12-Year-Old FarmVille User Racks Up $1400 In Debt

The FarmVille habit is hard to kick.

Just ask politician Dimitar Kerin, who was voted off a council committee for playing FarmVille on the job. Or the 7,000 members of the FarmVille Addicts Anonymous Facebook group.

Or, if you can track him down, the anonymous British boy who racked up nearly $1400 (900 GBP) in debt playing FarmVille.

The 12 year old dropped about $440 of his own savings on the online farming game, then turned to his mother's credit card (without her permission), to which he charged about $950 in order to finance his FarmVille habit.

The user's mother told the Guardian, "The total spend is about 905 GBP, 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."

HSBC, the mother's bank, also refused to refund the charges, informing the concerned parent that "she would only qualify for a refund if she reported her son to the police and obtained a crime number."

So what does $1400 buy you on FarmVille? The game, which allows players to harvest crops and tend to e-livestock on a virtual farm, is free, but players who are eager to move ahead more quickly can use real cash to buy virtual coins for use in the game.

Get more details on the FarmVille debt story from the Guardian.

Comments

[hypodoche]

10:43 AM on 04/11/2010

Pushing a button is pushing a button. For that matter, commenting on media sites is many people's "game." Some people read over the news, comment here and there, and move on. Others get fired up over every little thing and spend hours or days commenting back and forth, slinging insults and bravado, getting little thrills when they get fanned.

If HP had a $1.00 posting fee for each comment, it wouldn't be long before we saw the story about the person that racked up $5,000 in debt over some Teaparty article over on Alternet.

[Daniela Smith]

10:49 PM on 04/10/2010

Um, what is it about this game?! I played it once and was bored to tears. Maybe they need to incorporate monetary limits for players that are under 18 or something. And a kid that steals his mother's credit card needs some counseling and maybe a good whi pping! I know my mom would've tore my ta il up if I'd done that! :)

[Hardyman1966]

02:50 PM on 04/10/2010

Farmville, whatever that is, is a sign it's time to step away from Facebook.

[puppymama]

08:53 PM on 04/09/2010

I speak from experience... Turn the child in to the police. SERIOUSLY! A little probation will do the kid some good. By 18, his record will be wiped clean and he'll have had a life experience that may just keep him out of trouble for a LONG while. If he's stealing mom's card for an addiction now, he WILL be moving on to much bigger crimes and serious addictions. Guaranteed.

[neurolux]

07:15 PM on 04/09/2010

Just take it out of his allowance till he turns 18.

[Tyler-Durden]

03:31 PM on 04/09/2010

i guess she will be paying more attention to her child's internet usage.

[Tenley]

03:04 PM on 04/09/2010

I don't care if the son lives in her house -- if it's his facebook page and not in his mother's name AND HE'S NOT EVEN LEGAL AGE (18 or 16 or whatever the nation wants it to be) then the makers of the game should not be able to just charge someone else's credit card. I mean there are sites that require you to be at least 18 and if they're going to charge for this crap then they really ought to be held to some minimal fair standards too.

[Feenicks007]

04:19 PM on 04/09/2010

What happens when a parent allows a child to run up a huge bill on their credit card, then says it wasn't me, it was my child? Should they be allowed to opt out of payments because they say the child didn't have permission?

It's not the companies responsibility to make sure that the son has the legal right to use his mother's credit card. It's her responsibility to teach her child not to steal from her. She says he did't have permission to use the card. maybe he did and she's lying now, hoping to get out of paying.

When a credit card is stolen and used by a random stranger, the company doesn't refund you your money. The credit card company does. That's only if you can prove the card was stolen from you and used without your permission. Why is that different because it was her son that stole it?

[floodberg]

11:33 PM on 04/28/2010

Very nice response, Feenicks007.

[Rob Schatz]

02:35 AM on 04/11/2010

I wish they were, but this is Zynga we're talking about, who's founder doesn't give a f*^ck about where they get their money from, including at the onset of the company, knowingly putting viruses on people's computers. "We did anything possible to just get revenues..." - Zynga Founder Mark Pincus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YaVVpK1G4

[Tenley]

03:00 PM on 04/09/2010

The mother ought to file criminal charges against the makers for charging her credit card when it wasn't her who used it and they clearly didn't have her permission. Seriously.

