Pet Fish Leak Owner’s Credit Card Data During Live Stream

A Japanese gamer with nearly 100,000 subscribers on YouTube had his credit card compromised after his pet fish used it without his permission and revealed the secure data to viewers during a live stream event.

Known as Mutekimaru, the live streamer’s channel is popular because they use a handful of fish to play video games. Wondering how that works exactly? So were we.

How Can Fish Play Video Games?

The YouTuber rigged up a system that allows their betta fish to play Pokémon games on a Nintendo Switch. The fish tank is set up with sensors that act as buttons on Mutekimaru’s gaming device, according to UPI. When the fish swim in front of one of the sensors, a webcam records the selection and sends the results to the game, which tells the character which way to move or how to make decisions, reported Komo News.

During a previous attempt at playing Pokémon Sapphire, the fish beat the game, and the shared video garnered more than 450,000 views. However, while the fish played Pokémon Violet during a live stream (after over 1,000 hours of play), the game glitched and the Nintendo Switch defaulted to its home screen.

A fish, however, kept doing its thing and inadvertently opened up the Nintendo eShop where it purchased four dollars’ worth of points using its owner’s credit card. Unfortunately, the credit card information was exposed to the live stream audience. A caption in a breakdown video of the event notes, “This is the world’s first shocking video of a pet fish making a purchase with its owner’s credit card.”

Something Smells a Little Fishy

But that was just the beginning of the fish’s exploits. In addition, the clever creature downloaded an app to play Nintendo 64 games. It then proceeded to: 1) spend reward currency on a new avatar, 2) ask for a confirmation email from PayPal, and 3) change the name of Mutekimaru’s account to “ROWAWAWAWA.”

Either the fish had some good luck or was a little devious because it turned off the Switch console before its owner even knew what occurred. Well, they eventually found out. Mutekimaru contacted Nintendo and explained the situation and the company gave them a refund.

Viewers appeared to enjoy the fish’s shenanigans, and one person commented, “Sorry to hear about the fish going on a shopping spree. I hope it got [a] good talking to about responsibility and money spending.”

By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com