Korean High School Girl Spends $68,000 Of Her Mother’s Life Insurance Payout On A Game

When MBC covered news about a high school girl who spent 73 million won (~$68,000 USD) on mobile games, Koreans shocked to say the least. To make things worse, the student had used the insurance payout that she received from her mother’s death.

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One day, the student’s father received a warning from her school that her tuition had not been paid for two months, so he paid a visit to the bank to check out what went wrong. He found out that his 17-year-old daughter had spent $68,000 on games.

She had downloaded a mobile game to play over summer vacation. While the strategy tank battle game was free to download and play for all ages, it offered “in-game events”, which highly resembled casino gambling games and required payment.

She fell victim to these in-game events and ended up charging her card tens of thousands of dollars.

Picture of the actual in-game event, provided by the father

To participate in these in-game events, the student used her debit card, which in the past was managed by her father. However, because her father was away so often on business trips, they agreed that she should hold on to the debit card to buy food, get school supplies, and pay tuition.

Korean debit card not belonging to the student in question.