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Pre-teen FarmVille player racks up $1,300 in charges

by Griffin McElroy on Apr 8th 2010 7:00PM

No, no, no. This simply will not do. There are so, so many things in this world worth buying with money you don't technically have, that we can't sympathize with a 12-year-old boy who, according to the Guardian, ran up a £905 tab (something like $1,380) by purchasing FarmVille funny money through developer Zynga. Since the boy lives with his (unknowing) mother, the company reportedly refused to refund the money, leaving the boy's life savings and the mother's credit card account in a world of hurt.

There are a handful of burning questions at the forefront of our minds with this story, the most pressing being: What was the endgame, here, kid? Was your sizable initial investment going to be completely recouped with this season's bumper crop harvest of virtual soybeans?

Source

Tags: browser-based, casual, debt, dlc, facebook, farmville, microtransactions, zynga

Reader Comments (89)

for all that money he could have bought a real game system and sum real games too occupy his time

or a hooker.

Or a game system and a cheap hooker.

He coulda bought an orgy with that money, and a PS3.

They've got a funny story to tell the grandkids!

Ha ha ... haaaaaaaaargh!!!

Or a box... with 1380 bucks in it.

@da.koe3 Couldn't he just buy the PS3? I mean, it only does EVERYTHING.

Why Farmville? Can't say I really play games on Facebook, but there's OBVIOUSLY so many better games to spend money you don't actually have on, like, um...Bingo! And Slot Machines! And Fish Wars! And Mob Wars! And Vampire Wars! And Star Wars! So ya...dumbass kid

Geeze, they should refund the money.

Seriously, dude, f^ck Facebook.

GOOD LORD I SUCK

..in the FACE!!

Pwnt. Srsly.
$1,380?
Thats kid is never gonna live it down!

He's also never gonna let you down. Or give you up.

...tell a lie, or hurt me?

His friend stocks must be through the roof!

"You Have 845,323 Friends."

usually, south park episodes have me laughing so hard i can't breathe. yesterday's was weak, except for the mad money parody which was freakin hilarious...

But it was one of their more relevant social commentaries in a while

Sir the Tron parody was amazing!

Just to play devils advocate here, this is understandable in a way. I mean people spend lots money on virtual items all the time. Granted it is not as much as he did.... Ok, I can't do this seriously. WHAT KIND OF IDIOT IS THIS KID! GAAAAAAUHDEUFKHDNDH!

Mmm... virtual soybeans.

lol farmville...

What would one do with that much useless currency?

Cows... Lots of badly drawn cows...

Yay cows!

Another thing that must be brought up and I hope this doesnt get burried but why didnt the credit card company notice this spending and alert the mother, yanno the card holder.

And as others have stated alot of 12 year olds are self absorbed idiots who believe the world revolves around them and them alone. Yes its not only for teenagers anymore UGH!

The mother is also a moron for leaving her credit card laying around where the kid was able to snag it, that or letting the son enter the info to buy a item (maybe for a birthday gift) since Facebook now allows you to store credit card info as of late.

it's interesting that this news comes after yesterday's new south park haha.

I mean why can't they just refund the money, its not like they just can't take back something they gave digitally. I mean its just a piece of code, not like a new TV

easy. you give me a couple lines on code. i give you 1,300 dollars. i come back later saying those lines of code i bought were a mistake. now here is the question will refund me 1300 dollars. i think a vast majority would be saying no takies backsies.

but if i were really mean i would give the kid some free fun money. get some okay press and i guess still a steaming mom. but to be real mean i would set the free fun money a couple dollars short of a new pony. just so he steal mommies card again.

No refund or the kind and mom will not learn a lesson.

This is different than buying DLC how?

Is there even enough stuff on Farmville to spend $1,380 on? What the hell did buy?!

Farmville. Humanity, oh, how far we have fallen.

Can we see the damn $1300 farm already?!

Zynga's problem is that, if the mother can prove the child did it, chances are they pretty much HAVE to give it back. You legally can't form a irrevocable contract with a minor. Assuming he either A) got ahold of the credit card or B) it was already saved in the system (auto-fill or stored card on the account), she had no notice of it and wasn't involved. Meaning no adult was actually involved in the purchasing.

Now, the law very well may be different in the UK than it is in the good ol' U.S. of A. In which case... he better damn well be put to work mowing every neighbor's lawn in the county to make it back...

Alternative 1: Make them pay, as they have done.

Alternative 2: Remove the boys farmville account and make sure he can't create a new one. Wipe the dept clean.

Could have started a small farm with that money. But then again, the kind of kid who spends thousands on some dumbass Facebook game couldn't possibly be in on it for the beets and lettuce.

I still remember when my dad got angry at me an my bro for putting spending 40 bucks on Sega Genesis controllers. But he had lost us the minute he put the money in our hands. And you can't put a price on TMNT TOuranemt fighters pwnage.

The really sad part is he one day will grow up, and look at the dark bags under his mother's eyes, and he'll REALLY understand a pixel finca's worth.

Times like this child abuse is excused. I'd beat that kid's ass so hard, I'd feel it. And then I'd shoot myself for letting the kid get a hold of the credit card.

Previous 50 Comments

Breaking News

Pre-teen FarmVille player racks up $1,300 in charges

Reader Comments (89)

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:17PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:19PM RobS the 3rd said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:42PM dakoe3 said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 9:40PM operator17 said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 9:42PM BigD145 said

Posted: Apr 9th 2010 1:30AM DyslexicAlucard said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:07PM King Johngie the Fourth said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:09PM Crimsic said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:11PM (Unverified) said

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Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:16PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:58PM Sly C said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 9:24PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Apr 9th 2010 12:00AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:18PM RobS the 3rd said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:19PM DrScientist said

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Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:27PM Cypher FDP said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:30PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 9:42PM RobS the 3rd said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:35PM Clavius said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:34PM Sly C said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 7:50PM LightAce said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 8:05PM Ballistic3188 said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 8:25PM (Unverified) said

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Posted: Apr 8th 2010 10:48PM JeezWhiz87 said

Posted: Apr 8th 2010 11:54PM KillTheApex said

Posted: Apr 9th 2010 6:45AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 9th 2010 8:41AM DenebSwift said

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Posted: Apr 9th 2010 8:51PM Ofmanynames said

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