YouTube streamer’s fish commits credit card fraud while playing Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Zackerie Fairfax
shiny magikarp

A YouTube streamer whose fish plays Pokemon Scarlet & Violet was recently the victim of credit card fraud after the game crashed, leading to an exposed credit card number and accidental purchases.

One of the ways streaming has revolutionized gaming is through challenge runs. Instead of playing games the way developers intend, streamers find alternate methods of play to spice up the viewing experience.

This could not be more true for YouTuber streamer Mutekimaru. The channel mainly features games from the Pokemon franchise, but they aren’t played by a human. Instead, the games are played by a beta fish swimming in front of a control panel.

While this has led to several historic gaming moments, a recent mishap on stream caused a series of issues for the human behind the Mutekimaru channel.

Fish leaks owners credit card info

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are plagued with performance issues in their current version. And one of these issues causes the game to crash and return to the Nintendo Switch Home screen. Lo and behold, Mutekimaru’s beta encountered this error when entering a sandstorm on the outskirts of Cascarraffa.

However, due to the way the fish’s input device is set up, it still accepts commands outside the game. The fish eventually navigated to the settings, changed the profile’s name, and found a back door to the Nintendo eShop.

After “reading” the Terms of Service, the fish closed out of the online store only to launch it again moments later. This time, it found its way onto a screen exposing the console owner’s credit card information. But it didn’t stop its path of destruction there.

The fish continued to select on-screen options until it successfully purchased 500 yen – effectively committing credit card fraud.

Luckily, this story isn’t all bad news for Mutekimaru. The fish did find a way to log into the owner’s MyNintendo account and earn a few rewards. It also downloaded the Nintendo 64 library before turning the console off.

Mutekimaru did end up requesting a refund for the money their fish spent, and Nintendo kindly accepted. And despite the dangers of leaving your gamer fish unattended, they are still playing Pokemon Scarlet & Violet live on YouTube.

About The Author

Zackerie is a former Senior Writer for Dexerto who covered a wide variety of games and entertainment. He has a degree in Creative Writing and was previously the editor of The LaRue County News. Zackerie switched to games media in 2020 writing for outlets such as Screen Rant, Fortnite INTEL, and Charlie INTEL.