Hey there Clammers!
Bouncing by to inform you that just like months back, TinyCo will be running sweeps of their game to help curb those with “illegally obtained and/or altered” games and/or game content.
As this is something solely handled by and managed by TinyCo, we are unable to answer questions in regards to individual player activity. You can review their Terms of Use on their site.
http://www.tinyco.com/websitetermsofuse.htm
Those impacted will see a reduction of Clams down to 100 remaining along with an in game pop up.
What we do ask of our readers here is the following…
If you received the message and understand why, take it as a second chance to continue playing.
If you feel you received the message in error, contact TinyCo immediately through your game or email them at help@tinyco.com. They will be watching for these messages.
For everyone else, please keep to Addicts Guidelines when discussing this or commenting to/about others impacted by this.
Thanks everyone and have a great weekend.
~Bunny
Family Guy Addicts 
Everytime a product gets a protection against theft it is always hurting the customers more than the thieves, like crappy blue ray protections (lagging replay or update player) and DRM systems (no access to media on devices the system does not support). Both things thieves don’t have to battle with.
Well I can understand TinyCo in using this practice, but it seems like it is doing some collateral damage and hurts some honest customers*. And the actual objective? I am guessing that hackers have updated their clam amount at least one day later and if banned they get a new account. It’s pointless, so why they bother so much? I don’t think that any caught mischief will buy clams from now on, but a mistreated customer will not buy clams in the future. Point is that hackers don’t care about the clams, and will most likely go on and the real customer has troubles getting his paid goods back.
*Well that’s assuming the algorithm to flag accounts would not work very well, which obviously would TinyCo hurt themselves. But would you think of them doing that? So it is to assume the algorithm works pretty accurate? Hard to judge, but from the complains made in this post I assume it’s very accurate with some few unlucky people.
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The % of those impacted by mistake… it’s so extremely low. They’ve fine tuned it a lot. For those that were snagged by mistake, they’re fixing them fast too. They just got to message in from the game. Remember, happy people rarely will comment. It’s usually only those upset or with an issue, so yes you’ll see mainly those comments. That’s just a fact of life anywhere you go. I doubt you’ll see many take the time just to come comment “I’m good. Didn’t impact me.”
I personally think it’s good to do this. Thieves tend to not want to keep trying over n over if they know they’re being watched constantly. It also makes those wanting to go honest have a 2nd chance. Many are misled into cheating thinking the way it’s done is OK and not cheating. Once they know better, they do it right. We see it many times people misled. Not just this game either.
It also helps game houses on a legal side to persue those proving to continually abuse.
Lots more goes on behind the scenes when companies do this than you can see. Lots more. In the end the game and it’s players do benefit.
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The % of those impacted by mistake may be extremely low, but it really stinks if you’re one of them. I still have not received a reply from customer support, so I emailed them again as you suggested. However, the fact that you said they are fixing the accounts that were snagged by mistake fast and that I have yet to hear from them makes me concerned that my account will not be fixed before the next event starts.
Perhaps it is because my in game contact is not working and I have to email them that is causing the delay. Whatever the reason it is very frustrating.
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Let me just point something out to you. “Those messaging in.” Email is more a catch all for every game they make. It will take longer for you to be isolated from everyone and sent to FG tech team. In game messaging goes right to the FG team. A lot faster.
This is why we always state that messaging from within your game is the best way to contact them. They are still going through emails too, but as I told you, you’re in a long line there.
Hang in there. They’ll get to you.
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Sidenote… If you want to try… see if you can start a new game on an alternate device. Tap til the menu is available (Chris holding antenna) and message from in game on the new one. Just don’t delete it til you get a response. You can explain that you can’t access messaging in your actual game.
It’s an odd way around, but if it helps you… figured I’d offer it. 😉
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Bunny, do you have any idea how long it will take to get a response from TinyCo?
It is approaching 72 hours since I first emailed them and I have still not received a reply. Not even a simple “We have received your email and are looking into it”.
I see posts on here that some players have gotten responses to this issue, maple leaf drop rates and the number of times that Peter has done the shapoopie, but the workers that were supposed to be dealing with this issue to make sure that regular players were not affected are letting me down.
We are only days away from another big event that will surely cause customer support to be flooded with emails about glitches and drop rates, and I am concerned that my issue will once again be pushed to the back burner or dropped altogether.
With every passing hour without a reply from TinyCo, my faith and confidence in and respect for them drops. Is this becoming a “Buyer Beware” game where honest players have to worry about investing more money into it for fear of the “blanket net” taking your legally purchased and won clams?
