LAKEVILLE, Minn. (WAND) – Other Fortnite players convinced an 8-year-old boy to hand over his mother’s personal information.
Krista Kneeland-Pearson told KARE that her son, Charlie, was pressured through messages in the Fortnite game and phone calls to give strangers photos of cards in her wallet. The station says she recently woke up in the middle of the night to find two purses open in his room.
The photos Charlie sent the other gamers include one showing the front and back of her driver’s license.
KARE reports the people in the game told Charlie he could get “V-Bucks”, a virtual currency in the game that can be used to buy costumes and other unlockables, if he gave them what they wanted. He said he didn’t want the other players to get mad at him when they continued pressuring him.
Kneeland-Pearson told police about what happened, but Lieutenant Bill Gerl said getting to the bottom of it will be hard. He says it isn’t a crime to have someone’s information until it’s used, adding that parents need to make sure their kids understand never to share information with strangers.
Charlie says he “learned not do that again”. His mother has suspended his Fortnite privileges.
