A Singapore teen’s father was left puzzled after receiving a massive $20,000 credit card bill from his bank for 89 mysterious transactions under his name. Turns out, her 18-year-old daughter had gone on a shopping spree in Genshin Impact, an open-world RPG title by miHoYo where players can pay for a chance to win in-game characters and items using real money.
It isn’t the first time we’re seeing children spending their parents’ life savings on microtransactions, and it likely won’t be the last. These types of gacha games have received severe criticism in the past for closely resembling gambling.
According to a Straits Times report, the daughter had linked her Grab account, which was tied to Mr Lim Cheng Mong’s credit card and meant to cover her traveling expenses, with her Genshin Impact account before spending $19,810 over a six-week period on the title without her father’s consent.
The payments were made via the Apple App Store and Coda Payments, an online transaction platform that’s often used to recharge in-game currencies using money.
Despite being a free-to-play game, Genshin Impact has managed to earn over $2 billion USD since its initial release in September 2020. The title allows players to speed up their in-game progress by paying real money for a chance to redeem better characters, weapons, and various other items.
