9-Year-Old Girl Guesses Way Into Dad’s PayPal Account And Books Family Trip To Disneyland
Kids all across the globe want to someday go to a Disney Park and enjoy a magical vacation with their family, but some aren’t willing to be overly patient and wait for it. A 9-year-old girl by the name of Susan Wilson decided to hop on her dad Ian’s phone one night and start searching the internet. Before anyone even realized it, the schoolgirl had found her way into Ian’s PayPal account and booked the family a trip to Disneyland Paris for a glorious vacation.
While some people may do everything they can possibly do to protect against online thieves, they can’t always protect against those closest to them.
According to the Mirror, Ian Wilson was sleeping soundly when his 9-year-old daughter Susan grabbed his phone and began searching around online. She ended up on PayPal, and after a little bit of guesswork, she managed to figure out his password and make her way into his account.
Once she figured out how to get access to the money in his PayPal account, Susan figured it was time to do a little shopping for a luxurious family vacation to Disneyland Paris.
9-year-old girl books @DisneyParis_EN trip after guessing her father’s PayPal password https://t.co/EvAhlvYu56 pic.twitter.com/ZMBj6whbzp
— Inside the Magic (@InsideTheMagic) November 8, 2017
As Ian slept, Susan managed to spend quite a bit of money.
- £400 on flights and a gift card to a hotel
- £391.84 on tickets to Disneyland Paris theme park tickets and the Disneyland Express train
- £214.08 on a VIP family tour of the Eiffel Tower
That sounds like an incredible vacation, and certainly one that anyone would enjoy, but only if it was planned with the knowledge of the entire family.
It wasn’t until three days later that Ian Wilson noticed the £1,005.92 (more than $1,300) was missing from his account. He realized what had happened and contacted PayPal to find out about the money out of his account, and they told him the payments came from an authorized device with his password.
Upon checking the search history, he saw the travel websites on his phone, and Susan admitted she was the one looking on his phone but isn’t sure how she booked everything.
“I don’t know how I did it. I just like messing with Dad’s phone. I don’t know where Paris is or what the Eiffel Tower is.”
Ian said that his daughter didn’t realize the “enormity” of what she had done and that she was sorry. Susan even offered up 10p to help pay back the amount she spent on the trip.
“Toi ma destinée, je saurai t’aimer, j’en ai rêvé” ? – Aurore – La Belle au Bois Dormant pic.twitter.com/bTJfLnk1R1
— Disneyland Paris (@DisneylandParis) November 6, 2017
The flights and hotel were booked through Bravofly, while German website Getyourguide was used to book the VIP tour. Originally, the sites told Wilson that no fraud had been committed and they were not going to refund the money spent on everything.
Eventually, PayPal offered a goodwill gesture and said that it was simply a matter of “friendly fraud” and refunded all of the money to the family.
A trip to Disneyland Paris and the Eiffel Tower sounds like the dream trip of a lifetime, and it likely would have been for Susan Wilson and her family, but not at this time. She did manage to get into her dad’s PayPal account and book all of these things, but it was a simple mistake that was thankfully fixed for the family. Maybe one day, she will get to take that magical vacation.
[Featured Image by Danny Cox]
