend or guildmate that had been talking to Josh for awhile, and then saw an opening to be a shithead. Maybe he gave him a sob-story or something, but its likely he did it following standard scamming protocol.

Josh's trusting nature COMBINED with an already established relationship with this person is what likely over-road the idea of not sending money (or proxies thereof) to strangers.

Betrayal is a really big deal for anyone, and evenmore so for people with autism. Social interactions are incredibly difficult, and to get it so wrong that you get harmed that badly can really screwup their worldview. Its honestly way worse than most people here can empathize with unless they are autistic or know, or care for, someone that is.

[BananaHandsB]

It's a terrible thing, but times like this are opportunities to learn. Unfortunately Josh had to learn the hard way, but, at some point, he does need to learn not to trust everyone. Most of us can learn this through 2nd hand information, but for Josh, this might be the only way to really drive that message home. If anything good can be taken from this, it's a valuable lesson for Josh that he needs in order to become more independent. Again, not at all saying this is a good thing, but there is something positive to be taken from it.

[Alyzah]

Might be fake. Very sick woman if it truly is fake using her son as a prop for a scam.

• The maximum amount of Blizzard Balance you can have on your account is £200/€250, or £100/€110 if you don't have an Authenticator linked to your account.

[Kyphael]

Unfortunately, scammers take advantage of people of all levels of intelligence and naivety. It comes down to being up to the mom to pretty much be over her son's shoulder to make sure he isn't taken advantage of if she knows he has a bank account with $1500 and is susceptible to falling for scams and might give someone his money in an MMO. She is responsible for him and refunding him. Unfortunately the world is full of snakes.

[Mistame]

Becouse often when people get scammed its more that they are stupid enough to fall for it, in this case the scammer took advantage of a sickness to get what he wanted instead of stupidity.

Unless you can demonstrate that the scammer knew the guy suffered from autism, this isn't really an argument.

Because the scam happened to a innocent man with autism who believed everyone else was like him.

And? People with autism aren't special. It's no more of a story than anyone else getting scammed.

[petej0]

It's a terrible thing, but times like this are opportunities to learn. Unfortunately Josh had to learn the hard way, but, at some point, he does need to learn not to trust everyone. Most of us can learn this through 2nd hand information, but for Josh, this might be the only way to really drive that message home. If anything good can be taken from this, it's a valuable lesson for Josh that he needs in order to become more independent. Again, not at all saying this is a good thing, but there is something positive to be taken from it.

I love how they try to appeal to peoples emotions by throwing in "autistic". This shit happens daily, in all forms across all populations.

[hawkeyeTA]

Did anyone read the story? Yes he is Autistic but he also 19 years old with a full time job and his own bank account. Shouldn't have his own bank account if he can't manage money properly. His paychecks should be going into a trust account to care for him when he is older and his parents are dead.

[Molis]

Of course the scammer is a PoS, however this is really poor parenting.

It seems like the gofundme twats will enable another shit parent.

[EbonBehelit-]

“Josh is vulnerable because he believes everything people tell him. We’ve been lucky up until now that no-one at school or at college has ever bullied him or taken advantage of him."

Lucky? It's the reason he hasn't learnt to stop trusting strangers yet. He's been spared the discomforts of an important life lesson, and now he's paying the price, because:

"learn how to be independent and manage his own finances.."

will never fall into place until he gets it. It's pretty obvious at this point in time that he's not ready to be financially independent, though that's hardly a problem exclusive to this young man in particular.

Regardless, I do hope he gets the help he needs, and that he learns a valuable lesson from this.

[petej0]

Of course the scammer is a PoS, however this is really poor parenting.

It seems like the gofundme twats will enable another shit parent.

Unless its another gofundme scam haha

- - - Updated - - -

“Josh is vulnerable because he believes everything people tell him. We’ve been lucky up until now that no-one at school or at college has ever bullied him or taken advantage of him."

Lucky? It's the reason he hasn't learnt to stop trusting strangers yet. He's been spared the discomforts of an important life lesson, and now he's paying the price, because:

"learn how to be independent and manage his own finances.."

will never fall into place until he gets it. It's pretty obvious at this point in time that he's not ready to be financially independent, though that's hardly a problem exclusive to this young man in particular.

Regardless, I do hope he gets the help he needs, and that he learns a valuable lesson from this.

Helicopter/Lawnmower parenting have ruined real life for a generation of adults.

[Dundebuns]

She should get in contact with Blizzard. I'm sure they'd have something to say about people using their platform to scam autistic people.

[Alyzah]

Blizzard might be able to verify if this is in fact true

[Ozyorkbourne]

Did you read? He's 19.

Did you read? I was responding to someone elses hypothetical statement, thanks.

[Devilyaki]

To not be trusting of people online and in general. Looks like a big failure on the parents for not preparing him for life, they even said how lucky it was it took this long so they knew something like this would happen and instead of teaching and preparing him for it they just wait and did a go fund me...

[Echoherb]

I believe their cards only go up to $50, which is 28 gift cards; 47 if they were the 60 day cards: Not sure where you're getting this 100 gift cards number from.

That aside, I agree. If he's so autistic that he can't tell right from wrong nor make legal decisions, then he shouldn't have access to a bank account, let alone a bank account with so much money in it. If he is high functioning enough, then it's not really a story, just another person who fell for a scam. The only difference is he has a sob story and parents with no shame who are willing to exploit it.

I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I made that post, but yeah still a ton of gift cards.