Student Makes a Million Online, Gets Deported

Via Kotaku, a story at the Mainichi daily news about an enterprising exchange student that got himself deported. Wang Yue Si, a Chinese student who went to Japan on a student visa, found himself in need of some spending money. Since he was a gamer, he decided to make some cash by selling virtual items online. He was so successful, the cops noticed. From the article: "He started selling items such as weapons and currency for online games through an Internet auction site in April this year, without obtaining the appropriate residency status. Wang, living in Kumamoto, has admitted that he sold the virtual goods for about 6 million yen ($US 1.3 Million), in violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. A bank worker became suspicious when Wang regularly sent money back home to China and alerted police in August, prompting Kumamoto police officers to investigate the student."

1 Million Dollars?

[MoriaOrc (822758)]

Summary says "6 million yen or $1.3m" .. but 6m yen is only about 50k dollars (1 yen is slightly less then 1 cent in value) .. so .. which is it?

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[tilandal (1004811)]

He has admitted to selling 6m Yen but is suspected for selling over 150m Yen. Poor job on the write up.

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[dotgain (630123)]

Poor job on the write up.

Whoa. Curveball.

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[ack154 (591432)]

Per the article, he has sold a TOTAL of about 150 million yen... which works out to roughly $1.3 million, USD.

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[flyingsquid (813711)]

How much is that in gold pieces?

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

He earned 6 million yen ($50k) in between April 14 and May 23 this year. He has so earned 150 million yen since 2004- this is what a Japanese news site says.

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[MoriaOrc (822758)]

(sorry to reply to myself, but now that I've actually RTFA rather then just the summary...)

The (U.S. $1.3 million) is not in the article. The yen that is about 1 million US dollars in worth that they are talking about is the 150 million yen that he is suspected of having made, rather then the 6 million he has admitted to making.

Also, the article didn't make that conversion in the summary (the 6 million yen = 1 million U.S.).

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[CrazyJim1 (809850)]

Thanks for the clarification, I remember when 300 yen equalled a dollar. I suddenly thought that somehow the Chinese Economy was booming more than I imagined. $50,000 is doable in a year of online gaming if you really know what you're doing and have no need for sleep. I can't see anyone making a million unless they're employing a mass amount of workers. For example, you can make $2.50-$5 an hour selling gold on WOW with a level 60 character. If you employ Chinese for .50 an hour, you're making a 2 or 3$ an hour profit if you don't have to invest in their computer too.

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[lordmetroid (708723)]

In Japan a Student Visa legally allows you to earn 0 yen in profit made from any work or service you provide. So yeah, no wonder he was deported!

Idiot.

[jo7hs2 (884069)]

I'm fairly certain they have immigration lawyers in Japan. Something tells me he was more than aware he couldn't make money while there. Not exactly like Japan is a dictatorship with harsh penalties for bizarre crimes, either. Poor baby.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Japan is a fairly xenophobic society, especially towards other east Asians. No sane lawyer will want to fight this. When it comes to immigrants, Japan is a dictatorship(unless you're white.)

Re:Idiot.

[bunions (970377)]

Idiot? He made $1.3M selling stuff on the internet while still in college. How many millions did -you- make in college?

Re:

[Goldsmith (561202)]

There's a difference between "making money" and "making money illegally and perhaps getting it all taken away." So yes, he is an idiot.

Re:

[TubeSteak (669689)]

There's a difference between "making money" and "making money illegally and perhaps getting it all taken away."

If you're in college, what would you care?

Here's a fact: In the business world, there is always a high paying job (or venture capital) for someone who has shown they can make money, even if that person has no ethical barriers to speak of.

Sometimes it is because the employer thinks they can temper the lack of ethics, other times it is because that is exactly the type of person they wanted to hire. W

Re:Idiot.

[Cadallin (863437)]

being deported for violating the terms of a student visa by making money hardly demonstrates a morally bankrupt person with no ethical barriers.

Re:

[BiggerIsBetter (682164)]

Is it better to be stupid and wealthy, or smart and struggling?

He kept the money

[Gorimek (61128)]

He didn't get it taken away.

You can live real well with that kind of money in China, so I don't think he has many regrets.

Re:Idiot.

