12-Year-Old Runs Up $1,300 FarmVille Debt

A 12-year-old British boy racked up an astounding $1,300 bill while setting up his virtual farm in Zynga’s popular Facebook game FarmVille, The Guardian Reports.

A note of caution, The Guardian withholds the woman’s name and doesn’t really walk us through how they verified that this is a true story. But if the woman’s account can be believed, her son first emptied his savings account of £288 and then turned to mom’s credit card, charging an additional £625.

“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,” the unidentified woman told the newspaper. “Facebook has disabled his account and Zynga has unhelpfully suggested I use password protection on computers in the future.”

To the woman’s credit, she doesn’t place blame anywhere other than at her own feet, but rightfully points out that Facebook and Zynga should perhaps better monitor credit card charges going through under different names, especially for accounts created by minors.

FarmVille user runs up £900 debt [The Guardian]