Teenager spends $20,000 on Twitch

Behind the back of his parents a teenager allegedly spend around $20,000 on Twitch donations, subs and Bits. Now his mother is trying to get the money back.

On Reddit a mother bemoaned that her son used up years worth of savings within 17 days.
Via a debit card, that the son got to pay for school meals, the teenager accessed the savings account of his mother to transfer funds for his online spending. Almost $20,000 were gone before she noticed and checked her accounts.

While her bank reacted immediately and froze the assets and also cancelled his debit card, it proved less helpful when the mother tried to have the lost money refunded. In order to rule out “friendly fraud” she would have to persecute her own son and give him a record before the bank would assist her.

Donations for streamers and athletes

In the Reddit thread she also described how most of the money went to the accounts of known streamers like Tfue and Ewok or NBA and NFL athletes that have been streaming.

Tfue allegedly also benefitted from the teenager’s reckless spending

Trying to get her money back, she has also contacted Twitch and its parent company Amazon. But she has not heard back from them yet. Some of the streamers the mother also contacted have been more helpful and they have proven very cooperative.

“I have not paid close enough attention to what he was doing online”

Within the Reddit thread the mother also clarified that she knew that much of the responsibility for the issue lies with her. If she had been more careful with her online banking account details her son would not have had the ability to spend as much. In a short statement to dotesports she also admitted that her son’s internet knowledge surprised her and that she did not pay enough attention to his online activities.

While trying to limit the finacial damages her main focus now is to figure out why her son acted as he did to makre sure that “this is the one giant mistake he makes in his life.”

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