The hackers and cheats may complain and moan, but they don’t really care. They will just move on or set up a fake account and start over again having lost nothing.
So, Bunny, if you could please let TinyCo know that there are still players out there that were wrongfully caught up in this net and have not yet been helped I would appreciate it. Thank you.
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The main issues are not being handled by the same team. This issue is a unique one and is being handled by a special group as there is so much more that goes into it, including the time spent to research each and every one. That vs a game play “issue” that is probably already answered or was an easy group patch fix.
They are aware, just keep in mind you are essentially “standing in line” with anyone that wrote in on it. Including those that this sweep is meant to stop from illegal activity. They are still combing through them. The “Sweep” has been live since Friday night, and the comments flooded in then. They are doing what they can, but each case takes time. Each is individual case by case. Give them another day, then message them again if you don’t see anything back yet. Even an autoreply. They can’t reply until they get to yours.
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In won about 450 clams through the Star Trek event and had bought 600 clams for the nature event. Tiny co took all but 100 of them away, I will be contacting Apple and demanding a full refund for my last purchase and every other clam purchase. This was outright theft, and Tiny are a bunch of purse snatching thugs.
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Please keep in mind we’re here to help. Any impacted player just needs to message in to them from options listed in this post.
Respectful, constructive disagreement is welcome, but comments made to provoke others, be malicious, or distract from the purpose of this site will be removed.
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Hello bunny and friends, I got a no no no message saying contact support, I have through the in game menu conversation, is that the best way to go? Also I have NEVER ever used third party sites, I use iTunes and use gift cards out the wazoo I’ve spent thousands on this darn game, this is really a pain, also it didn’t lower my clam total though, what gives
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Also I tried using their website to contact support and when u hit send it just spins and spins, so minutes now and I’ve tried over and over, they are treating people crappy and it’s not appreciated it, I’ve invested thousands I can’t even express how enraged I am
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Don’t use the website to contact them. Ever. It hasn’t worked in years. Only use the methods we suggest here. In game or email. Both go directly to them.
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That’s a real statement about their professionalism there Bunny 🙂 If they can’t keep their website working, what can we expect them to do with the game or the cheater sweep? 🙂 Not everybody will land here and read your recommendations.
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Actually, no. I’m saying it doesn’t work as it’s their main website for ALL their games. So it won’t work to get the help quickly for a specific one. So why waste the time to have to be filtered through tons of games when you can jump right in line with the correct one? Think of it as standing outside an amusement park in line. You still gotta get inside and then still line up for the ride you want. Takes some time.
In game messaging jumps you right to Family Guy tech. A line for the exact game you need help for.
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Let me make sure I understand what you’re saying… Did you get a Consuela Connection Error? Or the one stating a Violation as talked about in this post?
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I contacted TinyCo as soon as I got the notice Friday night that my account had been flagged and my clams reduced to 100 from the 5,705 clams that I legally purchased from iTunes and won in-game from mystery boxes, away missions, completing character sets etc. but I have still not received a response from them. I realize that they are probably flooded with emails about this issue, but perhaps the best thing to have done was examine each suspected account on an individual basis for use violations instead of the blanket net approach that was used which affected innocent accounts, because now they have to examine each account individually and in the process made loyal customers really upset.
I take screenshots every time I purchase clams, win clams or any other prize, and when I use clams to purchase premium items so I know and have proof of the date and time of every clam I win or use (excluding the clams from Ollieland which I don’t take screenshots of).
As I recently lost my job due to the company closing, I was counting on these clams that I had already bought to use to purchase new premium items during the big event in June as I will not have any money to spend on clams. If it takes Tinyco months to correct their mistake, I will end up missing out the new characters and buildings.
I have NEVER used any third party program, hack or cheat on this or any other game. I downloaded the official game and all updates from iTunes, so I would like to know what criteria the program that hunts for hacks uses as it appears to be faulty. It would seem that this program and or Tinyco thinks that the only way one can be successful in playing this game, i.e. acquire lots of clams and premium items is to cheat.
I have been happy with TinyCo and how they run the game for the most part up until now and hopefully they will correct this mistake and restore my clams immediately, however, based on my personal experience dealing with them, my satisfaction rating of the customer support department is a big F- due to the lack of timely responses to my emails and the fact that they still have not responded to my problem with the in-game contact not working which I have been trying to get resolved since October.
Bunny, I am sorry if this counts as a rant but I thought this was the best place to post it. Also, feel free to forward this to Matt at TinyCo. Thank you.
