A high-drama and high-stakes ScamVille exchange over the weekend left Zynga in the penalty box. Facebook put their newest social game, FishVille, on ice for advertising violations. In response, Zynga said they’d pull down all advertising offers until further notice.
Zynga’s now saying that the game will be live again at midnight tonight. 875,000 users flocked to the aquarium game in its first two days, so I’m sure they’ll be glad to see it back.
And so far Zynga has lived up to its recent promise. All offers, including legitimate ones like virtual currency for Netflix subscriptions, have been removed from all Zynga games.
Hey everyone,
Good news! Issues have been resolved and FishVille will be back online tonight at approximately 12:00am PST. We have been feeding your fish to keep them happy and growing during the downtime, so they should be just fine when you return to your tanks. Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding.
-Team FishVille
TechCrunch: changing the world, one scam offer at a time.
I’m just happy to play fishville again.
They should have called if PhishVille
HAW! Good one.
+1
I think Zynga and others knew exactly how scammy the offers were. They knew that it was only a matter of time before the $h1t hit the fan, that why they’re not even fighting it.
Zynga knew that *some of* the offers were scammy – and had already worked with their provider to try and remove those (most of the pool, sadly).
Before this even came up on TC they were trying to do right.
Apparently this whole FishVille thing was an offer provider failing to live up to its end of the bargain and letting some of the scam offers through.
Naturally – because of the foaming at the mouth that TC has drummed up – FB decided to make an example of them.
Really this is a non-story.
Nope. A whole chain of companies complicit in an effort to generate revenue using whatever methods possible.
The fact that this game has been revived is a complete joke.
Before this even came up on TC they were trying to do right.
Huh, funny how they managed to fix it up in a day and a half after working on it for so long. Must be a total coincidence, all of this Scamville stuff and their already-planned launch of the New! Improved! Scamfree! Fishville! today.
now it’s “swim with the fishes”
scam with the phishers
I am certain that the Zynga team learned the hard way to now run through all rhyming iterations and potential pop culture references before naming a game. The bloggers will not be able to come up with interesting and quirky titles, so posts will not get written
I like to play again Facebook Application fishville but I never like that Facbook become a spammers Heaven.
Was just reading the replies to that post on their forums. God must love gullible people.
Arrington, after your most excellent work last week, I’ve decided to stop by here every now and then. I’ve wasn’t a fan or reader, but I’m reconsidering now.
Do you know if anyone has anyone gone behind the scenes with the scam offers and cost per action networks (several inc 500) behind them to expose the scams? Or could you recommend someone? I’m looking for info.
You know, the good ol’ useless mainstream media, NYT and B Globe had to get in on the action late with their puff pieces – sadly, it caused a little negative pr for one of my friends. He, he, he, thanks to you. And he didn’t even appear in your articles. THANKS AGAIN!
Getting back with the phishe game !!
interesting how techcrunch has decreed NetFlix “legitimate” while other similar offers are “scammy”.
yes this story broke here and it was a huge win for you all, but if you have to sign up for a netflix account to get “fish dollars” (we can analyze this psychological failing another time) you’ll probably do anything including fail to notice any commitments said subscription will hold you to. Wonder how many ‘legitimate’ netflix subscribers realized this after they were charged $14.95.
“..legitimate ones like virtual currency for Netflix subscriptions..”
One note on this point you keep making. Netflix and Blockbuster are notoriously the worst for actually crediting successful leads. I’ve even tried passing on the credit card receipt and “successful payment” email to one of the 3rd party offer companies in the past and was told not to bother as Netflix won’t do anything about it.
If anything, those scammy mobile offers actually did credit leads correctly.
Am I the only one who thinks this “suspended application” thing is a nice agreed mutual PR thing between Facebook and Zynga to “show that they are both serious”?
Tried Fishville for the first time.. i’ll give it a 6, if i am giving farmville 8 in terms of ease and effectiveness, though it had already grabbed so much news, hoping to see lots of time less freaks “diving in”