Word: crediteers
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...works. You join FarmVille, a game on Facebook in which you can create a virtual farm by growing crops and livestock and tilling the earth. Through your toil, you earn virtual money, but to farm more efficiently or quickly, you can also invest real cash (through PayPal or a credit card) to buy virtual goods, such as seed or a tractor. Should you not have any real cash to spare on things that after all do not actually exist, you can instead accept an offer from one of the advertisers on the game site and get virtual cash in return...
...These offers, generally known in the business as lead-gen (lead generators), will give you some seed/tractor money in return for signing up for, say, a subscription to Netflix or a credit card. But less scrupulous advertisers lure players in with an offer to take a bogus survey or IQ test. Once it's completed they require a cell-phone number to send you the results. When you enter your cell number and create a password, you have unwittingly subscribed to a service you never wanted but will be billed for. If you're a kid, the mysterious charge then...
...Will O'Brien, general manager of social and casual games at TrialPay, a company that matches advertisers with potential online clients, told the San Francisco Chronicle that offers to swap personal information for virtual cash are designed to reach the young because they're less likely to have a credit card. But they often have cell phones, usually on their parents' plans. Indeed, while Facebook rules state that users must be at least 13, FarmVille seems to be aimed at a youthful crowd, at least by its marketing pitch: "Howdy Ya'll! Come on down to the Farm today...
...news may actually provide fuel for both camps. The rising unemployment rate bolsters Republicans who have been arguing that the stimulus bill, which most economists credit with speeding economic recovery, has only made matters worse on the job front, with October's numbers showing that the economy is continuing to shed jobs. "It's bewildering to see the same Administration that sold its trillion-dollar spending plan this spring as a guarantee against 8% unemployment claiming it created 1 million jobs, especially since it is a sad fact 3 million jobs have been lost since the stimulus was signed into...
...Street into a virtual casino, one that operates on stakes much higher than anything found on the Vegas strip. The film opens with the now familiar tale of unsupervised banking recklessness: banks steadily doled out an increasing number of subprime mortgages—loans made to consumers with bad credit. Many would then adjust the interest rates for select mortgages according to market fluctuations, demanding more and more payment from consumers unable to afford the escalating charges...