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Please also reach out to them via email. Yes their response time does still need work. It’s more due to they are tiny. Really. They handle it all in house unlike other gaming house giants that outsource to call centers worldwide. So only a handful of people are handling millions of players. Matt is aware of this and they’re working to resolve this. He stated in the Q&A here during Star Trek to please keep on those messages if you don’t hear back within 5 days. This situation you’ll probably hear sooner, but yes they’re flooded.
I’ll also be happy to keep forwarding concerns of players for you 🙂
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Bunny, first – thank you for your support through things like this. I’m very impressed with how you work with the community. TinyCo is VERY fortunate to have a community leader like you.
And please don’t take what I say next as anything but constructive input for you to pass on – I certanly understand they are small and it’s difficult to compete in this space but all the more reason why they need to keep their energy focused on continuing to build a great product that customers (like myself) don’t mind spending a lot of money on and ensuring they code responsibly to close as many of the holes that allow cheaters to cheat. If they “chase the rabbit down the hole” as it appears they are now they are only hurting those same happy customers that have supported them thus far and not spending their time on building new features to attract more customers.
It’s fair for them to analize the issue but that energy should be spent on closing the holes that caused it. And CLEARLY it’s not perfected if the conversation keeps coming back to innocents being caught “in the net”. So take that information and turn it back into the PRODUCT to fix, not your customers.
They need to keep in mind that stopping these cheaters will NOT increase revenue. Those people were NOT going to spend the $$$ on clams anyway. ie – they were NOT really your customers. And now you have – with their own actions – created a cusotmer satisfaction issue that they have trouble managing.
Is it worth it?
I put this out here only as constructive input to continue to see the best game on the iPad get even better.
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Yup same happened to me. They responded though and told me there was no way I could have earned 1500 clams. Are you kidding me I earned all if them through daily and things and they said sorry decision is final. This is so wrong they could care less.
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Why would you bother to take Snaps of wich time you won or bought clams?
Sounds strange…
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Taking snapshots of when I buy or win clams or any other prize allows me to keep an accurate account of my success in the game and I can post my results from mystery boxes or if I got clams for completing character sets to this web site to help others determine if they want to take a chance on a mystery box. It may sound strange but I guess I’m just anal retentive and like to keep things documented instead of just relying on memory and apparently it also comes in handy if there is ever a need to provide additional information about your account to show where your clams came from.
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What about for some of us that have bought clams, and have saved and have plenty of them? I have a lot of clams, and have the receipts that the App Store sends plus bank verification of charges if needed as proof.
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Let me put it this way… I have 10,000+ clams in my game (roughly $250 worth). All bought n paid for via iTunes Cards/Google Play so we can use them for the site info. All receipt covered. I also have won Clams in there too. Mystery Box Prize Wins and Neighbor visits. They never got touched. What they use to do this detects app market purchased as well as game won Clams.
So those purchased/won properly should not be impacted. If they are… a quick write in to TinyCo should help as they’re watching specifically for those caught unintentionally in the net to first see why, and secondly correct it.
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Thank you Bunny. I got worried, and contacted TinyCo just in case because I read from some folks that they experienced clams “taken away” even though they have purchased them.
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If they have… tell them alert TinyCo ASAP so they can look into it.
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Thank you Bunny for the info. So far I’m good. Haven’t got any pop ups or anything of that sort. I just was concerned for what some people have been saying about clams being taken away after they’ve purchased them. But I’m good.
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Hi, i am experiencing the problem with “game_ok game_report”. I cannot make the app work. I followed the instructions on the site for starting the app: turn on airplane mode wait till consuela appears with retry button wait till the bar it s full turn off airplane mode retry, etc, but it’s still not working. This is going on for the past days. I really wish i could play the game. I would really like it to start on it s own like a normal app.
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Try basics and contact them if won’t help.
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I was hit by this the first time they “cast the net”. I have always paid for my clams and I had over 600 over them at the time and I log in and they knocked me down. It took me 2 months to get them back witth no apology. At the time I had spent well over $300 in clams and this happens.
I have run security software development firms for over 15 years so I know what I speak of when I say this: If you don’t want people to “steal currency” within your game then protect your software with secure coding practices… And if you are too incompetent to do it yourself, hire someone to help you. And if you don’t want to make the investment to build your product right then at the VERY LEAST – NEVER penalize your GOOD CUSTOMERS for your laziness.
It took me several months before I would purchase anything else in the game and now I sit with over 300 clams (every one of them legally purchased) and I just hope I don’t get treated that way again. If I do, it will be the last time.
fingers crossed…
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if you get busted again do they ban you from the game? im guessing no which is funny cuz they promised to do that in the last warning. empty threats…
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As I don’t do it, and haven’t experienced it… I can’t answer that. You would have to ask them. Like I said, this is something we have nothing nor want anything to do with. Not our place to police people’s games. We just follow our own Addicts Guidelines and codes and are proud to do so. 🙂
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Here we go again. I missed the last memo about this happeneing but assume that is why my clams disappeared before with the pop up saying i never paid for them. Oh tinyco PLEASE do this correct this time. I always paid for my clams and it took literally 8 months to get refunded.
