12-year-old runs up $1,300 FarmVille debt

Tallon · 13-04-2010 1:32pm #1

Is this mother a moron? Shes blaming FB for her giving the kid her Credit Card.

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb? I know their policy says you have to be over 13 but should it be enforced? With bebo shutting down, where are all thiose kiddies gonna go?

A 12-year-old British boy racked up more than $1,300 on his mother's credit card so he could buy coins in the Facebook game FarmVille, the Guardian reports.

Now his mother is warning parents everywhere that social networking games aren't as harmless as they appear.

FarmVille is one of Facebook's most popular applications with 82.4 million users.

Users are given virtual coins to start a farm, and they can then trade in their crops for more coins.

But for the less patient users, FarmVille allows people to buy extra coins with real money.

Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, have refused to refund the cash because the boy lives in his mother's house.

Facebook has disabled his account because children under 13 aren't permitted on the social networking site.

The woman, who remains unnamed, blames her son for the situation, but thinks the social networking sites should be more responsible.

"I do think they need to shoulder some responsibility in this business and put systems in place to stop this happening again. The fact that he was using a card in a different name should bring up some sort of security and the online secure payment filter seems to be bypassed for Facebook payments,² she told the Guardian.

Link

dlofnep · 13-04-2010 1:33pm

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

The gobshíte.

m@cc@ · 13-04-2010 1:33pm

At the same time, how simple must the 12-year-old be? I'd like to think I had a concept of money at that age.

syklops · 13-04-2010 1:34pm

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb? I know their policy says you have to be over 13 but should it be enforced? With bebo shutting down, where are all thiose kiddies gonna go?

Hopefully outside not sat in front of the computer all the time.

Skerries · 13-04-2010 1:34pm

he could have bought some real crops with that

TheZohanS · 13-04-2010 1:35pm

Tallon wrote: »

Is this mother a moron?

Yes.

Lu Tze · 13-04-2010 1:35pm

Tallon wrote: »

Shes blaming FB for her giving the kid her Credit Card.

.

In fairness

Tallon wrote: »

The woman, who remains unnamed, blames her son for the situation, but thinks the social networking sites should be more responsible.

Cabaal · 13-04-2010 1:37pm

Why is she leaving her credit card around for him to use, why didn't she check her statements?

These people never want to accept they've done something wrong, easiler blame someone else
:rolleyes:

Atavan-Halen · 13-04-2010 1:37pm

It's always facebook/other companies to blame, never the mother who let her 12-year old loose on the internet with her credit card, oh no!

bazmaiden · 13-04-2010 1:38pm

Tallon wrote: »

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb?

no

GavRedKing · 13-04-2010 1:40pm

Priceless :pac:

generalmiaow · 13-04-2010 1:42pm

I worked out recently that more time is spent playing farmville in the western world than actually farming.

13-04-2010 1:43pm

What a little fuker..
To be fair, I always had my mum's credit card details when I was 12 for booking flights etc. I knew not to be a tit with it tho..

muckwarrior · 13-04-2010 1:43pm

According to a news report I heard on the radio earlier, Facebook is also responsible for sex on the internet. I was sure there was sex on the internet before 2005, but obviously I was just imagining it.

Shivers26 · 13-04-2010 1:44pm

How was the child left unsupervised online long enough to manage this? Also, leaving her credit card out so he could get it. I think the mother is pretty much to blame here.

My son is only given limited internet access, in the living room and in plain view of me. He always has to let me know what sites he uses and definitely no social networking ones. I didnt even think I was being excessively strict with this. He is 11.

chin_grin · 13-04-2010 1:45pm

South Park already did it!

http://tv.gawker.com/5512185/south-park-explains-everything-that-is-annoying-about-facebook

Ghost Train · 13-04-2010 1:50pm

Kid is an idiot, sounds like he knew he was spending lots of money, mother could get the money back if she files a police report against the son, but doesn't want it on his record

heres a bit more info

A mother in the U.K. says her 12-year-old son got hold of her credit card and spent more than US$1,400 on Facebook game, FarmVille.

The woman, who didn't want to be named, told the Guardian she discovered the charges in late March. By the time she found out, the boy had completely emptied his savings account of US$450, and racked up an additional US$950 on her credit card.

The game, which is the most popular app on Facebook, lets virtual farmers buy credits to upgrade their crops, barns or animals at a faster rate.

The newspaper reports:

She added that her son was "very shocked" when confronted with the amount he had spent, but it was clear he knew what he was doing. "When I asked him why he did it he said that they had brought out 'good stuff that I wanted.' "

The woman said she called her credit card company to get the charges refunded, but was told the only way to get the money back would be to file a police report against her son.

"He would be cautioned and I have been told that this caution would stay with him. Obviously the idea of a stupid farm simulation jeopardizing his future earnings is not something that I want to consider," she said.

Facebook closed the boy's account.

m@cc@ · 13-04-2010 1:52pm

Wait, people pay money for this ****e? FFS, morons and their money. :rolleyes:

happyfriday · 13-04-2010 1:52pm

If you play farmville or any of the rest of the crappy games, you deserve to be fleeced IMO!!

