Breakfast briefing: BBC's new political site launches
Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk — ... • A couple of very interesting pieces on TechCrunch about the manipulation of social networking sites that certainly leave a bad taste in the mouth: including accusations of unethical business tactics among a number of social gaming advertising companies, and this piece ...

Farmville "cheats" cash from users; Facebook "scam" strategy guide
IT Blogwatch's blog — ... to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number. ... They’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. ... [But] nothing in the offer says that the user will be billed $10/month forever. ... I asked Offerpal CEO Anu Shukla to explain the ethics of her business. ... Shukla went on a tirade, calling my points “****, double****, and bull****” (yes, really), but never really addressed the points. more Dave Rosenberg agrees: There's something weird going on with the ads and offers that ...

Four short links: 2 November 2009
O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies. — ... Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell (TechCrunch) -- many of those games on Facebook that your friends play are evil. To get in-game money or objects, they'll let you take a survey but at the end you're signed up for crap you never wanted. Related: ...

Mike Arrington is on a tear with some gr…
toni.org — ... Mike Arrington is on a tear with some great posts exposing the dark underbelly of advertising on social networks. ...

The Secret Shame of Social Networking: How Silicon Valley Got Hooked on Scammers
Valleywag — ... The Valley fad of social network games like Mafia Wars and Farmville disguise old-school scams, Mike Arrington has been demonstrating over at TechCrunch this weekend. ...

My Take On Zynga And CPA Offers
Silicon Alley Insider — mark-pincus-web2summit.jpg Michael Arrington posted over the weekend about CPA offers within social games and questioned why Facebook, MySpace, Zynga and others would expose these to our users. He raises good points about scammy advertisers and the bad user experience they create. I agree with him and others that some of these offers misrepresent and hurt our industry. It has been my mission at Zynga to create a sustainable consumer service with long term value to our users and partners. Social gaming is emerging quickly and requiring new rules of engagement from host ...

Did Zynga Just Blow Up Rival Playfish's $400 Million Sale?
Silicon Alley Insider — ... it had finally figured out how to get American consumers, mostly Facebook users, to pay for virtual goods as a part of their gaming experience. But the rumor was Zynga told EA no (or EA assumed it would be told no) and so the big gaming company went after Playfish instead. Rumors put Zynga's 2009 revenues near $250 million and Playfish's near $75 million. And, as we wrote, that deal was supposedly going swimmingly. But then last weekend happened. That's when TechCrunch launched a muckracking series called "ScamVille" about a surprisingly huge part of the social games business ...

Interview with Offerpal Media CEO Anu Shukla on the offer “scandal”
VentureBeat — ... over the ethics of offers. Arrington said that offers were dragging the social networking and social games industries into hell. Shukla replied that his accusations were “shit, double shit and bullshit.” Arrington said to Shukla that she either was unethical or didn’t know her business very well. Arrington followed up with a post slamming the offer business as a scam. The debate has set off fireworks in the social gaming ecosystem. We interviewed Shukla on Monday about her views on the offer industry. ...

Offers controversy stirs reactions across social networking industry
VentureBeat — ... But Techcrunch editor Michael Arrington has raised a firestorm over “scam offers” in social games that appear to deceive users. He contends that the offer industry players such as ...

Breakfast briefing: MySpace tightens up on scammers
Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk —

IPhone Games: Less Glam, Less Scam
Forbes.com: Technology News — ... that his company is on track to generate at least $100 million in revenues this year and turn a profit. These companies have come under fire recently for scam ads embedded in their games. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington accused developers of profiting from ads that trick players into buying subscriptions or products. Zynga Chief Executive Mark Pincus ...

Amid 'Scam' Accusations, Social Ad Firm Offerpal Installs A New CEO
paidContent — ... firm Offerpal Media has a new CEO: former Mochi Media Chairman and CEO George Garrick. Garrick is replacing Anu Shukla, who founded the company in 2007. In a statement, Shukla said the decision to bring in Garrick came after “many months” of searching. It is just unfortunate timing then, that the executive shift comes about a week after Offerpal was accused of running “scammy” ads during a panel at the Virtual Goods Summit. Fallout from the panel and subsequent discussion in the blogosphere led to official ...

