PUBG Mobile: Punjab Teen Reportedly Spends Rs. 2 Lakh From Grandfather’s Pension Account on In-App Purchases

A Mohali-based teenager has reportedly spent Rs. 2 lakh on the addictive mobile game PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battleground). This is the second case this month wherein a teenager has been reported to spend huge amounts of money on the game. The 15-year old boy is said to have used his grandfather’s pension amount to play PUBG Mobile. Mohali is a s...

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Punjab teen allegedly spends Rs 16 lakh in a month on PUBG Mobile

While PUBG Mobile was making headlines about its new Livik map and being excluded from the list of banned Chinese apps, a piece of a bizarre report from Punjab's Kharar town has surfaced. As per a report by The Tribune, a 17-year-old spent a shocking Rs 16 lakh making in-app purchases on PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) Mobile.

PUBG Mobile has faced a lot of flack in the past as cases of minors doing suicides and instances of young ones losing lives due to heart attack, and stroke rose in numbers. While the loss of life is damaging, this case from Punjab is equally saddening. The parents have claimed the amount was set aside as savings for the teenager's father's medical expenses and their son's future needs. On top of that, the boy also emptied his mother's provident fund and his own account balance.

The boy's parents were too late to realise that their 17-year-old has spent such a massive amount on PUBG Mobile. According to the report, the boy's father is making him work at a scooter repair shop to make him realise the value of hard-earned money. 

Here's how the 17-year-old spent Rs 16 lakh on PUBG Mobile

PUBG Mobile, like most games these days, offers in-app purchases that players may want to buy to stand out from the majority. The boy reportedly spent on purchasing virtual credits to get in-app items, including artillery, exclusive passes for tournaments, and virtual credits over a month's duration. 

The Tribune details that the boy used to play PUBG on his parents' phones. Assuming that he'd use the phone for online studies, the parents gave their phone to their son, who instead used to play PUBG Mobile. His father also alleged that his son had all account details as he used to make online payments for his mother’s kitty party.

The boy, being aware that his parents had saved their bank card details in the phone, did excessive spending from his father's bank account. His father said his son did transactions on PUBG Mobile and then deleted the bank messages. Unaware of the transactions, the parents were shocked to see the spends when they checked the bank statement. 

The boy used three accounts - his father's, his mother's PF account, and his own bank account where his father used to save some money. He used to shuffle credits between the three bank accounts to avoid any suspicion. It made it even tougher for the parents to find out about the spends. “After we received details from the bank, I found that on several occasions, he shuffled amount from one bank to another to avoid nil balance. He was using his mother’s phone for quite sometime and she was not much vigilant to notice this,” said his resentful father.

"After we received details from the bank, I found that on several occasions, he shuffled amount from one bank to another to avoid nil balance. He was using his mother's phone for quite some time, and she was not much vigilant to notice this," the father said.

How does PUBG Mobile earn money through in-app purchases?

PUBG Mobile is free to play. You just have to install the game, create a profile and start playing. But isn't this strange how PUBG Mobile made the highest revenue (mobile games) in May and June?

In-app purchase may not be the only source of revenue for games like PUBG Mobile, but it's a major contributor to the number. If you notice, the game is often updated with fresh items in the store, new seasons, royal pass and other items like costumes, skins, emotes, guns and similar. While some of it is free, there's always something exclusive for the players who own a special pass.

While we do not have any data to back it, PUBG Mobile's huge active user base and the craze indicate that in-app sales contribute to a large chunk to its revenue

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Horizon Zero Dawn Is Coming to PC on August 7

One of PlayStation 4's prized exclusives, the action role-playing game Horizon Zero Dawn, would be making its way to PC on August 7.

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OnePlus discloses security leak in its invoicing system that could have exposed sensitive user data

While the company gears up to launch the OnePlus Nord, a security vulnerability has been found that could have led to leaking user data. Thanfully, the vulnerability involves only a small set of users, and OnePlus claims the leakage has not been exploited by anybody malicious.

First reported by Android Police, the vulnerability was found in one of OnePlus’ out-of-warranty repair invoicing systems, affecting a small set of users in the US. The invoicing system was run by a third party. The publication notified OnePlus and worked together to iron out the issue.

