I joined this game to study it for a project I am working on. It is a virtual world. It is an approved application for Myspace and Facebook. There are thousands of members from around the world and countless hackers taking advantage of serious security breaches within the game. Zynga has already been reported many times to the Better Business Bureau and some are talking of taking up a class action suit to have the non responsive Zynga return their earned items and the real money that some members paid to have YO Cash which buys items yo coins earned within the game can not purchase.

The forum is filled with angst ridden members who have lost their yoville coins, yoville CASH which cost money to buy and all their possessions that some have worked for months to accumulate. This is happening at a record fast pace. One character I created recently had all items stolen as well. This was after I took every precaution possible to prevent such occurrences. I didn't have strangers on the buddy list and once the people added me as a friend to earn more coins I deleted them. Anything that could be done, I did. Yet still, I was hacked. To me this was a study of a game and not so important in the losses but to others who have invested countless hours and hard earned money it is completely disheartening.

If Zynga would even respond they might get some benefit of a doubt of being a victim but their responses according to the forum are extremely rare and usually the entire contents or coins and cash values can not be returned. I am still waiting for any semblance of a reply from Zynga to my report of theft and hacking. None has been received so far. I will give them another twenty four hours past that which they advertise on their sites to allow and after that I will be contacting the BBB myself. I am also looking for an attorney to represent those interested in a class action suit.

I seriously think this is high negligence and consumer fraud. When a company takes no actions to satisfy it's customers who have paid money to play their game, and invested time to play that is a horrible state of affairs.

If you play yoville, I suggest you prepare yourself for a loss. If you are considering purchasing yo cash, DON'T. You are buying nothing and will probably loose everything it is going to purchase in cyber space.

UPDATE APRIL 18 2009 - http://www.sodahead.com/blog/61575/yoville-hacking-is-rampant...