As for the mother, yes she is a total moron!! :rolleyes:

13-04-2010 1:56pm

Shivers26 wrote: »

How was the child left unsupervised online long enough to manage this? Also, leaving her credit card out so he could get it. I think the mother is pretty much to blame here.

My son is only given limited internet access, in the living room and in plain view of me. He always has to let me know what sites he uses and definitely no social networking ones. I didnt even think I was being excessively strict with this. He is 11.

Why all the restriction? Just get a program to block the bad sites and let him surf in peace.. You sound way too overprotective.

cloneslad · 13-04-2010 1:57pm

can you sell your cr*p back to farmville to create a profit? I'd imagine you can't but it seems crazy to pay for something if you get nothing in return.

I wonder if he could e-bay off whatever virtual items he bought at a lower price than farmville sell them for. Of course they would make a loss but any money is better than none.

generalmiaow · 13-04-2010 2:02pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Why all the restriction? Just get a program to block the bad sites and let him surf in peace.. You sound way too overprotective.

This wouldn't have worked for me. 10 year olds can easily bypass filters, they only need to search for the block message on google. When I have kids there's going to be a packet sniffer running.

You do need to let them explore but that software usually blocks mainly pornography, which is less of a concern for an 11 year old, it's more the worry that they will accidentally post their address on the internet or something, or find After Hours and start saying yore ma all the time.

13-04-2010 2:03pm

cloneslad wrote: »

can you sell your cr*p back to farmville to create a profit? I'd imagine you can't but it seems crazy to pay for something if you get nothing in return.

I wonder if he could e-bay off whatever virtual items he bought at a lower price than farmville sell them for. Of course they would make a loss but any money is better than none.

Well they closed his account, so I wouldn't imagine he's allowed on the farm again 'til he's 13.

Itsdacraic · 13-04-2010 2:06pm

Tallon wrote: »

Is this mother a moron? Shes blaming FB for her giving the kid her Credit Card.

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb? I know their policy says you have to be over 13 but should it be enforced? With bebo shutting down, where are all thiose kiddies gonna go?

Link

Itsdacraic likes this

Morlar · 13-04-2010 2:08pm

Farmville sounds quite clever. "Here you give me your real money and I give you this pretend money"

For the first time ever in any of these 'outraged parents blame the rest of the world' stories I am going to say facebook deserves some of the blame.

They have a 12 yr old using somone elses cc and no checks. They should have a system where the name needs to match the name on the cc.

tech77 · 13-04-2010 2:10pm

Deleted User wrote: »

What a little fuker..
To be fair, I always had my mum's credit card details when I was 12 for booking flights etc. I knew not to be a tit with it tho..

Where were you booking flights to when you were 12?

MCannon · 13-04-2010 2:12pm

The mother is 100% at fault. That is hilarious though

jd007 · 13-04-2010 2:14pm

syklops wrote: »

Hopefully outside not sat in front of the computer all the time.

He says as he types away on his computer.;)

orourkeda · 13-04-2010 2:15pm

gavredking wrote: »

Priceless :pac:

For everything else there's mastercard

opinion guy · 13-04-2010 2:16pm

atavan-halen wrote: »

It's always facebook/other companies to blame, never the mother who let her 12-year old loose on the internet with her credit card, oh no!

In fairness she has a point with this: " The fact that he was using a card in a different name should bring up some sort of security and the online secure payment filter seems to be bypassed for Facebook payments,² she told the Guardian. "
I'm surprised the bank or whoever are honouring it.

Deleted User wrote: »

What a little fuker..
To be fair, I always had my mum's credit card details when I was 12 for booking flights etc. I knew not to be a tit with it tho..

You were taking trips on your own at 12 :eek: ?

Shivers26 wrote: »

How was the child left unsupervised online long enough to manage this? Also, leaving her credit card out so he could get it. I think the mother is pretty much to blame here.

My son is only given limited internet access, in the living room and in plain view of me. He always has to let me know what sites he uses and definitely no social networking ones. I didnt even think I was being excessively strict with this. He is 11.

Well to be fair I think it would be pretty easy to lift a credit card from a purse when you are distracted and most 11 year olds probably can get online without you knowing. Either when you are out, when in school, when in a friends house. Less of the judgy-judgy maybe eh ?

Amalgam · 13-04-2010 2:23pm

Hard to wrap your head around the the following:

Based on an estimate of what Zynga likely makes in revenue from the average user, Second Shares projects that the company will pull in about $500 million in revenue this year

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=106325

The whole set up of the company behind it, their tactics.. seems geared to getting kids to do stupid things, which are very very hard to undo, like a subscription SMS, without that person being aware (without reading the small print), that they're entering a subscription service.

http://businesstoolsblog.com/2009/11/avoid-the-facebook-farmville-scam-and-warn-your-kids/

..in a similar vein.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95894-Blogger-Says-Farmville-Ads-are-Scams

Nice people.

12-year-old runs up $1,300 FarmVille debt

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