Iranian Teenager Spends $1200 on Mobile Game: Cyber Police

Iran's Cyber Police (FATA) says a parent has recently filed a lawsuit to litigate the withdrawal of 45 million Iranian rials (about $1200) from his bank account without his knowledge. The family had saved the money to pay their eldest child’s university tuition. Police investigations found out the money was spent on a mobile game by the family’s eleven-year-old son, a cyber police chief said in a live talk show on Iranian state TV.

“Online games are now popularized and Clash of Clans is the third in a series started with Clash of Kings. Clash of Clans is especially interesting. Some say the game is super-national and they can ally themselves with different groups,” Colonel Mohammad Mehdi Kakvan was quoted by KhabarOnline.

The point is that players of the game sometimes need to buy gems or bonuses, which needs money. The money should be paid to a third-party website. Families have naturally assigned paying the bills to their children, which means the children have the password to their debit cards.

“One person filed a lawsuit to litigate the withdrawal of 45 million Iranian rials (about $1200) from his bank account without his knowledge; an amount saved to pay their eldest child’s university tuition. We carried out many investigations until we finally found out the family’s eleven-year-old had spent the money on the game, to buy the gems he needed,” he told the show.

In August 2015, Jamejamonline published a report on websites that buy and sell Clash of Clans accounts in Iran.

“Most of the finalized deals are around 20 million rials ($550), but every now and then, accounts with higher prices are also sold; from 50 million rials ($1400) to 130 million rials ($3700) or even higher,” the manager of one of these websites told Jamejamonline.

In September 2015, Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace expressed concern over the popularity of such games. “The changes on cyberspace are rapid and profound. We need to keep up with the pace and manage these developments,” said Mohammad Hassan Entezari.

“Right now, more than 5.5 million people play Clash of Clans in Iran and more than 90 percent of the games played in the country are products of foreign countries,” he added.

Every year, thousands of dollars are moved outside the country from the apps and games purchased by Iranians. However, the government has not yet found a way to control and put taxes on these purchases.

Iranians inside the country do not have access to Visa or MasterCard to buy “gems” in the game. The gems are used to boost and speed up the building process on the freemium mobile MMO strategy video game, Clash of Clans. Players inside Iran have to buy Apple or Google Play gift cards from third-party websites to make in-app purchases.

According to “Iran Computer & Video Games Foundation,” with 20 million gamers, Iran is the largest-growing video games market in the Middle East.