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Comments: 118 + - Games: Man Arrested For RuneScape MMORPG Online Robbery on Monday November 30, @08:41AM
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CmdrTaco
on Monday November 30, @08:41AM
from the doing-pretend-work-for-pretend-boots dept.
from the doing-pretend-work-for-pretend-boots dept.
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games
Unexpof writes "A man has been arrested by the British Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), accused of stealing the usernames and passwords from players of the RuneScape MMORPG. Security experts report that this is one of the first occasions when a Brit has been apprehended for 'virtual robbery,' although incidents have happened in the past. For instance, the CEO of the sci-fi trading game EVE Online stole 200 billion 'kredits,' which he then used as a deposit on a real-world house, and in October last year a Japanese woman was arrested by police after allegedly hacking her virtual husband 'to death.'"
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The difference is (Score:3, Interesting)
He hacked the logins which is pretty much equivalent to hacking an email account. The eve online thefts were all perpetuated via in-game mechanisms and since the game's terms state that all in-game items are property of the maker of the game, there was no actual IRL theft to prosecute.
Re:The difference is (Score:4, Informative)
It's not exactly the same as hacking someone's email account though, because if you do that you can potentially get hold of peoples bank/ebay etc accounts. I don't give a rat's arse about this or that game, and I'm a little annoyed about the idea of tax payer's money being wasted on non-crimes such as this.
Well, I assume Runescape is paid for on a monthly payment and you're actually 'renting' something that the makers of Runescape technically own (if they have a ToS similar to WoW). We discussed this in August [slashdot.org] about whether or not virtual property should be under the same law as regular property.
And really, you should be happy that your tax dollars are paying for this. The closest analogy I can think of is if you rented a moving truck and someone stole it from in front of your house and then anonymously returned it to the store at the end of your rental period. Now, you didn't get to move any of your stuff yet you were still charged for the truck. Basically you've entered into an agreement to use someone business's property in exchange for money and now a third party has not only obstructed that but prevented you from receiving use/enjoyment from your purchase. On a case by case basis, maybe not a big enough deal for $13 (or whatever Runescapes monthly payment is). On a mass scale (like this), call the authorities. The sad thing is that the emotional attachment and feelings of ownership that humans attach to accounts, items and characters are more than likely overlooked. And there's not a lot you can do about that, the law sticks to protecting things that are real and definite and measurable like your monthly payment.
Now, if Runescape was a free game and there was no credit card information at risk then I would agree that the authorities should let the players appeal to the Runescape company to increase protection of their accounts.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure I'll get mocked for this, but I did play the game for a long time as a member a few years ago.
Accounts have a password, but in game, to access your bank, you also need to enter a 4-digit pin number, and it's not type-able with your keyboard, so no keylogger can get it, and the places where numbers are change with each click. Also, you can't trade items with other players in very unbalanced trades (to stop gold farming).
I'm not sure what good it woul
Re:The difference is (Score:5, Funny)
Runescape, as far as MMO's go, is as secure as it can possibly be.
AP - Quebec - Another teen corpse missing fingers and eyes was found Saturday in the vicinity of Quebec's biggest internet cafe.
... at the cafe and then they lay in wait outside. When the person comes out, they beat them until they give up the password and then they take the other two things they need."
... and you really just need one index finger for the fingerprints. And then just log in with his retna and finger kept fresh in my refrigerator. I wouldn't be a weirdo about it, I've seen those shady guys with the eye/finger keychains. It's so simple and all you're doing is stealing some stuff off their account ... I'm honestly shocked more gamers aren't doing it."
... they should realize what they are condemning them to."
"We are starting to see a lot of this," said Officer Bergeron, "now that Runescape has increased security. People watch who logs into Runescape with their retna scans and fingerprint devices
Jagex, makers of Runescape, did not return calls to their offices.
This marks the twentieth vicious slaying for Runescape items and virtual currency. An anonymous patron of the cafe said, "We've all been there. I mean, my good friend has twice the cash I do in game and I'm not denying it--I've had thoughts about how simple and quick it would be to asphyxiate him and then remove his eyeball with a pen or melon baller
The recent victim's mother said she knew that her son was involved with Runescape but that she wasn't aware of the risks associated with such a game. After identifying the eyeless corpse of her son, she spoke out against online gaming and implored regulators to think of the children and put a stop to all online gaming. She ended her statement with "Before parents make that first $6 payment for their kids
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
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Even if that were a good idea (which it isn't), the retail lobby would never let it fly.
More generally, politics means things are never simple.
Re: (Score:2)
Even though Jagex has gone through extensive measures to limit the ability of hackers to harm their prey, there is still a plague of hacks from merchanting clans and account sellers that specifically attack those people who do not yet have a bank pin.
