12-Year-Old Rings Up $1400 Farmville Bill
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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Yup thats how they get their money, especially through pay by call, kid just needs to call a number and zap daddys phone bill will be charged, but the kid gets his crystals,diamonds,farmdollars,othergenericpremiumcurrency.
But you can't really blame the company, i'm pretty sure they got some lil paragraph in their user agreemend that no-one reads which says lil kids need their parents approval. xept the fact that kiddies dont have no credit cards.
But if the boy steals his moms credit card out of her purse, well, shit happens, he probably wont see another computer till he enters university (if the parents know what they do)
But you can't really blame the company, i'm pretty sure they got some lil paragraph in their user agreemend that no-one reads which says lil kids need their parents approval. xept the fact that kiddies dont have no credit cards.
But if the boy steals his moms credit card out of her purse, well, shit happens, he probably wont see another computer till he enters university (if the parents know what they do)
Another reason why "children" shouldn't be allowed on the Internet! Also why did he have her card details in the first place?? AND why was in indoors playing a farm sim....! The mother was quoted as not wanting to jeopardize his future by having him prosecuted but from the sounds of it hes going to have an amazing career as a basement dwelling WOW farmer!
$1,400??
There's that much stuff to buy in that game?
I find the whole story to actually be quite amusing...
There's that much stuff to buy in that game?
I find the whole story to actually be quite amusing...
It is very different. If your kid buys $1400 worth of clothes, you can return them or at the very least make it the only clothes they will receive for a long time. That is the big deal about this whole mess though. He spent $1400 dollars and has nothing physical to show for it. No one can use it and it had absolutely no value to begin with(unless you can sell your farmville account). The clothes, on the other hand, have a value even after purchase and can be used long enough to justify the amount.WanderFreak said:
afaceforradio said:
This question keeps popping up and I don't understand why people bother asking it. He could easily sneak into her room, pull out her card, make the purchases, and return the card in half the time it would take her to get dressed or take a shower. It is ridiculously easy to use someone else's card to make online purchases. You don't even need the PIN number. Also throw in the fact that she had to wait until her bill came in the mail which means she doesn't use online banking to check her account regularly and you have a recipe for disaster.Irridium said:
I will have to applaud the mother on this one.
This isn't a problem of a company; this is a problem in a family and she knows it.
I don't see why people are confused as to how the kid got his mother's credit card. kids have been taking money from their parents since the start of currency. I'm surprised that people on the internet haven't thought about it.
When it comes to the kid using her card, there is a certain trust level that parents have and unfortunately for the kid he crossed the line.
I've made online purchases and online makes it just too easy. They tell you how to find all of the information. Online just assumes that the owner of the card has already given permission for use.
This isn't a problem of a company; this is a problem in a family and she knows it.
I don't see why people are confused as to how the kid got his mother's credit card. kids have been taking money from their parents since the start of currency. I'm surprised that people on the internet haven't thought about it.
When it comes to the kid using her card, there is a certain trust level that parents have and unfortunately for the kid he crossed the line.
I've made online purchases and online makes it just too easy. They tell you how to find all of the information. Online just assumes that the owner of the card has already given permission for use.
How would could they be to blame? Surely they have some kind of "continue only if you are 13 or over" button, and it's not like they can physically check to make sure users aren't BSing their system. A casino is different because it's a physical location with security and cameras, if they saw a kid running around messing with the slot machines they would be able to send someone to physically intervene. You can't really apply the same standards to an online provider that has no choice but to take lying children at their word as with a large business establishment that can tell if the brat's lying to them by looking at them.Jamash said:
Wow, what a stupid kid. I mean, sure he's already an evil little brat for swiping his mom's credit card, but he's also an incompetent shopper and judge of games who's giving us all a bad name. For that kind of scratch, he should have bought a GBA and a copy of Harvest Moon which is an infinitely better farming game anyway, then blow the other $1250 on hookers and booze like a sane person. 
My thoughts on this are mixed. For starters I have to seriously ask how there could possibly be that much stuff to spend money on in a game like this. The whole idea is blatently ridiculous to begin with.
What's more, I look at this from the perspective that their solution (if I read this right) is to have locked the kid out of the game and facebook, while still keeping the money? So basically they take over a thousand dollars and then prevent the kid from having the content that was paid for?
