Boy spends $28,000 paying Twitch streamers, NFL, NBA players

Many parents fear they can’t keep up with their children online, and it looks like it’s about to cost one woman her life savings.

A mother “couldn’t believe” her son spent close to $28,000 on donations to video game streamers and sports stars.

The woman turned to Reddit for help after discovering the transactions her teenage son had made without her permission.

Her thread has been deleted but gaming blog Dot eSports claim to have spoken to the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.

“When I saw the bank balances were almost gone, my lips started to tingle and I had to put my head down so I wouldn’t pass out,” she told the site.

“I cried at first, I didn’t believe he could’ve done this.”

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Twitch provides a way for streamers to receive payments from their viewers but they should at least ask their parent’s permission first. Picture: Martin Bureau/AFP

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She said her son spent $US19,870.94 ($A27,822.26) on donations and subscriptions to streamers on the Amazon-owned Twitch platform.

The money went to popular gamers including Tfue, Gorb, and Ewokttv.

Real life sports stars also benefited.

Atlanta Falcons backup quarterback Kurt Benkert also reportedly received donations from the teen, despite being contracted to earn a base of $US610,000 this year.

Miami Heat power forward Meyers Leonard also reportedly received a top-up to his $US11,286,515 salary.

The woman said the two players responded when she contacted them, but she hasn’t heard from the video game streamers she tried to get refunds from.

Meyers Leonard doesn’t need the money.

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The woman said she gave her son a debit card to buy school lunches, but he began transferring money from his mother’s account to the card.

She reckons he either saw her password one day while she was online banking or she simply forgot to log out, but she didn’t notice until she checked on her bank account to pay some bills.

“I contacted my bank as soon as I found out and they froze all of our accounts, and his debit card was cancelled,” she said.

But the bank doesn’t seem to be helping much in getting her money back.

“Unless I press charges against my son, they will not help as this is considered friendly fraud,” she said.

That’s when a customer makes an online purchase and then tries to request the bank charge back the money.

Amber Wadham, 23, is one of many now making money playing video games online. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

She also said Twitch and Amazon had been unresponsive and claims she’s sent letters to Twitch CEO Emmett Shear and Amazon’s legal team but hasn’t heard back.

She’s not the first person to have their child run up a big bill on frivolous online purchases, and she thinks it happened for a reason many parents can probably relate to.

“I work too many hours, and have not paid close enough attention to what he was doing online,” she said. “His internet knowledge has absolutely surpassed mine … My focus now though is trying to figure out why he did it so I can make sure this is the one giant mistake he makes in his life.”