Yesterday a 44-year-old Poway resident named Jack Sherman filed for bankruptcy after failing to pay back the $50,000 he charged at the Facebook virtual gift shop.
Facebook virtual gifts are small icon-like images (such as a heart, flower, or teddy bear) that you send to your Facebook friends so they can all know that you’re horrible with money. The gifts can range anywhere from $1 to $500.
Gifts are priced in credits (where $1 equals 100 credits) so users don't feel like total suckers while browsing.
“I started off buying the $1 gifts, then the $5 gifts…the next thing you know I’m sending all of my co-workers the infamous $500 rainbow flower,” said Sherman.
Sherman is just one of the many Americans currently caught up in the Facebook virtual gift frenzy who’ve managed to rack up a debt that they can’t possibly afford to pay back.
Robert Murdoff, a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley, explained, “This problem is unlike any other our nation has ever faced. Unlike real goods such as cars, houses, and food, Facebook virtual gifts are worth nothing, which makes a bank’s attempt to repossess them a pointless endeavor.”
Some are blaming Facebook’s lack of price regulation for this mess, while others blame the purchasers themselves for being irresponsible.
Zuckerberg highlighting virtual gift store objectives
Facebook creator, 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, recently denied allegations that Facebook artificially inflated the price of virtual gifts. However, there is footage of him giving a PowerPoint Presentation at the 2009 Annual Internet Business Expo in Las Vegas where he states otherwise.
“If you put a price tag on anything, even if it’s worthless, there’s a sucker out there that will buy it. Take air guitars for example,” said Zuckerberg.
In order to prevent a “major economic catastrophe,” the government recently announced that they’re working on a plan to buy the virtual gifts seized by collection agencies, and display them at public auctions (on digital photo frames) where other Facebook users may purchase them at a fraction of their original cost.”