Gambit Lets You Be a Mechanical Turk For Social Game Credits
Fast Company - Technology — ... Basically, instead of relying on advertising or strangely spam-like commercial product tie-ins as some social gaming sites are doing (like the controversial Zynga games on Facebook) Gambit has realized there's money to be made by renting-out its gamers' time. From a gamer point of view, the system would seem to have significant benefits: Should you feel like upgrading an element of the game you're playing, you don't have to fork over any cash, subject yourself to extra advertising or sign up to some internet-advertised service you don't really want--you merely have to be one ...

Hello Facebook User, I'm a Nigerian Prince in Need of Assistance... [Facebook]
Gizmodo — ... Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington believes that Facebook is looking the other way because it doesn't want to loose the revenue. He points out popular game Farmville: "it took me about 10 seconds to find really scammy ads." ...

Social Network Games: Fake Mobsters, Real Racket [Facebook]
Consumerist — ... here before—from innocent things you might sign up for anyway like a Netflix subscription, to scammy quizzes and misleading subscriptions. And this is all innocent fun for the apparent 90% of players who never click Zynga, one of the leaders in social networking games, not-so-coincidentally announced a few days after the controversial original post that they will no longer serve ad or reward offers that ask for users' mobile phone numbers. Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell [TechCrunch] Are You Getting Scammed by ...

Cellufun takes on Zynga and Playdom by providing social games on “non-smart” mobile devices
MobileCrunch — ... In case you didn’t notice, social gaming is taking off. And despite mounting criticism, the market is continuing to grow and doesn’t look like it’s going to stop. But so far, most of ...

Virtual Goods, Scams, Investigative Reporting And The Media
Techdirt — ... In the last couple weeks, Mike Arrington, over at TechCrunch, did an amazing job calling attention to the widely known, but rarely discussed in polite company, dark underbelly to most of those business models: quite a large part of their revenue is based on scammy offers that effectively trick unsophisticated purchasers (often kids) into signing up for expensive subscriptions to things they don't want. I was at an investor "roundtable" a couple months ago, which was mostly bankers in suits, and they were laughing about just how gullible people are on these ...

Electronic Arts Buys Playfish, a Social Games Start-Up
Bits — ... , make money has recently drawn scrutiny and some criticism. In addition to paying cash for virtual goods, players can also apply for offers, fill out surveys or sign up for subscription services from advertisers in order to get free virtual goods. Some of these offers are legitimate. But as the blog TechCrunch has been reporting over the last week, others have been misleading or fraudulent, leading people to sign up and pay for things they did not intend to. “There is a legitimate business of offering the user an alternative — filling out a legitimate survey from a ...

Electronic Arts Buys Playfish, a Social Games Start-Up
NYT > Technology — ... , make money has recently drawn scrutiny and some criticism. In addition to paying cash for virtual goods, players can also apply for offers, fill out surveys or sign up for subscription services from advertisers in order to get free virtual goods. Some of these offers are legitimate. But as the blog TechCrunch has been reporting over the last week, others have been misleading or fraudulent, leading people to sign up and pay for things they did not intend to. “There is a legitimate business of offering the user an alternative — filling out a legitimate survey from a ...

The Future of Gaming: 5 Social Predictions
Mashable! — ... Over the last week or so, there has been a backlash against cost per action (CPA) and lead generation offers within social games. The result has been ...

Zynga Removes Facebook Advertising Promotions
Edge Online - Interactive Entertainment Today — Cost-per-action advertising, which contributes up to a third of the FarmVille and Mafia Wars maker's revenues, removed until Zynga can control its implementation itself. Zynga had been under fire from web business blog TechCrunch for featuring CPA advertising for subscriptions to mobile phone information services, which contravened Facebook's terms and conditions because, masquerading as such playthings as IQ quizzes, they did not clearly state the player is required to start a $10-$20 service subscription to take part. New game FishVille , which featured CPA advertising, ...

Class Action Suit in the Works for Victims of Social Gaming Scams
Valleywag — ... Mike Arrington's TechCrunch has posted a series of articles on the issue of sleazy revenue models for online games, exposing the practice of ...

