PETALING JAYA, January 3 — A Singaporean dad was appalled when his credit card was charged S$20,000 (RM61,766) for his 18-year-old daughter’s in-game purchases.

The Straits Times reported yesterday that Lim Cheng Mong was taken aback when his bank told him that he had missed the huge overdue payments.

"Initially, I thought I was scammed.

"But then the credit card company said that these were legitimate transactions and there was nothing the company could do.”

His credit card was linked to his daughter’s Grab account to cover her transportation expenses.

He discovered that she had misused his card and had linked her Grab e-wallet to a popular game called Genshin Impact and went on a six-week spending spree to buy in-game merchandise to upgrade her avatar.

"I told her off that the money she used was a lot of money — worth one year of school fees if she studied overseas.

"A huge sum was spent in the blink of an eye,” he said.

Genshin Impact, developed and published by Chinese studio miHoYo is an open-world action role-playing game that takes place in a fantasy world called Teyvat.