Consider yourself going down the street when a child who appeared to be in danger approached you and requested to use your phone to text their parents. What would you do if you were in that situation?
Many of us would sympathize with the child and hand him the phone so he could text or call his parents. After all, he’s just a helpless infant; what risk could he possibly pose?
Unfortunately, one Milwaukee father learned the hard way that even children who appear to be in need can occasionally be hiding sinister motives.
According to WISN, Anyon Rettinger of Milwaukee was working on his car in his driveway when a youngster around the age of 12 approached him and wanted to borrow Rettinger’s phone.
Rettinger claims the youngster informed him he was out of money and far from home, and that he needed to text his parents for assistance.
Rettinger opened his phone and even observed the boy start to send a text message out of kindness, but when he wasn’t looking, the boy covertly went to his Apple Pay account and moved $5,000 out.
The boy then fled before Rettinger realized what had happened, leaving him in full shock and panic.
“And I’m just kind of like, that internal panic kicks in, you know?” he told WISN.
According to the source, Rettinger believes the boy observed him entering his passcode to the phone and then using it to defeat the facial recognition system to log into Apple Pay.
To make matters worse for Rettinger, his financial services provider, UW Credit Union, has been less than helpful in reducing the effects of the incident.
Apparently, UW Credit Union does not intend to revoke the transaction or return the monies, arguing that the purchase was lawful in their opinion. They also charged him overdraft fees since they took too much money out of his account.
Rettinger also alleges that he did not have $500 in his account at the time of the transaction and that the transaction depleted his savings and joint savings account, necessitating a $500 line of credit in his name to meet the bills, which he is expected to repay.
Summing up the situation, Rettinger said, “Five thousand dollars in a very large grand scheme of things isn’t that big of a deal, but for a 27-year-old that doesn’t have a lot of money that’s trying to make it, it’s huge.”
Meanwhile, Apple and the Milwaukee Police Department are looking into the event.
To begin, it should be said that UW Credit Union should be a little more lenient with Rettinger and not be so legalistic. It is absurd to treat him in this manner when he was the victim of this atrocity.
It should also be noted that, while this was only one occurrence, it would not be shocking if this fraud was occurring across the country, especially considering the growth in crime and the city authorities’ failure to appropriately handle the issue.
Americans have a tendency to want to be charitable and help others in need, which is a good thing, but it can also manifest as ignorance, resulting in their letting their guard down and being cheated out of money, as Rettinger did.
When a child you don’t know requests to use your phone, pay close attention to what they’re doing.
