Family recovers the $20,000 son donated to Twitch streamers

midian182

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Recap: The story of a family who lost $20,000 after their teenage son secretly spent it on Twitch donations, subscriptions, and bits (virtual goods used to Cheer in chat messages) has had a happy ending after they were able to reclaim most of the money.

It was reported last month that between June 14th and June 30th, the teen managed to spend $19,870.94 belonging to his mother. The donations went to popular streamers, including Tfue, Gorb, and Ewokttv, as well as athletes such as Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kurt Benkert and Miami Heat's Meyers Leonard.

The mother contacted her bank but was told that unless she pressed charges, it would be considered friendly fraud, which is when a consumer makes an online shopping purchase with their own credit card and then requests a chargeback from the issuing bank after receiving the purchased goods or services.

Speaking to Dot Esports, the parent said almost all of the money has now been refunded after she contacted Xsolla; a service Twitch uses for payments. A company agent said that using its online chat feature, she got adjustment credits on most of the transactions with the condition that the account is "permanently blocked to prevent future unauthorized charges."

The mother said that Twitch was no help, calling its lack of response "the most frustrating thing of all." She sent registered mail to both Twitch CEO Emmett Shear and Amazon's legal team but received no response. Additionally, the son's Twitch account was abruptly closed after she filled out an online help form, causing "all transaction information to be lost."

There's no word on whether the Twitch streamers who received the money were contacted.

The son is now said to be "remorseful" for his actions and is receiving counseling. In addition to his account being blocked, he can only play games while being supervised for one hour per day, and "must do positive activities throughout the day, get exercise, and interact with the family in a positive manner."

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Agreeing with everyone so far.
Humans at their best throughout all of this proving that everyones the problem.
CEO's don't care.
Personnel are told not to care and never give a fool their money back, or they lose their job.
The lawyers, don't care, unless they can win. If it requires effort it's a lost case.
The parents, well kids raising kids these days?
The kid himself, what the fudge was he thinkin? I guess once you have donated a few hundred you may as well go big or go home.
These guys are really lucky this was spotted early on and they managed to find someone to deal with it. I would have kissed it goodbye.


Because of Twitch, every young person wants to stream video games for a living. : unamused:

Not only do kids not want to work, but be rich being an ***** playing computer games, the others don't wanna play the games, they want to watch the *****s cause it's easier. I no longer have any connection with this world.
 
We're missing two elements to this story: 1) how old was this kid, and 2) how did he get hold of the credit card to begin with?

The news and parents didn't disclose his exact age but he was a teenager, and based on the mothers posts in the Reddit thread, it's implied he knew what he was doing. It's very likely at least part of his donations involved simping to female streamers.

Also, it was a debt card and the mother says she gave it to him so he could buy lunch at school because they don't accept cash. She had never even heard of prepaid debt cards, when people made this suggestion on Reddit.
 
Twitch is a cancer. I lost all respect for the younger generations just because of that thing.
You must hate Youtube, TV shows, movies and games too?

Must be rough thinking that teenagers are making 6 figure salaries on twitch?

This whole thing is pathetic parenting, how is it even possible to spend that much on a credit card, get your f-ing limit looked at and maybe show some interest in your child's development.
 
I can’t disagree the parents should have known well before $20k was spent from the account, but the Twitch platform is absurdly easy to spend and steal money through and they have no method by which to argue fraud. My Son’s Apple ID account was hacked, allowing someone to steal $1,200 from us through Twitch. His Apple ID account was connected to my PayPal account and therefore bank account (emphasis on was; I’ll never use PayPay ever again) In less than 48 hours they “bought” $1,200k in Tokens; channeling it to fraudulent streamer accounts. What did Twitch, Apple and PayPal do about? Absolutely nothing. They denied every claim. My son didn’t do anything wrong, but companies with everything to gain don’t give a crap about their users. All these user agreements (that we have to agree to) that claim zero liability are total bulls!@t.
Yes, as a parent you have to watch what your kids do and hold them responsible, but if you provide an online service that doesn’t give a crap about your user’s getting scammed or wasting their money you’re just as at fault. I’m tired of this, “it’s not our fault” mentality. Grow a pair and take responsibility for your kids, your business and yourself. Have a little bit of integrity; otherwise you’re just a waste of oxygen.
 
Shoot if I found out my son stole my credit card and spent $20K I'd have hospitalised him by breaking every finger he has and then send him to the army or navy none of this touchy feely BS counseling garbage
 
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