12-Year-Old Rings Up $1400 Farmville Bill

[Jamash]

How could the 12 year old even have a Facebook and Farmville account in the first place, when legally you have to be at least 13 to use those services?

Does some fault not lie with Facebook and Farmville for allowing the under-age child to commit fraud in the first place?

If a 12 year old was to go into a casino and blow all his parents money on slot machines, surely the casino would be partly responsible...

 

[Distorted Stu]

Gahh put the costs in £s! Not $s!

Anyway, reading that reminds me how how addicting it can be, the poor kid. We have all done stuff liek that i guess, just not with that much money!

 

[Danpascooch]

She thinks there should be a password for when you make charges ON ZYNGA GAMES, which I agree with.

Zynga's unhelpful advice was that she should have put passwords on her entire computer in anticipation of her son spending a thousand dollars online, that's just stupid.

The problem is that implementing parental controls kind of undermines the minimum age limit Facebook has set up. As far I'm concerned, the problem is the fact that he got hold of a credit card in the first place.

no doubt it's his fault, but Zynga could have at least minimum security set up for things like this, it's a game aimed at a younger demographic and is basically a store at the same time, of course things like this are going to happen. Except no way Zynga will set anything up because whether it's stolen or not, they want every dollar they can get.

 

[Danpascooch]

She thinks there should be a password for when you make charges ON ZYNGA GAMES, which I agree with.

Zynga's unhelpful advice was that she should have put passwords on her entire computer in anticipation of her son spending a thousand dollars online, that's just stupid.

Not really. He IS a kid after all, and kids do stupid things a lot. It falls to the mother/father/both to keep an eye on him, and Zynga is completely in the right. If she had put up a password, or more importantly, kept here Credit card number away from him (honestly, I would take steps to ensure that MY kid(s) would not get that number, whatever the cost), this would not have happened. but she didn't, and shes paying for it.

Not saying Zynga is in the fault, or that they are obligated to give any advice, but since they did, it's worth pointing out that it's crappy advice.

 

[DividedUnity]

Facebook and Zynga were bound to have known something was up. I mean seriously? someone spending almost 2 grand on a free flash game? And no one noticed? Bah. I know youre not entirely innocent facebook. You too Zynga

 

[Tonimata]

What...
No, seriously.
What?!
What do you spend 1400 in a game that you can't spend on getting more games? It's a ridiculous paradox!
Someone needs to teach that kid what the mother's credit card was made for

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Wow...um...Get a refund?

Seriously. Kids these days don't know the value of money. Especially girls, I'm sorry to say.

Right... thats why the person in question is a boy...


Anyhow, Its the parents fault, she claims to know this, she will now be broke. What more can we say?

He is an exception. Little girls I know are spoiled fucking brats.

 

[Irridium]

How did he get her credit card info in the first place?!

If she told him the info then damn, what a moron. Kids aren't little bundles of innocence and goodness. I know, I've been to school.

What can you buy with $1400 on Farmville?

Carrots?

Really, really good carrots.

 

[afaceforradio]

I risk sounding cliche here, but I totally blame the mother for a few reasons:

1) How did he get her credit card details? She should know where her purse is at all times!
2) At his age, he shouldn't be entirely unsupervised online, end of story.
3) The kid's a little shit. He should know right from wrong and know that stealing from his mother is wrong, even if it is 'on credit', and even if he thought that credit meant 'free money'.
4) A 12 year old with $400 in savings? This kid obviously gets everything he wants, or he wouldn't have just swanned over to Mommy's credit card once he'd blown all that money.

She should've called the Police on his ass and REALLY taught him a lesson. It's probably why he did it in the first place, I refuse personally to believe it was a situation where he didn't realise the error.

 

[Kiriona]

Wow. I'm reminded of that girl that rang up that ridiculously high cell phone bill for texting. Honestly, don't these kids realize that their parents are not endlessly supplied with money?

And how in the world do you ring up a bill like that for Farmville, exactly?

She should've filed the complaint with the police. If the kid is only 12, then I believe his record is cleaned when he turns 18, anyway. But if she wants to bite the bullet and pay for it, then let her. Maybe she'll learn that her kid is irresponsible and lock up her credit cards.

 

[thats it exclamation]

12-Year-Old Rings Up $1400 Farmville Bill

Amazingly, she's not blaming either Facebook or Zynga for the bill, admitting that her son is the one at fault, but she thinks that extra security for such games would be a good idea. "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," she said.




Permalink

im glad very glad

 

[Jared]

She wont even caution him despite ith avoing no effect against him...so she has to pay the money? A bit stupid really...

Well, maybe she will keep a coser eye in future

 

[Beeple]

I'm not a fan of farmville, never have been.
But this kid has spent this ridiculous amount of money and then they suspend his account.
Whilst the money may have been totally wasted at least there was something there, now the $1400 (Blegh currency conversion) is gone completely.
That doesn't seem to be the most consoling approach to me...

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

This is bad, it gives a bad name to us REAL GAMERS.

 

[Terramax]

Well, I'm going to be inclined to blame the parent in this case. Question: how on earth did he get hold of his mother's credit card in the first place?

Oh, come on! It only takes you to leave your wallet around for 5 minutes for them to nab it.

 

[Kiithid]

Honestly, don't these kids realize that their parents are not endlessly supplied with money?

Even my 21yo brother doesn't realise the value of someone's hard work (read as using my parents as wallets) I don't see how hard for a kid to do the same.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

14,000 dollars?......14,000 dollars? How is he shocked about the cost? They label the price when you buy the Currency!

Honestly, that stuff can't cost that much in one go. It's not like one thing costs around 100 dollars or something. How do you honestly ring up 14,000 dollars worth of 5 dollar items in a few days and then act shocked when the bill comes in?

I think the Kid is the one at fault here. He needs to learn self-control and that he can't always get what he wants. The mother also should proably put some secruity in place to make sure that this dosen't happen again.

 

[Wolfram23]

Well, I'm going to be inclined to blame the parent in this case. Question: how on earth did he get hold of his mother's credit card in the first place? I realise there's far, far better places to blow $1400 than a flash game (a jewellers, for instance), but that is not the problem in this case.

That's what I'm wondering, how did the kid get a credit card with which to charge these purchases?? There should have been no way for him to make these purchases to begin with since he's ineligible for a credit card. While obviously the kid may have taken it without the mom's knowledge, I think this raises a few issues which are only starting to be addressed, such as having a credit card password for online purchases.

Regardless, what a dumbass ignorant kid to have so frivolusly spent $1400 on Farmville. That's crazy I can't believe a 12 year old would do that. If he spent it on Steam, ok maybe. But Farm-fricken-ville?

I'd like to know what punishment the mom's giving him - no cookies for a month?

 

[koriantor]

Facebook's terms of use say that you must be 13 to use it. I loled.