Well, if I had any small amount of trust in FB / Zuckerberg to do the right thing, I just lost it.
These are some super shady and deceptive business practices.
Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
71–80 of 193 posts
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#72The issue is Facebook denying refund requests after children were suckered in to make large in-game payments using their parents' stored credit cards. It's not just that this whole scenario is slimy. It's that Facebook was fully aware of it, had a nice in-house term for it ("friendly fraud"), and not only chose not to approve refunds but also chose not to implement the most basic measures to prevent it. [edit: as a c…
> “It doesn’t necessarily look like ‘real’ money to a minor,” This is intentional. In many games, some things cost "gold" earned by playing the game, and others cost "gems" bought with real money. Or maybe "gold" is the one that costs real money. It's designed to be confusing and hide the distinction between in-game points and real money. At some point the game companies should bear some of the responsibility for dec…
I wish Apple would crack down on this. Especially annoying are the games that let you pay to remove ads but then force you to watch a video ad (or buy real money gems) to get another play. So I paid to remove ads but I still get ads. And all of these in app purchases and ads are a really frustrating experience for games that would otherwise be fun. Not to mention they've all effectively turned into pay to play with a slot machine like experience.
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#73None of this is unique to Facebook - it plagues the entire industry. I would even argue that games companies are far more complicit in this scheme than any service provider.
The game devs are not the ones caching your CC and letting kids reuse it without proof they have parental permission. Come on, not even close in terms of who is at more fault here.
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's odd, the article I read did contain specific instances of parents retracting the steps of their spendthrifty offspring which confirmed there was no indication of actual money being spent, e.g.: “I saw all these $19 charges from Facebook,” she said. “It added up to nearly $1,000.” She asked her son why he would do that. But he was flabbergasted by the charges too. So Bohannon asked her son to play the game so s…
Holy cow, that's frightening. Mobile games with in-app payments are clear about "These cost gems {or some other bought-with-real-money mcguffin)", but refilling those gems nearly always makes it clear that you're going to have to pay.
Facebook payments platform was always far behind Apple & Google Play in terms of transparency.
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “It doesn’t necessarily look like ‘real’ money to a minor,” This is intentional. In many games, some things cost "gold" earned by playing the game, and others cost "gems" bought with real money. Or maybe "gold" is the one that costs real money. It's designed to be confusing and hide the distinction between in-game points and real money. At some point the game companies should bear some of the responsibility for dec…
This whole idea of storing a payment token that a company can charge at will (as opposed to a fixed top-up with cash) and then for me to be unable to deny those charges, I find it all unacceptable and refuse to allow it ever. After providing such a payment token there should be no proof and dispute involved, just a single click in a web interface "I refuse to pay for that and I revoke the token". The user of the toke…
Single use cards like privacy.com provides might be the solution you’re looking for
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#76If my child takes the money that I left on the desk, goes to the shop, buys candies and eats them...can I go to the bank and ask them to give back my crisp bills? Or maybe go to the candy store and whine there?
Let me give you an analogy that actually fits the truth:
You went to the candy store with your child and paid via CC. The candy store saved your CC by default, and due to deceptive UX, made it difficult to figure out that you needed to opt-out of the saved CC.
The next day, your child was walking past the candy store and the candy seller runs outside and says, "hey kid, you want this candy? its super good and you can have it for 5 dollars! just take it, its yours!"
kid takes candy, you get charged $5.
and in reality, even the "you can have it for 5 dollars" part is generous. facebook did not require the game developers to make it obvious when things cost real money or not.
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “It doesn’t necessarily look like ‘real’ money to a minor,” This is intentional. In many games, some things cost "gold" earned by playing the game, and others cost "gems" bought with real money. Or maybe "gold" is the one that costs real money. It's designed to be confusing and hide the distinction between in-game points and real money. At some point the game companies should bear some of the responsibility for dec…
I have seen cartoonish green notes as in-game currency, parallel to gold, but much more scarce and can be bought with real money. Kids don't stand a chance.
How much of this is the result of parents allowing children to play games unattended with games they themselves have not played to vet? With all things parenting, it ultimately falls on their shoulders on what they allow their kids to do. Not shilling for the slime balls preying on kids knowing parents are lazy, but parents are not blameless.
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#78Well, the solution is simple -- don't give your kids your credit cards...
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#79I explicitly make spending money online harder for myself as a protection from things like this. (Well, primarily I also don't play any games with micro-transactions for one because they're universally a rip-off designed to exploit addictive personalities. Games based around these shady tactics should never have been tolerated, let alone allowed to become the standard to such a degree where even real AAA $60 video ga…
I have the same habits. Every month, I have to enter my payment info for phone,car,etc. They always have that little check box for "save payment info for later". Nope. To the point that my car payment is now done over the phone each month because they changed their website to force you to enter a payment (checking/routing). At the rate sites are getting hacked, I will not enter any more information that required to make it work. As with my auto company, if it requires more info than I want to provide, then I don't use it.
Re: Facebook Let Kids Rack Up Charges on Parents' Credit Cards
#801) If an individual app developer did something like what Facebook did here, then there is a better than good chance that they would be successfully prosecuted with a crime. Why is the criminal justice system so much more lenient on corporations? If it is just money, then we have to accept that arbitrariness can be bought and paid for by those who can afford it. There are a few voices here that advocate for less prison sentences with whom which I agree with, but white collar crime like the kind in the article isn't punished to the same level of severity when the organization at large is at fault. It seems that the incentives for certain kinds of problematic behavior change when your at scale.
2) If you allow this sort of behavior long enough, then it definitely seeps into the culture, the decision-making of management, and the interactions of all those who work there (full-time, part-time, contractors all included). If bad apples can spoil the bunch, then will certain people refuse to interact, do business with, or hire former Facebook employees? Is there / will there be a "blue shield" for Facebook as there is for law enforcement?