by Joseph Kenny | 01/12/10

Consumers are discovering they must be careful about the links they choose to click on while online. Recently there was an article concerning people’s credit cards being charged for buying club membership fees they did not authorize. Clicking on certain links on retail sites led to inadvertent sign-up. The retailer would then pass the credit card information obtained during a merchandise sale to the membership club, and that’s how the credit card would be charged.

In other similar situations, some people joining in online social games are finding their credit cards charged for special offers for various products or services. The problem is that game players did not intentionally mean to make a purchase and only discover what has happened upon receiving a credit card statement. The statement will show charges for the special offers.

A class action lawsuit has been filed in San Francisco’s U.S. District Court claiming advertisement on Facebook and other popular social networking and social gaming websites are leading to false charges on consumer credit cards. The lawsuit uses a situation as detailed by plaintiff Rebecca Swift.

In Swift’s case, her credit card was charged $200 by advertisers for items she did not intend to buy. Upon investigation, she discovered she had chosen the offers without realizing she had done so while trying to accept extra game credits for YoVille. YoVille is an online social game where anyone can log in and play. The game was on Facebook.

In the lawsuit, Swift is suing Facebook and the maker of YoVille which was developed by Zynga. Social networking and gaming sites make up to 90 percent of their revenue from the purchase of goods and services online by site users.

The way it is working is that social game players reach a level in the game where they find they must sort through various offers before progressing to higher levels. The player chooses certain offers not realizing there are associated charges. Consumers have been complaining in blogs about what they see as deceptive practices, and Zynga has taken preemptive action. The company is now refusing to accept advertisers it considers to be suspicious.

Also, social networking sites like Facebook are refusing to accept social games that have questionable ads. In the lawsuit it is estimated that up to 20 percent of all Facebook revenue is earned through games offered on the site. It is also estimated that Zynga makes up to $84 million a year from special offers such as those selected by Swift. Swift had selected IQ Test and a green tea special offer.

This is yet more warning that internet users must be careful about what they click on when on any site. In addition, it is always important to carefully check a credit card statement for unauthorized charges. You can report these charges to your credit card company. It will be interesting to see how the court decides in the case of the class action lawsuit which deals with deceptive business practices as well as recovery of illegal credit card charges.