Online game "friend" asks a child for a parent's phone or OTP
A friendly player in an online game promises free items or game currency, and gets a child to share a parent's phone, OTP, card or UPI details, or to install an app on the parent's phone.
Community reports: 0
How it works
- A player in an online game or a gaming chat app befriends a child, plays with them for days and promises free skins, diamonds, coins or a rare item.
- To "send" the reward, the child is asked for a parent's card or UPI details and the OTP that arrives, or to install an app on the parent's phone.
- The details or the app let the scammer take money from the parent's account, sometimes with the bank messages hidden, and the child is offered more rewards to delete the app or keep quiet.
What it looks like
Example messages. Numbers and links are masked.
Bro I can give you 5,000 diamonds free, I have extra. Just tell me the code that comes on your mom's phone, it is only for the gift.
Install this app on your papa's phone to get the skin, then delete it after 10 minutes and I will send 200 more coins.
Red flags
- A game friend offering free items or currency
- Asks for a code sent to a parent's phone
- Asks the child to install or delete an app
- Tells the child to keep it secret
- Unexplained debits or missing bank messages
The one question to ask
Does your child know to come to you before sharing any code, card or app from your phone, however good the reward sounds?
Already paid or shared details?
Switch off mobile data and Wi-Fi, uninstall any app they made you install, and call your bank on the number on your card to block cards and UPI. Change your banking and email passwords from a different phone. If any money has left, call 1930 at once.
1930 · cybercrime.gov.in
Also seen as
- Stranger in a gaming chat offering a cheap top-up by UPI
- Request for a parent's email and password "to link accounts"