Probably Spain has similar laws (age of majority is 18 in Spain), making the whole AdWords contract invalid. So there would not have been any way for Google to get the money.
So this most likely wasn't anything 'charitable' done by Google, just the law.
Nothing to see here, move along...
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2602255/legal/google-to...
I read the title as "spanish boy counterfeits a 100,000 Euro bill and tries to pay Google with it".
I've never not paid a bill (it's automatic), but I find it extremely hard to believe that once the payment failed at 500 Euro they would allow the account to accrue 99,500 Euro more in charges. That is assuming they have a similar threshold to charge where this user was.
I really thought I had to add a credit card before I could use adwords,and that they charge at the end of the first month.
I feel like there's something missing from this story.
2. Spend 100k on each on affiliate marketing. Even a non optimized campaign on a good offer is still going to bring in 5 figures
3. ??????
4. Profit
Fixed that for you ;)
The circle of life is complete.
There are no mistakes here. The idiot kid wanted publicity at any cost, the idiot parents want to give the kid everything he wants and Google doesn't want any more hostile propaganda in Europe.
I believe the AdWords policies vary from country to country (and from time to time) but the last I checked (2015), here in India, you had to have at least one verifiable payment method (card/bank account) in order to even activate an AdWords account, leave alone the matter of running up a balance of Euro 100,000.
So how did a 12 y-o manage to do that?
I wasn't really listening enough to remember the exact details but it rang true enough for me not to question it. Other than his parents being very trusting or very naive, of course?
/More detail http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37571304/boy-racks-up-...
"A savings account had been opened in the boy's name and he used those details when signing up for AdWords."
In this case, if you pay for AdWords credit up front and then spend them, the company is fine. But if they charge a bill after the fact, the contract allowing those charges wouldn't be legal, and that's the responsibility of the professional part.
It's gaming their own system from within -- if someone is given money to splurge on Adwords, they will pour it into really competitive keywords without really caring about the return, jacking up the price for those who are paying real money.
It might sound altruistic, but there is a pretty real benefit for Google.
A) It's not true that people "splurge" it on adwords. Adwords gives you a finite amount, so you have an interest in being as efficient as possible, at least if you care about your cause. Also, the effect on bid pressure is greater if you bid the same as the nr 1 bidder than if you "splurge it" by bidding $100/click, see D)
B) trials are like £75. Once you spend it, it's gone. You can't get more. It's not gonna bankrupt your the competitors.
C) Non-profits can't "pour it into really competitive keywords". They're limited in what they can do, they can't go bid on life insurance with google's money. They're also limited to a maximum bid of $2/click.
D) Regarding jacking up the price being a real benefit for google... This one is more complicated but you can't be sure without looking at the numbers. Because on the one hand you increase competition, but on the other google only get actual revenue from N-1 ad slots.
You're just guessing.
12 years old kid is punished to stay at home, he decides to be a famous youtuber and somehow he ends up giving his bank account. Fist invoices are low, after one month with a 19k invoice the bank notifies the parents and the parents block all the invoices.
Heck, Comcast is rolling out unlimited* potential liability if you go over without pre-purchasing a $50 insurance policy.
* Given bandwidth constraints, maybe it's only $6500/mo or so. Still.
No, that's not true. The maximum additional liability is $200.
From the article linked to in the recent discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12663935
The third time it's exceeded within a 12 month period, however, the "courtesy months" go away and users will be charged $10 for an additional 50GB of data, which will continue happening to a limit of $200 per month. If you want unlimited data access, you can buy it up front, for an additional $50 per month over your current internet bill.