[bunions (970377)]

ok, how many millions did you [i]perhaps[/i] make in college?

The bottom line is he made a buttload of money, the vast majority of which is somewhere in China and therefore likely untouchable. You can call him an 'idiot' all damn day, but it sounds an awful lot like sour grapes from where I sit.

Re:Idiot.

[magarity (164372)]

Either way, he made that money fair and square in my opinion (after taxes withheld by the sticky-fingered state of course)
 
He made it failry in terms of his customers got what they paid for but the authorities are mad because he DIDN'T pay income taxes on it; he was a foriegn exchange student and wasn't supposed to be making any income in the first place.

Re:Correction, please.

[God'sDuck (837829)]

I don't see how people can get themselves into paying for fake goods that exist in a game.

Pretty much all entertainment is virtual. If paying someone for a software patch to a game that extends play or makes it more fun is reasonable, then so is paying someone for a software permission to use something that extends play and makes it more fun.

Now, reasonable does not mean it's *worth* your or my money. Certainly not mine. But for someone already throwing out dozens of dollars each month, who has the money to spend, and is willing to throw out an extra few to do something that they think is fun without the effort of programming/finding/whatevering it themselves.....I'm not sure that's so much weirder than paying $14 for a two-hour movie and a little bag of buttered grain, that I could obtain for myself with a walk to the library and a small garden.

Re:

[badriram (699489)]

Well you can call him what you want, but the law is not exactly easy to understand (well when is it). When I was a student (on visa), I always wondered if it was legal to sell something on ebay, because technically if I made a profit on it, then it could be considered as work. Or what if you buy stock in the stock market and made money on it? There are lot of scenarios esp online where it is not very clear. Of course it is always better to err on the side of caution.

Re:

[pla (258480)]

Something tells me he was more than aware he couldn't make money while there.

Not having a work visa does not equal "can't make money".

If he owned a business back home that made him money every week, I don't think that would have caused any problems.

If he negotiated the purchase of his home and car in China, while in Japan, I doubt that would have caused him any trouble either.

In this situation, since the income came purely from online sources, did he "work" in Japan? Or did he oversee the operatio

Japan is strict

[gullevek (174152)]

you have a working visa, you are allowed to work, for the part your visa is allowed. You have a student visa, you study, you don't make $1million. If they catch you, you are out. Plus he might get a 1 or 10 year ban on returning to Japan.

Seriously, if you care about living in Japan, don't fuck with the officials, they are more Xenophobic than any other country I could imagine.

[thought I love living in Japan, its always about the people you meet]

Re:

[belmolis (702863)]

Before getting too upset about this, wait and see what happens. They find someone who isn't supposed to be working exporting a large amount of money so they arrest him. That isn't surprising. Maybe they'll deport him. Maybe they'll release him. Maybe they'll make him pay income tax on it. For all we know they'll decide that although exporting all that cash looked suspicious, since he didn't actually have a job in Japan he didn't violate his student status. We haven't seen how this will turn out.

As for

Re:

[StikyPad (445176)]

They are more Xenophobic than any other country I could imagine.

Well, especially if you're Chinese, although it's sort of a good idea to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing if you're a resident alien in any country.

Re:Idiot.

[ArsenneLupin (766289)]

Exactly.

Who is the bigger idiot anyways? The student entrepreneur trying to make some extra money or the bank worker who is reporting a good customer to the police for a victimless crime?

Bank workers are compelled by "anti-money laundering" laws to report "suspicious behavior". Indeed, the bank worker had no way of knowing whether this was something serious (drug related money), or something relatively minor (gaming). If it had indeed been drug money, and the banker had not reported it, he might have gotten into deep trouble himself by not reporting it... Rules about money laundering are pretty harsh, and whenever transactions fit some typical "pattern", they need to be reported.

What really should have happened is that such cases are handled the same way as search warrants: if, while serving a warrant obtained to investigate some serious crime, no evidence of the wanted crime are found, but evidence of an unrelated lesser crime, that evidence may not be used. In our case, whatever board was "investigating" the report should just have dismissed it after seeing that no drugs were involved.

These stories get more common...

[Myself (57572)]

Okay, deportation is a new angle, but there always seem to be problems when people sell in-game items. The stories keep coming...

