Venezuelans are turning to video games to make a profit as their crippling economy gets worse

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Global conglomerate Amazon offered discounted sign-ups to popular online fantasy game, RuneScape, through its new platform, Twitch - and more than a third of the new accounts have come from Venezuela in the last quarter, a source who worked closely on the game's development has revealed to Express.co.uk.

Hundreds of thousands of new accounts have flooded the game to maximise on the promotional offer using what appear to be stolen or fraudulent credit cards.

They said: “They are either using legitimate accounts of other players have that they have then had the passwords hacked and broken into - or they are using questionable credit cards.”

Amazon did not conduct appropriate screening measures or implement proper checks to prevent fraudulent cards from being registered with the game, the source added.