If the vulnerability was exploited, they would have been able to see data of users who wanted to repair their OnePlus device that had gone out of warranty, and hence had to pay for it. Via the invoice, someone could have had access to data like phone number, model number, IMEI, order date, name, address, email address and the repair cost. OnePlus maintained that credit card details were never exposed.

After fixing the leak, OnePlus gave out a detailed statement to Android Police, which read:

“On July 2, a vulnerability was fixed on the website of our U.S. repair service provider. OnePlus customers in the U.S. who were required to pay for out-of-warranty repairs or those who chose to use our recently launched warranty exchange program were sent a unique third-party link to process their payment. From the time the payment link was generated and emailed to the customer, until the time the payment information was submitted, that customer's name, shipping address, email address, device model and IMEI were visible at the link. As soon as a user's payment information was submitted, the link immediately became inactive. To further secure this process, an additional verification step will be required starting early next week.

After thorough investigation together with our vendor, we have found no evidence of any purposeful attempts to access these URLs.

In addition, no credit card details or payment information of any kind was ever accessible.

User privacy is a top priority for OnePlus, and we apologize for any concerns that this might cause. We have made significant security enhancements on our own platforms in recent years and are diligently working to further improve. We are also already improving our internal processes to more quickly respond to external vulnerabilities, and will more closely engage our third-party vendors to better ensure security on their platforms.”

It’s worth mentioning that the vulnerability affects only a small set of users, and was quickly fixed by OnePlus who claims it didn’t fall into wrong hands for the time it was left exposed. OnePlus was also embroiled in a data leak controversy in 2018 and 2019, which actually saw user data being accessed by malicious third parties. For now, OnePlus has introduced a new verification step in the invoicing process and scrubbed all identity details from invoices.

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No charger in iPhone 12 box: Apple Survey is asking users what they do with old power adapters

An Apple Survey makes it more obvious that the company will skip shipping a power adapter with the upcoming iPhone 12. Apple is reportedly surveying a limited number of users about how they use their power adapters given in the iPhone boxes.

The Apple survey asks users what they have done with the power adapters that came with their previous iPhones. Users in Brazil have reportedly received the survey that includes questions about how they use the charger. One question that points to the upcoming development is asking about the fate of the charger that was included with the old iPhone XR. Some users in Brazil also reported that Apple asked about the adapter that came with the user’s previous iPhone 7 Plus.

The survey comes amidst reports that Apple will skip shipping a power adapter and EarPods with the iPhone 12 models. The company is reportedly developing a 20-watt fast charging adapter that will be sold separately, as an upgrade to the 18W charger which Apple ships with the iPhone 11 Pro and iPad Pro.

Apple surveys usually indicate upcoming surprise moves from the company. For instance, right before the 3.5mm headphone jack was killed off, Apple sent a questionnaire about headphone jacks to users of MacBook Pro.

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Google Meet to get new noise cancellation feature soon

There’s a new feature coming to Google Meet soon and will soon be rolling out to users in India. The company made a bunch of announcements regarding new changes to Google Meet back in April. Essentially, users in India will soon receive a noise cancellation feature for Google Meet. In a statement by the company, it said, “This feature will roll out to users in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, and New Zealand in the coming weeks. This feature isn't currently available to users in South Africa, UAE, and the immediately surrounding areas.". Confirming that India will receive the feature soon. 

Basically how noise cancellation on Google Meet will work is that the program will filter out noises that do not sound like voices. Say loud rustling, banging, dogs barking, etc. What will not be filtered out is other people talking at the same time and voices from the television.  So it does have its limitations. Also, the feature must be activated manually. 

Here is how you can activate the feature

Head on to the Meet homepage Click on Settings Select Audio Click Turn on Noise cancellation Click Done

In other Google news, Google Photos will stop auto-backup of media files from WhatsApp, Facebook and other apps. You can read more about that story here. The company also showed off a new AR feature that allows dinosaurs to roam your house! You can read more about that here. Also, Google Search will now tell you the best shows to watch on Netflix, Hotstar and other streaming sites. You can read more about that story here. 

 

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PlayStation 5 Teaser Page Goes Live on Amazon India, Flipkart; Launching in 'Late 2020'

PlayStation 5 teaser page has gone live on Amazon and Flipkart in India with a “Late 2020” release date. The pages show off the two console variants, one with the disk drive and one without, along with a set of accessories that will also be available for purchase in India.

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