Teen spends $64K from mom’s debit card on mobile games; family left with 7 cents

By Nick Heyman On Jun 12, 2023

These days it seems important to teach your kids the value of money. If they don’t understand the difference between real currency and in-app money, they might face the same problem that this one family in China has suffered through. A 13-year-old girl in China charged $64,000 (over 450,000 Yuan) using her mother’s debit card on pay-to-play mobile games according to Insider. The story was originally reported by a television channel called Elephant News in the Henan Province.

The mother, Gong Yiwang, said that she discovered that her bank account had only 7 cents left after a teacher called from her daughter’s boarding school to warn the mother that her daughter seemed addicted to pay-to-play games. From January to May, the girl had spent $16,800 on game accounts and $30,000 was spent on in-game purchases. Gaming addiction is a big deal in China and teens in the country are supposed to be limited to three hours of playing time each week.

The Elephant News video showed some of the purchases made by the teen

The daughter claimed not to know where the money came from but did link her mom’s debit card to her phone. And she did delete chat and transaction records in order to hide her spending from her parents. The teen was able to access the debit card account after getting the password when her mom let her use the card one time to make a purchase

While the teen said that she didn’t know how much money she was burning through, she also sent money to her classmates who noticed that she was spending a large amount on mobile games. Crying to the Elephant News television channel, the girl said, “If I didn’t send it to them, they would bother me all day. If I told the teacher, I was afraid that the teacher would tell my parents and that my parents would be angry.” The video of the Elephant News’ coverage of the story has been viewed over 140 million times on Weibo.

The girl’s mother said, “I never thought a 13-year-old girl could do this. I’m in a daze; my head feels like it’s going to explode.” The mother has been trying to get the gaming platforms to return some of the money her daughter spent but has not been able to recover the full amount yet.

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