A couple lost almost all of their savings when their teen spent nearly $20,000 on Twitch donations throughout June, although they've since been able to reclaim most of the money. Donating to streamers is just one thing that adds up the cost of gaming as a hobby, on top of companies like Twitch, EA, and Activision making huge amounts of money from in-game purchases.
Most streamers rely on donations from subscribers for much or all of their income. While big stars are able to land lucrative deals with streaming sites and big sponsorship packages, less popular users are primarily funded through donations. Many viewers will send small payments to support their favorite streamers, often in exchange for extra content or additional chat features.
A teenager spent almost $20,000 of his parent's money on donations through streaming site Twitch. The mother of the child spoke to Dot Esports about the transactions, but decided to stay anonymous. According to the story, the teen made sizable donations to a number of high-profile streamers. These included the likes of Tfue, Gorb, and Ewok as well as sports stars Kurt Benkert and Meyers Leonard. In total, the charges amounted to $19,870.94, with the donations made throughout June. The parents were able to reclaim the vast majority of the funds by contacting payment service company Xsolla, which handles many of Twitch's transactions, after being unsuccessful in discussing the matter with the streaming site. Speaking on the lack of support she got form Twitch, the teen's mother told Dot Esports, "The fact that no one would respond, and there was no way to speak with anyone was horrible."
This is not the first time that someone has spent thousands of dollars on services like Twitch or on in-game transactions with money that wasn't theirs. There have been many reports of children racking up thousands of dollars in charges on microtransactions or donations. In some instances, players were unaware they were even using real cash to make the purchases. This is one of the reasons why governments around the world have been considering regulations on loot boxes and microtransactions.
The fact that sites like Twitch allow players to spend such large sums of money without any warnings or safety systems in place is worrying. After all, many users are actually youngsters who might not be fully aware of what they are doing. It also opens up the possibility of fraud, as it is clear that there are not sufficient security systems in place to stop stolen bank information from being used in donations. Hopefully, stories like this will prompt streaming services to put better measures in place to prevent it from happening again.
Source: Dot Esports