I'd love to see a broad treatment of law-meets-games-meets-money from someone who actually understands the issues involved. I'm tangentially interested in all those things but I don't really have enough background to put these sorts of things into perspective.

Anyone?

Re:

[iidoru (1027828)]

I think there is not much of an issue - in the end it is all about taxes. If he had payed all the right taxes (which is hard because he is not a resident) - he would not be in any trouble (maybe someone still would point out to him that he is not supposed to do this without proper residence or equivalent), but it probably would not be such a huge issue.

He'd have got the same treatment in USA, EU, etc

[EmbeddedJanitor (597831)]

Many/most countries with restrictive visas (eg. student/tourist visas) would charge/deport someone for working without suitable work permits. I know people who have been blacklisted from USA (never allowed to even land in transit in USA) for overstaying a visa by one day.

Re:These stories get more common...

[Ralph Yarro (704772)]

If the TOS say you can't sell content out-of-game then you are a cheating lowlife and should be banned from the game, if not dragged out into the street, forced onto your knees and shot in the mouth.

See, because you suggested letting them off lightly like that you got modded troll. Try to suppress your misplaced sense of mercy. Some people aren't worth it.

Well well

[imsabbel (611519)]

Seeing how cutthroat the whole gold and itemfarming buisness is, to be able earn $1m+ from sales, he must have been the frontman of aa rather large gang of sweatshop farmers. Which would be perfectly fine as a violation of his status.

Re:Well well

[jandrese (485)]

That's what I was thinking. Either he hacked the game or he's just fronting for a sweatshop. The market isn't good enough for a single person to make that much real money in most games. There are some occasional opportunities for someone to make that much money legitimately (selling land in Second Life for instance--and that one requires an massive capital investment before it starts to pay off), but they are exceedingly rare.

not unexpected

[coaxial (28297)]

Nothing to see here folks. He violated the terms of his visa, and thus got deported. The only thing unusual was his buisness.

Move along. Move along.

The same thing could happen in the US

[tadd (51292)]

If you are on a student visa, you're not supposed to be making money by working, you're supposed to be studying. no I know there are ways around this, but with most of them, if you get caught, you go home.

Re:

[chanrobi (944359)]

Hell i'll take that deal. Get deported and take home $1.3M? Who cares about school. You won't have to work the rest of your life!

Re:

[DragonWriter (970822)]

If you can manage to find someplace that will provide a 5% annual interest—not all difficult with a large initial deposit—$1.3 million will provide a fairly comfortable first-world middle-class income of $65,000 a year with no depletion of the principal; if you are willing to accept an income typical of entry-level jobs for college graduates in the US, say $30,000 to $40,000, you can actually grow the principal a few percent a year.

Of course, if you want to do significantly better than inflation

Re:

[fossa (212602)]

Generally yes. Even off-campus work may performed if approved by the school (the example I have in mind is an internship; I believe that off-campus work must be related to one's studies).

Re:

[minus_273 (174041)]

In the US, you are allwed to work upto 20 hrs on campus and you get to work off campus for internships with authorization. You have a total of 12 months off campus for your entire stay and are allowed to decide on how you want to use that. Many people take 3 months for each summer others take 12 months at once after college.

Re:

[clifyt (11768)]

"Under US law, are you allowed to make money in your home country while studying?"

Depends...I run a little research area for my university and I hire students all the time.

Depending on their visa, they may only be able to do work that is solely in support of their education...as the research we do is academic in nature and its for the same university they are attending, they can do this. At the same time, some of the stuff I do for the university that is off-campus -- we do a lot of High School outreach an

People with misplaced priorties

[erroneus (253617)]

They never cease to amaze me. I don't blame the opportunist quite as much as I blame the addicts.

Gambling, porn, online gaming... let's add drugs to the list too. It's all a waste of money. Porn is free as far as I'm concerned, gambling is often too risky the way some addicts play, and drugs waste in an obvious way. But paying for "virtual stuff" in a virtual world?! That's a waste of money and time.

It's not like I don't understand it -- I recall calling in sick to work more than once so I could finish a level of X-Wing versus Tie Fighter... the pay check started to reflect my obsession and I made corrections. I wish other people could learn that lesson.

