Mutekimaru’s Pokemon-playing fish committed credit card fraud

The fish used Theft! It was super effective!

Popular Twitch streamer Mutekimaru came home to a surprise after their Pokemon-playing fish racked up credit card charges, and that wasn’t even the worst of it (thanks, Gizmodo). The fish also exposed Mutekimaru’s card information to everyone who was viewing at the time.

They set up a series of tanks corresponding to directional and other button inputs so their Siamese fighting fish could play through entire games. The fish get swapped out every few hours so they don’t grow exhausted. While that might sound like a complicated setup, it actually works – eventually. In 2020, their fish completed Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, albeit after 3,000 hours.

This time, Mutekimaru had their fish playing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The streamer left for a while, and while they were gone, the game crashed – not entirely uncommon in the Nintendo Switch games' current state. The fish ended up navigating to the settings page and then logged into the eShop.

There, they added funds to Mutekimaru’s account and displayed the credit card information while completing the transaction. The streamer wasn’t aware of the situation until they checked their email and saw the notification. The total damage amounted to less than $5 in funds added, though hopefully Mutekimaru got their card information changed before anyone got up to mischief with it.

The moral of the story? Maybe wait until the February Pokemon update before letting your fish play Scarlet and Violet too.