11-year-old girl spends over Dh15,000 on social media influencer

social media influencer, social media, TikTok, influencer

The girl used the account to buy 'coins' on social media, so that she could lip sync with the influencer.

By Web Report

Published: Tue 3 Sep 2019, 10:41 AM

Last updated: Tue 3 Sep 2019, 12:48 PM

An 11-year-old girl from Cambridgeshire squandered her mother's entire savings to lip sync with a 24-year-old influencer on TikTok.
The girl spent £3,500 (Dh15,000 approx) in less than a month as her phone was linked to an iTunes account, which used her mother's bank details. The girl used the account to buy 'coins' on TikTok so that she could lip sync with the influencer. The worried mother claimed that her bank or iTunes did not alert her even when large amount of money was being transacted.
The mother told Cambridgeshire Live that her daughter is "obsessed" with the influencer and claimed she had private video calls with the him, reported Mirror.co.uk.
"She is 11 and she's been talking to this man and spending loads of money to do duets with him. My daughter still doesn't see that she's been scammed. She's obsessed with him," the mother said.
She added that she has screenshots of private messages between her daughter and the man and in one of them he tells her 'I love you 2'.
However, police said no action will be taken against the man as the messages were not of a sexual nature. "It's wiped out all my money. I now have not one penny left for me and my family," the mother said, adding that she has been returned only £127 from iTunes yet.

While an Apple spokesman declined to comment on this individual case, it is reported that children under 13 cannot create an Apple ID on their own. And, whenever a child initiates a new purchase or free download, a request goes to the family 'organiser' in charge of the account.
Following the incident, a TikTok spokesman said: "We are committed to maintaining a fun, positive environment, and have strict policies against any deceptive or inappropriate behaviour. We have opened an internal investigation into the matter".
TikTok is popular among children and teens, and allows users to create and share short music videos and to lip sync to songs. Users buy 'coins' to obtain virtual gifts for their favourite influencers, often in exchange for shout outs or duets.