PUBG Mobile remains a hugely popular mobile game during India’s Covid-19 lockdown. Although it’s free to play, the game offers plenty of in-app purchases for character items. The skins for characters and weapons are especially tempting for many players.
Many of these items can only be earned through events, which sometimes require players to spend money to participate. Since most PUBG Mobile players in India are teenagers without their own income, they can’t afford rare skins on their own. This led a 17-year-old student to spend a total of 1.6 million Indian Rupees, roughly 500 million VND, on PUBG Mobile using his mother’s bank account.
According to his parents, the teen accessed three bank accounts belonging to them. He would usually tell them he needed their phone for “online classes,” but in reality, he was playing PUBG Mobile. Unfortunately, he didn’t just top up his own account but also gifted in-game items to friends.
After each purchase, the teen deleted bank messages to hide his spending. His parents only discovered the truth when they checked their bank statements. “He used his mother’s phone for all transactions and deleted the debit alerts,” the father said.
The boy’s father is a government employee with health issues. After the incident, the parents made their son work at a repair shop under close supervision to keep him away from PUBG Mobile. Recently, many in India have been boycotting Chinese products and apps, with PUBG Mobile among the targets.
PUBG Mobile was developed by Tencent, a Chinese company. Indian authorities consider the game addictive, violent, and harmful to children. So far, 59 Chinese apps including TikTok have been banned in the country.
