Teenager wiped family saving by extravagant online game spending
Technology
The girl spent 4.8M on purchasing game accounts and 8.6M on in-game purchases during Jan-May
LAHORE (Web Desk) - A teenage girl has spent all her family's life savings of Rs18 million online games. She primarily used the money for in-game purchases, causing her mother's bank account to be completely drained after gaining access to the debit card details.
In an effort to hide her actions, the girl deleted chat conversations and transaction histories from her phone. However, the lack of funds became evident, and her mother eventually discovered the truth.
Without her parents' knowledge, the 13-year-old Chinese girl spent around Rs18 million from the family's savings account. Her mother got to know about the incident upon the call of her boarding school teacher in late May expressing concerns about her potential addiction to pay-to-play games.
When Gong Yiwang, the concerned mother, checked the bank account, she was devastated to find only seven cents remaining. This revelation caused immense distress as the girl had spent Rs4.8 million on purchasing game accounts and an additional Rs8.6 million on in-game purchases between January and May.
The girl also transferred a significant amount of money to ten of her classmates, enabling them to make their own purchases.
During an interview with a local TV channel, Gong expressed her disbelief, saying, "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 girl tearfully explained that she had linked her mother's card to her own mobile phone without fully understanding the source of the money or the extent of her spending. She had obtained the password after her mother had asked her to make a purchase previously. However, she also attributed some responsibility to her friends.
It seems that her friends continuously pressured and harassed her after discovering the significant amount of money she had. The girl explained, "If I didn't send it to them, they would bother me all day. If I told the teacher, I feared the teacher would inform my parents, and that would make them angry." Unfortunately, her fears became a reality.
As of now, Gong has not received complete refunds for the purchases made. However, she has been actively contacting the companies involved to explain the situation.
