We’ve all been obsessed with that new mobile game we downloaded on our phones, and we’ve all spent just a few more dollars on it than we should have. However, one Chinese teen took things a little bit too far. According to a report from Insider (via Phone Arena) a 13-year-old in China spent $64K on mobile games.
$64K on mobile games
Not too long ago, a woman by the name of Gong Yiwang got a call from her daughter’s boarding school. Her teacher was concerned that her 13-year-old daughter was spending a lot of money on mobile games, and her concerns would be correct. Yiwang check the bank account to see that she only had 7¢ left in her account (.5 Yuan).
It turned out that her daughter had spent a whopping $64K (over 450,000 Yuan) on mobile games between January and May. A breakdown of the charges revealed that she spent $16,800 (119,983.92 Yuan) on game accounts, and $30,000 (214,257.00 Yuan) on in-game purchases. The remainder of the money she gave away to peers. The image below shows some of the transactions that she made.
The daughter said that she had no idea where the money came from. However, the investigation found that she had used her mother’s debit card to make the transactions, and she actually deleted her chat and transaction history to cover up her purchases. So, this isn’t a case of a child unknowingly spending a lot of money on transactions. She knew what she was doing.
As for sending money to her peers, in an interview with Elephant News, the Chinese news channel that covered the story, she said “If I didn’t send it to them, they would bother me all day.” So, her friends caught wind of her addiction and capitalized on it.
Her mother has tried to contact the game developers and reclaim the money. As of yet, she has not been able to recover the full amount.
Overarching issue
The story points to an overarching issue that affects kids and young adults getting carried away with spending money on apps. Mobile game addiction exists. Around the world, parents are looking at their bank accounts to discover that their children spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on mobile games.
This is why it’s important to constantly monitor your children when they get access to mobile devices. Also, it’s important to keep an eye on your bank account for any suspicious activities. In the case of Gong Yiwang, this happened over the course of five months. If your child did spend money on games, you will want to catch that as early as you can.