Zynga Encouraging Accidental Purchases?

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When Raven Booster Packs were introduced to the game, I wondered if there was a confirmation screen like we see with the Collectable Stat Cards [1]. I wasn’t willing to waste 135 or 260 reward points to find out. Today I learned the answer which is a not so surprising NO. Lion Sachin of the {ASS} Family was the first victim I’ve seen when earlier today he clicked on one my mistake. He got the stuff and 135 reward points were taken from his account. Nobody should need to purchase a Raven Booster Packs as there is a strategy and The Raven is easy to beat [1].

Screen jumping and module shifting are the main culprit but there is something else to consider. If you notice, the Raven Booster Pack banner looks a lot like the actual Raven banner. Many times I’ve initially thought the Raven was active when I saw this booster pack banner. I can see how players might be too quick in their excitement and click on the purchase button by mistake.

When Zynga added a confirmation purchase button to the Collectable Stat Card banner, they were quite proud of this action. They made a blog post about it and from that point on players no longer complained about losing 15 or 42 reward points for accidental clicks [1]. You would think Zynga would apply this to any purchase button residing on the Home Page banner but they haven’t. Many have lost reward points during the 7 Day Deal Promotions as well [1].

To protect players from accidental clicks there is an option offered in the Spockholm Mafia Toolbar . Simply remove the offending banners which contain purchase buttons (most of them these days). If they aren’t there, you can’t click on them by mistake. Go here for instructions.

Activating the “confirmation to RP spending feature” would be the obvious choice BUT Zynga designed newer purchase button to bypass Spockholm Protection. Notice how most purchase buttons on the Home Page Modules have an image of a reward point.


Team Spockholm uses this image in their code to add confirmations which are represented by a key image to indicate they are locked.


It’s pretty slick that Zynga removed the reward point image in the Raven Booster Packs. The reward point image is also missing from any module purchase buttons released after Team Spockholm added their own confirmation system. It’s as if Zynga did this on purpose so players would continue to make accidental purchases. Not very cool! Team Spockholm will most likely figure out a solution before Zynga would ever add confirmation buttons and let us use our reward points to buy things we actually want.


If you do fall victim of these strategically placed purchase buttons, you can contact Customer Support or call the Zynga Billing Hotline at 1-800-762-2530. As far as I'm concerned, this is a billing issue. If I buy reward points and they are taken from me due to elements out of my control (screen jumping, module shifting, intentional protection bypassing) then I should be reimbursed. The Customer Support site has changed so you will need to set up a Social Support account before you can access Live Chat or send them an Email. For more details go here.