Article says *arrested*, not deported

[njdj (458173)]

The article says: "A university student from China has been arrested for illegally engaging in business activities outside the restrictions of his student visa, police said." Arrested, not deported.

Of course it's an English summary of a Japanese original. Does anyone here read Japanese well enough to check the original source?

About the discrepancy in the money amounts mentioned in another reply: 6 million yen is what the student has admitted. That's nowhere near $1 million. Police suspect his total profit is 100 million yen, which is near enough $1 million.

Re:Article says *arrested*, not deported

[bunions (970377)]

You can't deport someone without arresting them first. Deportation is the next logical step, since it sounds like this guy has no defense. There's really not much else they can do to him.

Well, at least that would be true if Japan has the same laws as the US. As an American, I'm not really capable of imagining places that aren't America, so I just pretend that everywhere that isn't America is just more America except people talk funny.

Five little words

[edwardpickman (965122)]

I'm in the wrong business.

Inmates watching inmates

[by Anonymous Coward]

Personally, I find it repugnant that banks report "suspicious" activities on their customers in many countries. For example, in the past, if you played with more than $10K at a time, US bank drones filed a report on you. Some years ago, that threshold changed to $3K -- loan to family member, car downpayment, any reasonable major purchase (PS3 plus games?!) - now requires reporting YOU to federal authorities as being suspicious. Interestingly, many banks file a report for any amount $1K in cash.

Dealing with a little cash is not exclusive only to the terrorists who sell drugs to babies. Nor is having a few thousand dollars in bank transfers solely the realm of pedophile rapists who conduct school shootings.

This guy got busted by a pro-active bank teller who was trained to believe everything you do is suspicious. All the while, in the US, they look you in the eye and smile like nothing is wrong, because they are generally held to strict secrecy by law. US bank tellers watch your every move and transaction, report your private monetary activities to federal law enforcement without you knowing it, then trot out the dog-n-pony show about some gold-farmer-type guy and we are supposed to believe that justifies our lack of privacy.

Re:

[lindseyp (988332)]

I work for a bank. You'd be surprised at the level of monitoring these days. Particularly because employees are under instruction not to inform you of any suspicion they may have, for fear of alerting a potential criminal that his game is up.

Behold [wikipedia.org]

You may not consider wikipedia 'credible', but a google search for "suspicious activity reporting" [google.com] or "Anti money laundering guidelines [google.com] brings up a wealth of credible documentation. I just linked to wikipedia because the information was presented in an ea

Re:Lucky he wasn't hung..

[ack154 (591432)]

You're the host, what would you do?

Say "make it $5 and you've got a deal."

House Rules

[camperdave (969942)]

You're the host, what would you do?

House Rules: The house takes a 50% cut of all real money transactions that affect game play.

If Chon Wang wants to sell Park Place to Princess Pei Pei for $10, someone's going to have to fork $5 over to me.

I think you misunderstand

[by Anonymous Coward]

Apparently they are claiming he illegally made money in Japan. Since the game was online, he could have made the same money in his home country.

Think of it this way, if you own a business in one country and that business continues to make money while you are on a tourist or student training visa (a visa that does not authorize you to engage in employment in the country you are visiting) in another .. is that illegal? Of course not. What if you business calls you for some advice while on vacation? Are you al

Should have asked for payment in China

[saikou (211301)]

"Virtual Enterprise" trick will work only if you receive money in the country where it's registered. So if you have a nice little company in Germany that sells virtual stuff in US, you have to bill your customers from Germany, and receive your funds there.
And if you are in US on tourist visa, you can't keep selling your virtual "German made" stuff on a regular basis, as then you are working in US, and either need to have a local branch or work visa.
Japan did a normal thing in this case -- you don't have work permit, yet regularly cash in cheques? Goodbye!
Otherwise anyone could work as a salesman without any visa, claiming that goods were "made in another country".

Re:

[Asic Eng (193332)]

Is it? I suspect that Japan isn't the only country where money laundering is something the police takes an interest in. If someone on a student visa (who normally wouldn't have an income) transfers over $1 million, it's reasonable to be suspicious. In all likelyhood he committed tax fraud, btw.