India teenager squanders half a million rupees on online games

HYDERABAD: A teenage boy in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh spent more than half a million rupees to pay for purchases on online game ‘Free Fair’.

According to police, the 13-year-old boy who father worked in Kuwait, was addicted to online gaming and spent huge sums of money from his mother’s two bank accounts.

The boy’s mother, Razia Sultana, was shocked to find that an amount of Rs. 556,000 had been debited from her two accounts when she tried to withdraw some money from an automated teller machine (ATM).

She immediately lodged a complaint with the local police. During the investigation, police found that the amount was spent by her own son.

The online game involved buying “weapons” to advance and score more points. The boy, who played the game on an app downloaded on his mobile, was paying from his mother’s account and ended up exhausting almost the entire bank balance.

“The entire story came out when we verified the boy’s mobile phone,” sub-inspector of police Yesu Babu told local media. Police have not revealed his identity. The boy spent the money over a period of 20 days since he got hooked to the game

Police officials observed that the boy had all the necessary information to access the bank accounts and his mother failed to notice his activities. Police were also investigating how the boy gained access to an online game meant only for adults.

“The elders in the family failed to monitor the activities of the boy, leading to this lapse,” the police inspector said, adding that they were probing the incident from all angles.

The loss of money was a big shock for the family as the boy’s father had saved the amount to return to India and start a business. “I don’t know how we will recover from this shock and monetary loss. My husband is also in a state of deep shock over the incident”, said his mother.