Virtual Theft: A RL Prosecution!

This caught my interest on the BBC news website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094764.stm

The relevance to SL is clear I think.

Rock

It will be something to follow anyway. The reports hint that the charges might revolve around real world phishing instead if in-game theft, so the "virtual" part of it may or may not be a big deal.

Hmm, this sounds more like a phishing scam, like fake PayPal web-sites and such. Phishing in order to get into a system which deals with real-world money is illegal.
I think the fact that it is an online game in this case is more coincidental than anything else.

Bah, Viktoria you beat me to it

The way I read it is that the phishing was simply the means to accomplish the theft. The charges actually relate to the theft of virtual property that was bought with real money, not to the phishing.

As you say, something to follow.

Rock

In a way its really sad that people go to this length for a GAME!! I've seen it in different games, where they post a message to the entire "world" to visit some website for some in-game advantage then you get hit with a keylogger which steals your name & passwords for that game.

Its not for the game in most cases, but the credit associated with the accounts.

Look at it this way:

If they get your password and you have a cc on your account, and a L$ buying limit of 2500 USD.... well.... they can buy that much L$ and transfer it to a different account, then sell it or cash it out. If they do it right, transfer enough times, they might even make such a convoluted trail that they can't be traced without *tons* of effort.

Yea, I can see the reason for it in SL, but in MMO games like "Tales of Pirates", there is NO value to the stuff. It cant be sold out-of-game.

However.. with alot of games, at least EQ2 and a few others, you can use the same account without any additional information to buy RL items from a stores. Buy something super expensive, sell it on ebay for a little less, perfect condition.

Also.. if there is a credit card attached to the account at all, its sad to say, but having access to the account is halfway to having access to the card itself (Not quite, but with enough work you can get the card info just from that...certainly not easy though)

And of course.. theres people who are just assholes and pay for the next 10 years subscription to bankrupt someone or something...

I went to a few online Dutch papers when I read this on the BBC. It was quite funny seeing a headline: "Habbo Hotel, the Second Life for kids", and then finding no mention whatsoever of SL in the article itself.

But I lived in the Netherlands for long enough to know that Dutch headlines often have nothing to do with the story itself.

And from what I've seen and read, Habbo Hotel isn't even remotely like SL.