Mercer Island mom warns of Roblox scams

Mercer Island mom warns of online gaming scams

Chances are, if your children are not playing Roblox, they know someone who is. The online gaming platform has become popular among school-aged children, including one Mercer Island child.

MERCER ISLAND, Wash. - Chances are, if your children are not playing Roblox, they know someone who is. The online gaming platform has become popular among school-aged children, including one Mercer Island child.

"At first I wasn’t a big fan of video games," said Erin Vivion, "but then I saw how it was helping my son socially."

Vivion’s 9-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia last May. As a way to deal with treatment, she gave into his requests to delve into the world of online gaming.

"There’s so much he can’t control," she said. "There are so many times when he feels like he’s not winning and treatment, it’s long and hard. It gets worse before it gets better, so, in these games, he has a chance to win."

But recently the family fell victim to a Roblox scam.

According to experts, there are two main scams:

One will give you some code or text that a player can copy and paste in order to get free things. In actuality, experts say what it’s doing is giving scammers access to the account so they can steal whatever money is in there or take whatever objects are of value.

The other scam involves trades. This is what the Vivions fell victim to.

Scammers will propose two trades: one is really good for you and one that is really good for them. The trade is built so that the trade that benefits you fails, and the trade that benefits them succeeds, taking everything of value in your account.

"My son declined the trade," Vivion said. "It went through anyway. He just looked at me, just sunk, and said, ‘please don’t be mad at me, mommy.’"

Vivion tells FOX 13 she tried contacting the developer but so far has been unsuccessful.

Now she’s warning others about the dark side of Roblox.

"I think you just need to be aware of how quickly it can happen and plan from there," she said. "We have an emotional connection in these silly little pets because they were rewards for hard things and that’s the disappointing part. Moving forward, we all just need to be aware of how these platforms work and that not everyone playing on the platform is a good person."