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Dad saddled with $20,000 bill after daughter's spending spree on Genshin Impact

cormack12

Gold Member
Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ters-in-game-purchase-spree-on-genshin-impact

SINGAPORE - Mr Lim Cheng Mong was puzzled when the bank called to tell him he had missed a payment of more than $20,000 in overdue credit card debt linked to 89 mysterious transactions under his name.

"At first I thought I was scammed, but the credit card company said these were all legitimate transactions and there was nothing it could do," said Mr Lim, 56, who works as a product manager in a German company.

The billing trail led to his 18-year-old daughter's Grab account, which was tied to his credit card and meant to cover her transportation expenses.

"I told her off and said it was a lot of money - one year’s worth of school fees if she were to go to an overseas university,” Mr Lim told The Straits Times.

"A huge sum was spent in the blink of an eye," he said.

In Mr Lim's case, his daughter made payments through the Apple App Store and Coda Payments, a major online transaction platform.

Mr Lim's daughter has just hit the minimum age of 18 that enables her to enter contracts on her own, said Mr Tan from Rajah and Tann Singapore. He added that it is hard to argue that she was not aware that she made the online purchases.

I have since set my credit card issuer to send alerts for every single transaction, even those that involve $1, as most banks set the default at $500 before an alert is triggered to prevent fraudulent transactions.
 
Whatever. My point is that either way it's parent's fault because they are stupid enough to not prevent this type of stuff from happening when there are countless measures to do it
I would trust my 18 year old "kid" with my credit card for transportation or schooling costs. But my kid is smart enough to realize I'll see all the charges they make and know the consequences for using it on other things.
 
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radewagon

Member
I know that kids don't know what they are doing many times, but Jesus Christ, parents are just stupid.
Either remove your card from payment methods or just set up spending limits through consoles...it's not that hard...
Stupid and naive are not the same thing. Most parents.... heck, most people would be shocked to learn that it's even possible to spend $20,000 in a video game. $20,0000 on what is, essentially, nothing. Any game that allows you to spend that much isn't a game anymore. It's a tool to scam whales.
 

Ebidramon

Banned
"But daaaaad, I reaaaaally wanted that waifu!"

w02ADUL.jpg
 
That is an average of $224 a transaction... The game has individual things to purchase worth over $200?

Plot twist: it was actually him that made the purchases and he is just using his daughter to hide it.

"But daaaaad, I reaaaaally wanted that waifu!"

w02ADUL.jpg
Alternate plot twist: his daughter shows him that she spent the money to obtain this, and he signs up and drops another $20k.
 

Fbh

Member
The scary direction these games are going. It shouldn't be legal for you to be able to spent $20,000 on a video game in a month.

Glad he was apparently wealthy enough to shrug it off.

Why not ? You can spend that much on parties, vacations, booze, concerts,etc.

I agree limits should be put on things that specifically aim at kids. But everyone involved in this case is legally an adult.

I know that kids don't know what they are doing many times, but Jesus Christ, parents are just stupid.
Either remove your card from payment methods or just set up spending limits through consoles...it's not that hard...

At 18 the "she didn't know that's a lot of money" excuse doesn't work anymore.

Here you have a dumb spoiled girl and a dad without the foresight to not give her unrestricted access to his credit card.
 
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tylrdiablos

Member
The news site says she spent $20,000 over 89 purchases. That's around $224 per purchase.
Any players on Genshin Impact here can enlighten us what that'd get her? Is it all in-game currency or is it costumes and shit?
 

Mr Moose

Member
The news site says she spent $20,000 over 89 purchases. That's around $224 per purchase.
Any players on Genshin Impact here can enlighten us what that'd get her? Is it all in-game currency or is it costumes and shit?
Currency to buy wishes, there's only a few outfits you can purchase and they don't cost $224.
Wishes are used to get (hopefully) 5 star weapons and 4/5 star characters.
You can save up for free wishes by doing daily missions and events.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Allowing somebody to blast 20k in a single month on a game shouldn't be allowed. No wonder some mobile games are making over a billion in revenue a year..

