Facebook's Farmville hit by lawsuit

A scene from Farmville on Facebook.

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The reputation of Farmville, one of the most popular applications on Facebook, has fallen into a ditch following the launch of a class action by some of its users over an alleged billing scam.

The addictive farming application has amassed 60 million players worldwide and is just one of several popular social networking games created by US developer Zynga for Facebook and MySpace users.

Its legion of fans log in daily to harvest their crops, tend to livestock, visit neighbours' farms and even have their own community websites devoted to discussing agricultural endeavours and showcasing feats of virtual landscaping.

However, some of these loyal fans are now complaining of unauthorised payments taken from their credit cards after participating in promotions linked to the game which serve to generate in-game currency or other rewards.

According to a statement issued by Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, the legal firm that filed the class action, users "may have been charged without their consent for 'special offers' that result in unauthorised bank, credit, or phone charges, sometimes through the use of phone text messages and auto-recurring SMS subscriptions".

Run along similar lines to classic SMS subscription scams, other popular Zynga titles such as MafiaWars, VampireWars and Fishworld are also believed to have run similar promotions.

KCR said many of these offers "make it very difficult - or impossible - for users to get their money refunded" and it has launched a class action against Zynga, as well as Facebook and MySpace, claiming they are liable for the actions of their advertisers, according to documents published on Gawker.

The action comes just as the Zynga brand was making its big break into the mainstream. The company recently secured $US15 million in new funding, and also was named Hot Brand by US magazine Advertising Age last month.

Neither Facebook nor Zynga replied to smh.com.au inquiries about the action, but Zynga founder Mark Pincus recently wrote on his blog: "We recognise it is our responsibility to ensure that offers which generate a bad user experience are not shown with any of our games. Therefore, we are removing all CPA offers across Zynga games until we can control their inclusion and presentation ourselves.

"My mission is to build Zynga into a sustainable consumer service with enduring value to our users. We will continue to do whatever it takes to earn our users trust and respect for the long-term."

Facebook has also recently moved to boost standards among third-party applications. The company abolished its "Verified apps" scheme today and plans to review all applications on an ongoing basis.

"The Verification standards are now required of all applications on Platform and we're providing new principles, simplified policies and supporting examples to help developers understand what it takes to meet these standards," the company wrote on its website.

- © Fairfax NZ News