Documents reveal Facebook engaged in "Friendly Fraud"

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

https://www.revealnews.org/article/...-playing-kids-and-their-parents-out-of-money/

Facebook orchestrated a multi-year effort that duped children and their parents out of money, in some cases hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and then often refused to give the money back, according to court documents unsealed tonight in response to a Reveal legal action.

[...]

Facebook encouraged game developers to let children spend money without their parents’ permission – something the social media giant called “friendly fraud” – in an effort to maximize revenues, according to a document detailing the company’s game strategy.

Sometimes the children did not even know they were spending money, according to another internal Facebook report. Facebook employees knew this. Their own reports showed underage users did not realize their parent’s credit cards were connected to their Facebook accounts and they were spending real money in the games, according to the unsealed documents.

It gets worse as you read on.

 

[theprestige]

Donald Trump's "enemy of the people" may be a bit too hyperbolic, but I think it's pretty obvious that the giants of mainstream and social media are not actually our friends.

 

[3point14]

Donald Trump's "enemy of the people" may be a bit too hyperbolic, but I think it's pretty obvious that the giants of mainstream and social media are not actually our friends.

And yet we cheerfully allow them to buy their way into the corridors of power and purchase legislation that suits them.

This may, perhaps, be the one thing in the political spectrum, that you and I agree on.

 

[Brainster]

Facebook's "Friendly Fraud" Against Children

This story looks pretty bad:

Facebook made a decision. Company policy was to tell game developers to let children spend money without their parents’ permission, according to an internal memo circulated within the company.

The memo stated, “Friendly Fraud – what it is, why it’s challenging, and why you shouldn’t try to block it.” “Friendly fraud” is the term Facebook used when children spent money on games without their parent’s permission.

The details are pretty shocking. One underaged girl disputed her charges:

Gillian: It’s $6,545 – but card was just added on Sept. 2. They are disputing all of it I believe. That user looks underage as well. Well, maybe not under 13.

Michael: Is the user writing in a parent, or is this user a 13ish year old

Gillian: It’s a 13ish yr old. says its 15. looks a bit younger. she* not its. Lol.

Michael: … I wouldn’t refund

Note the part about how the card was just added Sept 2. The two Facebook employees were discussing this on September 19. So an underaged girl (whether she was under 13 or not) rang up over $6,000 in charges related to a game in about 2 weeks, and Facebook decided not to refund the money?

 

[fagin]

Thread here.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=334427&highlight=Facebook

 

[lobosrul5]

Err, call up VISA/Mastercard and tell them the charges were fraudulent.

 

[theprestige]

Err, call up VISA/Mastercard and tell them the charges were fraudulent.

Captain Obvious: Not the hero we need, but probably the hero we deserve.

 

[Elagabalus]

If you're on Facebook, you're part of the problem.

 

[Brainster]

Mods, please combine.

 

[baron]

Donald Trump's "enemy of the people" may be a bit too hyperbolic...

Seems about right to me.

 

[lobosrul5]

Captain Obvious: Not the hero we need, but probably the hero we deserve.

I'll have you know I'm sitting here, only person in the office, at my desk at 6PM on a Friday evening because I'm waiting on some slowpoke, giggling like an idiot at that comment.

 

[rjh01]

How did Facebook have people's credit card information? I am sure Facebook does not have mine.

Top tip, twice a week look at what is being spent on your credit card. Look out for things like this. I have known people who have had incorrect charges on the card for months and not noticed.

 

[novaphile]

Mods, please combine.

Done. Actually on the strength of the reported posts, which is the best method to request a merge, especially if you include a link to the other thread. (Someone else did this).

Please note, I've merged the threads into Social Issues and Current Events because I'm not seeing the "on the internet" part as being the important part.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: novaphile

 

[Checkmite]

How did Facebook have people's credit card information? I am sure Facebook does not have mine.

Evidently there's this whole small ecosystem of games and apps within Facebook, some of which can conduct microtransactions just like mobile games.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

If you're on Facebook, you're part of the problem.

FWIW, I'm not. Never have been.

 

[Seismosaurus]

I've never been on Facebook in my life, and I never would. I can't claim to know anything much about how it works or what the supposed benefits of it are, but every single thing I've ever heard about it* makes it appear trivial, unimportant, and downright scary and dangerous.

* - Admittedly a lot of this is headlines from news stories about it, and news stories don't tend to happen when things are sunshine and roses, so there's probably some selection bias going on there.


I don't really use any social media. Honestly it's not even so much that it all appears set up to be abusive and creepy so much as it is that I'm not really a social person, and the thought of broadcasting my life on the internet is mostly appalling to me.