Teen uses mum’s credit card to spend on favourite broadcaster

Shanghai: An employee in the public relations department at Tencent Holdings, operator of a live-broadcast app through which a man received online payments of more than 250,000 yuan (RM161,217) from a 13-year-old girl for his singing talent, said the girl might have faked her age when registering.

“Our data shows that the user gave her age as 28, not 13, as reported in the media,” the employee said. He declined to give his name.

“She gave her surname as Han when registering, which is also different from the name Su in media reports,” the employee said.

The girl, said to be from Shanghai, paid the man between 1,900 and 9,500 yuan every day over a twomonth period through online payments using her mother’s mobile phone and debit card.

Her mother discovered the debits on Jan 30, China Central Television reported.

Viewers of online live broadcast- ing can send virtual gifts, which they purchase, to broadcasters.

Gifts range from 0.1 yuan (RM0.06) to more than 1,000 yuan (RM645).

A percentage of the money goes to the platform.

“We hope the mother will come to us and verify the facts. If it’s true that the user is a 13-year-old who spent the money without consent, we can negotiate a refund,” the Tencent employee said.

He said game and live-broadcast apps currently hosted by Tencent don’t require real-name registration, but the company is considering establishing a platform for parents to monitor their children’s behaviour.

The mother, surnamed Sun, said that shortly after she discovered her money was missing, her daughter admitted she had spent it on a broadcaster going by the name “Yang Guang”, who is about 20 years old and has more than 720,000 followers on the live-broadcast app Quanmin Karaoke.

According to online chat records between the broadcaster and the girl, which Sun presented to CCTV, he asked for money directly at least twice in private – once for 5,000 yuan (RM3,224) and once for 20,000 yuan (RM12,897).

The Sijing police station in Songjiang district said it received a report from Sun on Feb 3, but declined to pursue the matter as fraud was not involved.