this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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492
Dad stuck in support nightmare after teen lied about age on Discord- Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by cannedtuna@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
102 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

In short, a kid made a Discord account at age 12, lied about her age and said she was 18. The kid at age 13 clicked a scam link claiming to be Discord support and lost access to her account. Scammer asked for parents bank account details which is how the dad became aware. Dad tried to report the issue to Discord, but had to go through an AI support bot that kept closing the ticket. Dad spoke with someone named “Molly” that was possibly a human and explained that his daughter’s account had a lot of underage friends tied to the account that could be at risk. “Molly” said they’d have to open a ticket from within the app, which they no longer had access to because his daughter never set up 2FA.

Discord didn’t actually do anything about this until Ars stepped in. After regaining access to the account the daughter found 2 friends fell for the scam. Discord later banned the account for violating the TOS when lying about her age and stated they would only restore the account if they shared a photo of the kid along with a copy of her birth certificate or passport. The father gave in and complied so she didn’t lose access to her friends.

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[–] ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

How is this news? Kid got pwned; it's a learning experience to lose your account because you clicked on an untrusted link. Discord sucks, and their support sucks, but I don't think they did anything wrong here beyond that.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems -3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

You know what's also a learning experience? Getting mugged. I hope you learn compassion before you learn that lesson.

[–] architect@thelemmy.club 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They aren’t wrong at all. It has always been this way. You lose access to your account you make another. They are making a case of this to push more ID anti anon bullshit.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Two things can be true. Still shouldn't hold a teenager wholly responsible for being scammed.

[–] ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

It's honestly so sad you'd make that comparison. I've lost accounts to scammers as a teen and I've been mugged, and I can tell you that only one of those experiences had any kind of lasting effect on me. I think it's important to remember that we're talking about a teen's discord account with absolutely nothing valuable on the line at all. They can make a new account and go on with their lives. This experience may even help them avoid falling for a scam later in life that could have actual consequences for them.

This is the digital equivalent of falling of your bike and skinning your knee.