[floodberg]

11:37 PM on 04/28/2010

For the record; credit cards, checkbooks, etc., anything that carries a personal account with it (like computers with cc nos. on them) should always be secured. If an owner feels that it should be unnecessary to secure it from a member of their family living in their home, they 'assume the risk' that the other person will gain access.

The requirement of 'filing charges' is done so that parents and live-ins don't 'accidentally forget' that they allowed use of the information. The same situation applies to 'borrowed cars;' the insurance companies require you report and prosecute a theft, to prevent 'forgetfulness.'

[-swift]

11:10 AM on 04/09/2010

If you are wondering how and why World of Warcraft and Farmville are destroying people's lives, comedians once again provide the answers:

www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html

[JackiChan]

10:42 AM on 04/09/2010

But what about his moo-cows!?

[tailgateshirts]

10:18 AM on 04/09/2010

... too bad this didn't happen before the south park this last week

[JackiChan]

10:43 AM on 04/09/2010

Actually, it sounds like perfect timing to me.

[tailgateshirts]

11:00 AM on 04/09/2010

nah, because now they couldn't make kenny go in debt playing it

[facepalm12]

09:52 AM on 04/09/2010

If you are going to waste money on games, waste it on real games.

[poster1122]

02:42 PM on 04/09/2010

How is an online, interactive game, any less "real" than games on your WII or X-box. They're all ultimately about some task that you compete with others (or the computer) to perform. The only real differences are what tasks, how many people you can play against, and/or the graphics quality.

Is space invaders or pacman any less real a game than the lastest version of Halo just because the specific gameplay is different, or because the graphics are primitive by today's standard? Is online poker any less real than live poker? Farmville's just a game that allows you to buy upgrades rather than earn them. Back in the day, you could do the same with regular video games by buying or trading in cheat codes. Same basic idea.

[Tyler-Durden]

03:30 PM on 04/09/2010

real games? if you're actually playing it, and not just thinking about it in your imagination, isn't it "real"?

or do you mean like pro football? or modern warfare? i'm missing your point.

[hypodoche]

10:42 AM on 04/11/2010

Pushing a button is pushing a button. For that matter, commenting on media sites is many people's "game." Some people read over the news, comment here and there, and move on. Others get fired up over every little thing and spend hours or days commenting back and forth, slinging insults and bravado, getting little thrills when they get fanned.

If HP had a $1.00 posting fee for each comment, it wouldn't be long before we saw the story about the person that racked up $5,000 in debt over some Teaparty article over on Alternet.

[am10]

08:42 AM on 04/09/2010

I'm proud to say that I live within my means while playing Farmville.

[tonewheel]

09:40 AM on 04/09/2010

But you still play Farmville. :)

[am10]

12:06 PM on 04/09/2010

I've cut down. Where else can I build wealth, expand land and successfully cultivate banana trees and winter squash in the same place in a short amount of time without any weather related issues? Who needs reality? LOL

BTW, I have yet to put real money into it...just real time. Sigh.

[Tabasco]

06:25 AM on 04/09/2010

"12-Year-Old FarmVille User Racks Up $1400 In Debt "

Now if he spent and lost more than just his mother's money, say the whole neighborhood, he'd be getting job offers from U.S. banks.

[floodberg]

11:40 PM on 04/28/2010

In an old Rosanne Barr movie (I don't remember the title), she gets into debt with a bank, and multiplies it. Rather than declare bankruptcy, she goes to the bank and they make a deal. In explanation, she responds 'if you owe the bank $10k and can't pay, you have a problem; if you owe $10 million, the bank has a problem.' It's fairly accurate, but the amounts have changed.

[ramblingjohnny]

04:28 AM on 04/09/2010

The Net created a generation of fools willing to spend real money on virtual e-crap.

[Bashir Hood]

09:04 AM on 04/09/2010

and the parents just sat back and allowed it.

[monoxboogie]

12:56 PM on 04/09/2010

Or, as the article states had you read it, he took it and used it without his mom realizing.

[facepalm12]

09:52 AM on 04/09/2010

Thats a bit of an over-generalization.