Teen Sends Almost $20,000 in Twitch Donations With Mother’s Debit Card

Over a two-week period, a teenage Twitch viewer sent $19,870.94 to various streamers using his mother’s debit card. Fortunately, it appears that most of the money has been recuperated by the woman. After struggling to find anyone at Twitch willing to discuss the issue, the woman was able to recover what amounted to years of savings by contacting the payment company Xsolla. In exchange, her debit card will never be able to be used on Twitch again, which likely comes as a bit of a relief! The woman has decided to remain anonymous, but discussed the episode with Dot Esports.

“I am so relieved to have the money restored to my account and let the nightmare end,” the woman told Dot Esports. “At this point, it’s within a few hundred dollars, and I am happy to have received what I did, and am not going to pursue the difference.”

Before the woman found success with Xsolla, she also tried communicating with Amazon, and even sent a registered letter to Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. When those attempts failed, she tried contacting her bank, but they could only help if the woman was willing to press charges against her son. She eventually contacted Xsolla after discovering other parents online that had found success in similar situations.

Apparently, the funds were sent to several streamers, including Ewokttv, Gorb, and Tfue. The situation seems to have resulted in a lot of frustration, but it appears that the woman is prioritizing her relationship with her son, and making sure he understands his mistake, but is still forgiven. While sharing her story online, she discovered several people that had made similar mistakes in their youth.

“I heard and felt the pain from those kids, now adults, who shared their stories with me so I wouldn’t make the same mistake,” the woman said to Dot Esports. “I listened to them. I realized that although what he had done was bad, losing the money was not worth losing my child.”

Although the story seems to have a happy ending, it does highlight some of the potential issues with Twitch’s policies and the difficulties that can result from them.

Have you ever run into similar issues with Twitch? Are you happy to see the story get a happy ending? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about all things gaming!