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."

Idiot.

[jo7hs2]

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:These stories get more common...

[QuantumG]

It's really simple, if the TOS say you can sell content out-of-game, then there is no problems. 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.

The TOS == The rulebook. If you don't wanna play by the rules, don't play.

Re:1 Million Dollars?

[CrazyJim1]

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?

[AgentFade2Black]

The summary is not entirely clear.

If you RTA, it said he sold 150 million yen worth of goods. I believe the 6 million was in reference to an individual item.

Re:These stories get more common...

[iidoru]

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.

not unexpected

[coaxial]

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.

Re:Idiot.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes because everyone goes around consulting lawyers.

Anyway, you have strange rules for who's an idiot. He did make a shit-load of money after all, most of which Japan can't touch because he already sent it away.

Re:Idiot.

[bunions]

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

Re:The same thing could happen in the US

[chanrobi]

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:Lucky he wasn't hung..

[Anonymous Coward]

Four friends are playing a game of Monopoly. One guest turns to the other guest and offers to sell Park Place for $10 real dollars. You're the host, what would you do? That's right, tell the cheating bastard to go home.

No, you laugh at him for wasting his money to win a stupid board game.

Inmates watching inmates

[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.

I think you misunderstand

[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 allowed to give it? Obviously you are or should be (if not, it's a retarded law).

I don't see how he's in violation of his visa terms, considering that he could have been in China and done the same thing since it was all done online and not as part of work for some company. That is, it's not like he "stole" a local's job.

Unless selling virtual items for money is illegal, Japan is dumb and wrong for deporting him.

Re:Idiot.

[Goldsmith]

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:typically japanese

[Asic Eng]

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.

Re:Idiot.

[pla]

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 operation of a home business from abroad? I suspect a good lawyer could successfully argue the latter if this involved criminal charges, but when it comes to matters of control over imaginary lines on a map, most countries paranoidly shoot first and don't even bother to ask questions later.

Re:Correction, please.

[God'sDuck]

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:The same thing could happen in the US

[archen]

I agree with you there. I mean why was this guy in school? Probably to get a good job so he can make decent money. He's made enough now that he could stuff it in the bank and make more on interest than I do working. If I could have managed the same thing when I was in school I'd do exactly the same thing.

Japan is strict

[gullevek]

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:Idiot.

[Cadallin]

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

Re:Idiot.

[tomstdenis]

He probably sold the virtual-wares to Japanese people while IN JAPAN.

Tom

Re:Well well

[jandrese]

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.

Re:Idiot.

[BiggerIsBetter]

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

He kept the money

[Gorimek]

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:It's Virtual Earnings - Why Pay Taxes?

[IdolizingStewie]

It wouldn't be taxable if they were paying him in imaginary money, but they're not. He's making a real profit no matter where the work is done.

Re:Idiot.

[bunions]

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.

[bunions]

> Maybe you don't understand that RMT destroys the longevity of a game. blah blah blah. It's not fair.

I understand that you're angry with market forces, but you might as well be mad at water for being wet. Where there is a demand there will be a supply.

Re:Idiot.

[bunions]

> Market forces, water being wet, they have their appropriate uses, but not in MMORPG + RMT.

oh, market forces have their appropriate uses do they? I'm glad you're big enough to admit that.

That's like saying gravity has an appropriate uses.

Your anger/displeasure at this guy is misdirected. If you want to stop goldfarming, talk to Blizzard. They're the only ones who can effect the changes you want. When there is either no demand or no supply because of whatever changes they make to the game, then that will be the time when goldfarmers stop.

Some people apparently LIKE goldfarmers. If everyone hated them, they wouldn't be there. Apparently Blizzard realizes this too.

Re:wonders of the tubes....

[5ynic]

Which libertarian road? The one built on the internet, which in turn is built on a series of backbones put together by massive taxpayer-funded, semi-military projects like Arpanet? Or maybe the one using Satellites for communication, the entire infrastructure for launching and maintaining which was paid for by governments... Or maybe the copper wire network 90% of people in the world still use to run their ADSL over, which was built in most of the world (even in most of the USA if you check your telecoms history) by GOVERNMENTS, raising, you know, TAXES. "Most activities do not need regulation" Correct. This does not mean governments should abrogate the right to tax transactions. Nor does it mean its very hard to retain this right, even in the modern world. Americans who envision a world with no-one out there raising taxes on those generating the wealth should remember that only the most naive proto-marxists ever believed in a "withering away of the state".

Re:Idiot.

[msormune]

If this guy is an idiot, how stupid are the people buying these virtual items from him?

Re:Correction, please.

[modecx]

So, it's now unethical to give people what they want and take money in return?

You make it sound like he's the trifecta evil incarnate: By day he smacks starving African children around, rampages through Tokyo bi-daily, and then pisses in public swimming pools. By night, when he has time for a break, he curls up next to a cozy immolated Christian and snacks on candied babies, and then...he...sells virtual items online?!?!?!!!! *gasp* Why, you'd expect that someone so evil wouldn't sleep so well, except perhaps, by the comforting warm glow of a burning Pope.

Re:Idiot.

[ArsenneLupin]

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.