Class Action Suit in the Works for Victims of Social Gaming Scams
Gawker: valleywag — ... Mike Arrington's TechCrunch has posted a series of articles on the issue of sleazy revenue models for online games, exposing the practice of ...

Inside Word: How To Tackle 'Scammy' Offers In The Virtual World
paidContent — ... Backstory: Two weeks after TechCrunch first reported on what it said was the prevalence of ‘scammy’ offers on social games, the fallout continues. On Thursday, Valleywag ...

Inside Word: How To Crack Down On 'Scammy' Offers In The Virtual World
paidContent — ... Backstory: Two weeks after TechCrunch first reported on what it said was the prevalence of ‘scammy’ offers on social games, the fallout continues. On Thursday, Valleywag ...

Scam-Brokering CEO Dissed His 'Bullshit' Ethics Class
Valleywag — Mark Pincus recently cut off the scamsters who supply his company with revenue. But before he bowed to controversy, the Facebook games merchant was more cavalier about corporate morality, even griping about his "bullshit" Harvard ethics class and idiot classmates. Amid withering press from TechCrunch and other outlets, the Zynga CEO has finally removed scammy commercial offers from his company's online games, like Mafia Wars and Farmville. That's nice. But maybe the whole scandal could have been avoided if he'd taken a less ...

Scam-Brokering CEO Dissed His 'Bullshit' Ethics Class
Gawker: valleywag — Mark Pincus recently cut off the scamsters who supply his company with revenue. But before he bowed to controversy, the Facebook games merchant was more cavalier about corporate morality, even griping about his "bullshit" Harvard ethics class and idiot classmates. Amid withering press from TechCrunch and other outlets, the Zynga CEO has finally removed scammy commercial offers from his company's online games, like Mafia Wars and Farmville. That's nice. But maybe the whole scandal could have been avoided if he'd taken a less ...

Investors Punish Online Scam Trafficker with $15 Million
Valleywag — ... TechCrunch publisher Mike Arrington began writing his high-profile posts exposing the misleading ads carried by Zynga on October 31. Four days later, according to ...

Investors Punish Online Scam Trafficker with $15 Million
Gawker: valleywag — ... TechCrunch publisher Mike Arrington began writing his high-profile posts exposing the misleading ads carried by Zynga on October 31. Four days later, according to ...

Facebook Named in Federal Class-Action Suit over Scammy Zynga Ads
Gawker: valleywag — ... the advertisements in question; instead, other companies take out ads in Zynga's games, which run on Facebook's network, and the two companies make reportedly large sums of money from the offers. Some of the ads trick users into signing up for unauthorized cell phone charges or expensive mail-order products like educational CDs, typically by disguising them as "free" offers or "free trials," or as part of an "online quiz." TechCrunch has run an aggressive series of articles, cataloged at the bottom of this post. ...

Facebook Named in Federal Class-Action Suit over Scammy Zynga Ads
Valleywag — ... the advertisements in question; instead, other companies take out ads in Zynga's games, which run on Facebook's network, and the two companies make reportedly large sums of money from the offers. Some of the ads trick users into signing up for unauthorized cell phone charges or expensive mail-order products like educational CDs, typically by disguising them as "free" offers or "free trials," or as part of an "online quiz." TechCrunch has run an aggressive series of articles, cataloged at the bottom of this post. ...

Facebook Named In Federal Class-Action Suit Over Scammy Zynga Ads
Silicon Alley Insider — ... the advertisements in question; instead, other companies take out ads in Zynga's games, which run on Facebook's network, and the two companies make reportedly large sums of money from the offers. Some of the ads trick users into signing up for unauthorized cell phone charges or expensive mail-order products like educational CDs, typically by disguising them as "free" offers or "free trials," or as part of an "online quiz." TechCrunch has run an aggressive series of articles, cataloged at the bottom of this post . Zynga reportedly takes in close to one-third of its revenue from ...

Can the Advertising Offers Business Find Redemption In Social Networks?
Inside Facebook — ... by the Washington state Attorney General earlier this year for running the deceptive “luv crush” ads where users were shown a fake email interface that tricked them into paying for horoscope subscriptions. More recently, it served as the poster child of scammy ad networks in TechCrunch’s “Scamville” offer scam exposé — for selling similarly deceptive ads within offer walls. Zynga chief executive ...