Personally if it was me, I'd be looking into the possibility of selling the items to other users to get some of the money back (some games apparently allow a trade in premium items). Either that or want the account to be active so I could try and sell it on Ebay or something (approved by the company or not).
Still, I tend to think the place to go is somewhere like the BBB or Attorney General's office. Technically you might not be able to force Zynga to refund the money legally, but you convince the BBB that the situation is inherantly insane, and they put the word out on Zynga... well that can cost them a fortune. If The Attorney General's office *really* wants to get involved (it can take some doing) that can work magic. Largely because nobody is totally clean and while they might not be able to do anything in court, nobody wants them looking at their business with a microscope waiting for the slightest slip up.
It's touchy, and not something I've really done, but I know people who have gotten results through both methods in various situations. Even if they deny you, if you write these guys letters every week, eventually you can get them to make a phone call, and generally speaking if either group actually calls a business and asks questions, simply the threat of them having their eyes on the company can result in a refund.
"My kid stole my credit card" is not that rare of a problem, and businesses don't like giving refunds in general for things like that especially if they take a loss, but it has ended happily in some cases... and incidently when you vote in state elections and such The Attorney General and his/her position on consumer protection and such is one of the things you should look at closely. Some are far more useful than others (ie some are pretty much owned by business, some actually run on a position of consumer protection and love to get good word of mouth from this stuff. Here in Connecticut our guy Blumenthal isn't bad for this by all reports).
What's more, I look at this from the perspective that their solution (if I read this right) is to have locked the kid out of the game and facebook, while still keeping the money? So basically they take over a thousand dollars and then prevent the kid from having the content that was paid for?
Personally if it was me, I'd be looking into the possibility of selling the items to other users to get some of the money back (some games apparently allow a trade in premium items). Either that or want the account to be active so I could try and sell it on Ebay or something (approved by the company or not).
Still, I tend to think the place to go is somewhere like the BBB or Attorney General's office. Technically you might not be able to force Zynga to refund the money legally, but you convince the BBB that the situation is inherantly insane, and they put the word out on Zynga... well that can cost them a fortune. If The Attorney General's office *really* wants to get involved (it can take some doing) that can work magic. Largely because nobody is totally clean and while they might not be able to do anything in court, nobody wants them looking at their business with a microscope waiting for the slightest slip up.
It's touchy, and not something I've really done, but I know people who have gotten results through both methods in various situations. Even if they deny you, if you write these guys letters every week, eventually you can get them to make a phone call, and generally speaking if either group actually calls a business and asks questions, simply the threat of them having their eyes on the company can result in a refund.
"My kid stole my credit card" is not that rare of a problem, and businesses don't like giving refunds in general for things like that especially if they take a loss, but it has ended happily in some cases... and incidently when you vote in state elections and such The Attorney General and his/her position on consumer protection and such is one of the things you should look at closely. Some are far more useful than others (ie some are pretty much owned by business, some actually run on a position of consumer protection and love to get good word of mouth from this stuff. Here in Connecticut our guy Blumenthal isn't bad for this by all reports).
That woman gave her kid unsupervised access to her credit card and then feels like giving design advice to to a games company? That's a bit rich.
How about the other day at the mall, there was a swarm of 10/12 year old girls talking about which iphone accessories they should get. One was saying she was on her third iphone because she kept dropping them. maybe she isn't responsible enough to have one in the first place, hmn?Kazicun said:
OT: A lot of online credit card transactions do not need a security code. In fact, the "security code" for a lot of them is just a 3-digit number printed on the back. PIN numbers are for checking your account online. (at least, that is how mine works)
But really, I'd be having an argument with Zynga/credit card company asking to cancel the transaction. It isn't their fault, and my son would get a shit load of trouble for that kind of stupidity. I've played Farmville, there is NO WAY you could rack up $1400 without realising it.
A lot of people say it is the mother's fault for not supervising him, but what if she was at work? What if he gets home before her on weekdays, or she went out to run some errands? You can't keep a 12-year-old on constant supervision.
And the problem with "its a different name, that should have raised suspicions". My husband can make purchases with my credit card, even though we have different last names (because I've never gotten around to changing mine). The same goes for anyone that lives common-law.