Gaming needs gambling style regulations, plus more help for people who have gaming addiction issues.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
The news site says she spent $20,000 over 89 purchases. That's around $224 per purchase.
Any players on Genshin Impact here can enlighten us what that'd get her? Is it all in-game currency or is it costumes and shit?
Maybe it's a currency conversion thing, but here in the US the largest single transaction you can do is $99.99.
 

Star-Lord

Member
"At first I thought I was scammed...."

You were, by your dumbass daughter. She knew what she was doing, what a bitch.
This.

If the daughter was 8-years old, I’d have a bit more sympathy. But the lass was 18. She knew full well what she was doing.
 

Doom85

Member
The news site says she spent $20,000 over 89 purchases. That's around $224 per purchase.
Any players on Genshin Impact here can enlighten us what that'd get her? Is it all in-game currency or is it costumes and shit?

I’m honestly baffled on why she spent THAT much. I played Genshin for about 4 months, and there’s really no point in trying to pull for a specific character until there’s a current banner that greatly increases said character’s pull rate. In fact, many characters were locked behind limited banners so if she wanted certain ones that she missed she’d have to wait months to try to get them again.

My only guess is she was so obsessed that she wanted to max out the constellations on some characters. Every time you pull a character you already have, you can advance their constellation which gives them minor boosts (max of 7 or 8 boosts IIRC). But it’s all optional, you can play the game just fine with characters with zero constellation upgrades, hell most content can be beaten with the four characters the game gives you for free.

Like, geezus. In my time playing, I spent around $600-700 (I’m 35 and in charge of my own finances obviously) and that gave me PLENTY. Especially with the $5 monthly boost that gives you about 15 pulls per month. My only guess is she has an addiction problem and yes, she should be punished but also she be heavily encouraged to seek psychiatric help as punishment rarely fixes this sort of issue. And I’m not getting too judgmental here unlike others, lord knows many of us probably have issues with food, drinking, smoking, porn, social media, hell one can even be addicted to work. Yes, some have more likely consequences than others, but an addiction is always something that should be treated.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Man, that’s a whole lotta money. Don’t know how I would react, but what a failure of education that your 18 year old daughter would do this to you.
 

BlakeofT

Member
I think I've spent less than $20000 on all the video games and consoles in my collection combined. Maybe I would be surprised and I've spent more, but damn that's a lot of money to spend on one single game. Gross.
 
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kingfey

Banned
I think I've spent less than $20000 on all the video games and consoles in my collection combined. Maybe I would be surprised and I've spent more, but damn that's a lot of money to spend on one single game. Gross.
If I had that much money, I would have a nice car, and good gaming pc.

My broke ass, has a 2017 graphic card, and my car cost me $1.2k That how poor I am.
 

SCB3

Member
I once spent £20 on Pokemon GO and thought that was bad, I also bought the Ornament for Salvations Grip in Destiny, the worst fucking gun, it made it green

I'm not made for gatchas at least
 

Boglin

Member
If only there was a website where 18 year old girls could amass fans and make a shitload of money really fast.
I have it on good authority that whales like her don't do well on that site so there's no way she could get enough people paying her to cover the cost. Not unless SeaWorld sponsored her OnlyFans.
 

JimboJones

Member
That sucks. Who lotta less tech savvy parents out there letting their children have access to digital stores with their payment info attached.

I let my guard down once , my 6 year old nephew bought Black Panther from amazon prime through the smart TV.
Luckily confirmation email was sent and laughed about it and Pin was set up for purchases.
I suppose you would have thought an 18 year old would have been more responsible though.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I was expecting some toddler being a stupid toddler. 18? Damn she was aware of what she was doing one way or another. Nefarious or never knew the consequences of spending daddy's money?
 

Ikutachi

Member
The scary direction these games are going. It shouldn't be legal for you to be able to spent $20,000 on a video game in a month.

Glad he was apparently wealthy enough to shrug it off.
 
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