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Ive seen a lot of users complaining about how they are innocent.
Funny thing is that a lot of those names talked big about earning free clams in the Star Trek “they forgot to add dark matter in this surprise clam box so you will only get clams when you have earned all items, lets get some free clams!!!” exploit.
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Earning free vlams is different than stealing them. I was not one of those users with the star trek event but if tinyco messed and made it easy to get clams then why should you not go earn free clams? ?? It doesn’t change the fact that they’re making mistakes on who is and is not paying for clams and punishing innocent users. If you pay for something then its yours and i know for a fact they take clams from honest players
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It is an honest mistake. It’s the game coding to pull those “flagged” accounts. TinyCo in no way is intentionally punishing anyone using proper methods to obtain them. That’s why it’s critical those caught in the net message in. They have people specifically there this weekend watching for that exact thing. They don’t want regular users impacted. They will make sure those regular players are corrected. 🙂
It also helps them to adjust what they need in the “net” to prevent it in future. 🙂
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I dont think its intentional but when they didnot respond to about 20 messages or responded to half a message about something else and ignored the part about disappearing, that is what irked me. Happy they have someone there specifically for this now but i am still a little upset about the headache i had to deal with. (Obviously lol) i doubt I’ll get over it and it does impact my spending now whet before i used to spend a lot
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I get that. I’m sorry your experience was rough. They do still need some work on customer support. It’s all in house so just a handful of people vs the worldwide call centers backing the other giant gaming houses. Matt is aware of this. It’s all more why we help at the front all we can. So only last resort you need to get help and message in. It’s not easy to wait. Especially for us Addicts. 😉
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Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any Clams from that TC error/mistake, but just because I didn’t noticed it in time. They (TC) forgot to add something that would prevent a loop to keep wining Clams, They, not any hacked version of the game. In this conditions any Clams wonned are totaly legit, morality doesn’t have any part on this…
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They should ban them from playing not take 100 clams. Im not tech smart but can’t tinyco & EA press charges against these sites who do this? It is technically stealing.
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They have and will. It’s legal so you won’t hear about it unless it’s huge. Like EA taking down a huge one couple years back.
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You mean lizard squad? Didn’t they mess up the servers on tapped out?
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Nope.
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what group are you talking about? i remember EA put jokes about free donuts on reddit in the game. i think you’re talking about them taking down hackers who tried to mess up there servers/game not people who stole content.
also who uses the free clam hack anymore anyway? everyone i know uses the free shopper version.
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The people I am talking about is the one I mentioned in a round about way in a post here that caused life altering damage to players that got their “help”. I will NOT ever mention their names in public again. Don’t want the troll armies that name draws. I will let the legal teams continue to handle them. 😉
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Thta’s Unforgiven 😉
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I’m glad you posted about this because it was the weirdest thing today when I logged in to find that popup!! I’ve never used a 3rd party hack or anything to alter my game and go against the tos, so imagine my surprise to see that. I contacted them immediately, but haven’t heard anything back. Lost about 230 clams from it. Only thing I could think of was that I got lucky a lot during the Star Trek event with the Borg Cube mission and they thought that might be weird 😦
Thanks for the post Bunny!
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Oh no, does that mean there’s nowhere to hide for hackers and cheats? ⚠. 😨
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Hmmmmm. If my game’s affected(not that I play any way But normal) will they bump my clams up To 100? I haven’t gotten that high yet 😅
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Oh. And have a Great weekend Addicts! I’m off to work
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Hi Clammers!
I just messaged TinyCo again about the wasted pinecones and to refund back and they just replied but they refunded me 50clams instead.
For now theres new Consuela sale with new questlines as they mentioned it was a fan favourite.
Thanks family guy addicts again for all those wonderful and fantastic posts!
p/s : I did mentioned about this site on my message to TinyCo. This site rewarded me 50 clams I guess. lol! 🙂
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Didn’t see the Consuela sale. When does it start/end?
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it was this early morning when they refunded me with clams and theres a pop out sale of Consuela for 300clams. I thought this is weird.
It was mentioned theres a new questline for her.
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300 clams is Consuela’s normal price isn’t it? That’s not a special offer.
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Hope you have a great weekend Bunny!!!
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Thanks 😉
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