Kid wastes 900£ on Farmville.

[Damjan]

A mother has warned of the risk of children spending hundreds of pounds on "free" online games available through Facebook after her 12-year-old son ran up bills of more than £900 without her knowledge.

The woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, discovered last month that her son had spent more than £900 on FarmVille. He had emptied his own savings account of £288 and had used her credit card to the tune of £625 to pay the bills.

FarmVille, one of the most popular games on Facebook, allows members to manage a virtual farm by planting, growing and harvesting crops, trees and livestock. New users are given virtual coins to set up their farm, and the revenue from matured crops can be used to maintain it. But those who are desperate to progress more quickly can buy extra virtual coins using real cash.

The mother said: "The first use of my card was on 14 March. I discovered it on the 29th and the card was stopped at that point. Any transactions after that date were already in the system, so what I thought was a £427 spend turned into £625 over the next few days.

"The total spend is about £905, but the credits are still rolling in. Facebook and [game creator] Zynga will not refund anything as [the son] lives in my house. Facebook has disabled his account and Zynga has unhelpfully suggested I use password protection on computers in the future."

She contacted her credit card company, HSBC, but was told she would only qualify for a refund if she reported her son to the police and obtained a crime number. "He would be cautioned and I have been told that this caution would stay with him. Obviously the idea of a stupid farm simulation jeopardising his future earnings is not something that I want to consider," she said.

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'."

She does not blame Facebook, Zynga or HSBC, saying that her son was the one using the card and is entirely at fault. But she added: "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."

A spokeswoman for HSBC said that had the credit card been used on a gambling site it would have started alarm bells ringing for "unusual usage". But because the card had been used to buy Facebook credits HSBC did not consider the transactions to be suspicious, even though £625 was spent in just two weeks.

Michael Arrington, founder of the Techcrunch blog, criticised Zynga last year for "monetising" the game, and warned that people who didn't have access to a credit card to buy extra virtual money could use "pay by mobile" companies instead.

The indebted 12-year-old has not used his mobile to pay for virtual money, his mother said, but only because his older brother lost all his credit buying a ringtone a couple of years ago.

She contacted her credit card company, HSBC, but was told she would only qualify for a refund if she reported her son to the police and obtained a crime number.

WUT.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Sтεαм.

[Chris]

She does not blame Facebook, Zynga or HSBC, saying that her son was the one using the card and is entirely at fault.

Finally, a parent who actually realised it WAS their child that did wrong.

But lol what a retard kid.

[WRX22B1998]

why dont you believe that.

thats true in all situations they'll reverse the charge if its some sort of error. but the son bought all that farmville credit (or whatever the fuck it is)

its mostly the sons fault and partially the mothers fault for

i) letting the son get addicted to that game to the point of spending so much for farmville money

ii) having credit card in easy access

but for example my parents credit card is in easy access (in their bag/wallet) but i have the self-control to not just go and buy random shit with it (however tempting that might be)

[EvoLuTioN]

So Zynga refuses to refund the amount and then blocks the account with £900 worth of stuff in it? Hah Boned!

[WRX22B1998]

So Zynga refuses to refund the amount and then blocks the account with £900 worth of stuff in it? Hah Boned!

lmao i just noticed that. owned lol.

[Huckleberry Pie]

This explains why I DON'T play Farmville. Heck, I can't even move the freaking animals!

[Ivan]

So much money on a fucking facebook game called Farmville? Lame.

[The Bossman]

LMAO at some of these comments, I can hear you spitting feathers at the kid. What an absolute ape, who the fuck would spend that much on a free fucking Facebook game?

[MrLlamaLlama]

We don't need people like this splashing around in the gene pool.

[Artur]

We don't need people like this splashing around in the gene pool.

Kill 'em all.

Haha but yeah, THIS is the reason 12 year olds do not need Facebook accounts!!!

[JoshuaGaler]

Ofcourse 12 years is not the age to play stuff online on facebook or any other social media sites. I think there should be some age restriction on such sties. Sorry to hear about that lady. The biggest thing is that the son agree that what he did was wrong. That is the only reason I don't play online game with credit card.

[Ryder Johnson]

Ofcourse 12 years is not the age to play stuff online on facebook or any other social media sites. I think there should be some age restriction on such sties. Sorry to hear about that lady. The biggest thing is that the son agree that what he did was wrong. That is the only reason I don't play online game with credit card.

It amazes me how much you guys sterotype 12 year olds. I'm 12 and i have NEVER done anything like that and i have both myspace AND facebook.

[Thomas.]

What an idiot, that's a hard wad of cash that was spent. I've played Farmville before, yes it can get slightly addictive but not to the extent that I actually would use real money on it. That boy needs a life and after the rollocking he probably got off his mother, I'd be surprised if he didn't want a life.

[Nate10]

Ofcourse 12 years is not the age to play stuff online on facebook or any other social media sites. I think there should be some age restriction on such sties. Sorry to hear about that lady. The biggest thing is that the son agree that what he did was wrong. That is the only reason I don't play online game with credit card.

It amazes me how much you guys sterotype 12 year olds. I'm 12 and i have NEVER done anything like that and i have both myspace AND facebook.

I agree and disagree with you Ryder. Though some kids have done this, SOME haven't - like you for instance(that is trusting you really have done nothing of the sort). There are exceptions to everything but it goes without saying that the first post or two of every person on this site that is 16 and under was probably a bump without even realization so yeah, theoretically with inexperience comes mistakes.

Funny topic. Proud to say I don't play any of those myspace/facebook games but I'm guilty of a good hundred or two dollars of NX for Combat Arms.