The idea is that some private clan performs a buyout on some item, then when the item crashes, the inside members hack other accounts, then use the hacked player to buy the crashing items. Typically, the hacker then drops the crashing items on
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Misleading blogvertising (Score:3, Insightful)
Reality check (Score:5, Funny)
Here's How He Was Arrested... (Score:2)
...a credit card company got suspicious when they received applications from Glorion OrcBane, Aelrick WindRider, and Bokk theNaueseating, all with the same address of a basement flat in Liverpool.
Poster has it wrong... (Score:5, Informative)
Uhm, it was not the CEO for CCP (makers of Eve Online) who stole isk (not "kredits") to buy a house. It was a CEO of a player-run banking corporation. Ingame Eve corporations are like clans, so there's a BIG difference.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
this needs to be moded up. EVE's 'dollar' is the isk and the guilds are 'corporations' in EVE. CCP is the maker of the game EVE... so it's entirely likely the poster might have mistaken the EVE online situation.
More over, CCP hired a nobel prise winner for economics to manage the market in the EVE online game so I find the idea that the CEO of CCP somehow stealing from his company and buying a house a little suspect, especially given the lack of links to prove that.
I would include links myself to further th
Re:Poster has it wrong... (Score:4, Informative)
The reference to buying a house comes from the fact that Ricdic, the CEO of said (in game) bank that was stolen from, converted the isk he stole to real money via Real Money Trading. This part, whilst not hacking, was against the EULA of the game, and got his account banned.
His stated reason for going the RMT route was a sick child, and a mortgage debt...
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
He also wasn't arrested, just banned from the game.
Re:EBank theft (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it's also worth emphasising that it was only the sale of in-game currency for cash which got Ricdic's account banned, not the actual theft. If he had kept the cash in-game, he wouldn't have been subject to sanctions from CCP at all.
Referencing the original BBC News article [bbc.co.uk]:
Of course the nature of this particular theft doesn't really relate to the RuneScape account theft since it occurred within the rules of the game in question; describing it as "similar illegal activity" is misleading at best.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
And after what happened with the global economy, I think it is best we keep these economists working on games.
Interstellar kredits (Score:2)
isk (not "kredits")
Within EVE Online, ISK stands for "interstellar kredits" [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
MapleQuest story is accurate but misleading too. (Score:3, Informative)
[I]n October last year a Japanese woman was arrested by police after allegedly hacking her virtual husband "to death".
It sounds like she performed some kind of violent action, but in truth she just logged into his account (using info from when they were in a relationship) and destroyed his character. This got billed as "virtual murder" a lot back when the story broke to make it more salacious, but it's just the equivalent of logging into someone's webmail who made the mistake of telling you their password and deleting the entire history and address book.
Not much in the way of "hacking to death" in either sense, really.
user credential theft is not a virtual robbery. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed.
What is being stolen during a hack is the victim's access to the game that they DID pay for with real life money.
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Not Eve Online, Eve Bank (Score:5, Informative)
The CEO of Eve Bank stole the online cash. The CEO of CCP (maker of eve) had nothing to do with this. Eve Bank is a player run financial institution inside the game. FACT CHECK!
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Incorrect Summary (Score:4, Informative)
There is no "CEO" of Eve Online. Eve Online is a game produced by CCP of Iceland.
There ARE Virtual CEO's of Virtual corporations within the Space-based MMO EVE Online.
I am also not aware of any corp CEO that has used EVE-O ISK to buy a real world house. Somehow I doubt any bank would accept a virtual money as collateral on a real house. Of course, If a private party was that foolish, then hey, more power to the corp CEO. Nevertheless that sounds like a fake story.
Well it was on slashdot, so it must be... (Score:2)
Actually, that story happened, at least it was wildly [no, not misspelled, though other words are] reported at the time. It was a huge scam with a PLAYER run bank doing something nasty. I would give more details, but that would mean having to give a rats arse about Eve.
But yeah, the summary makes it out like it was a CEO of the company behind Eve that did this. I was with that company I would sue Slashdot for slander in England (sure a brit read it).
Re: (Score:2)
The source article is written by a Brit and published on a British company's website so sueing in England won't be hard (just not slahsdot).
Of course the original author wasn't retarded enough to actually name the company, though it's in the article he linked to as a reference (then again so is the in-game nature of the company).
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I was with that company I would sue Slashdot for slander in England
Well then you're part of the problem. If I was the CEO of CCP I would write to Slashdot and politely request a correction.
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He *did* use the funds to get real world money, and was banned from the game for it.
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2. Call Guild / Corp "[MMOName] Bank"
3. Convince idiots to give you their in-game money.
4. Sell all of the in-game money to currency farmers.
5. Buy a house.
Guess the profit is hidden in there somewhere...
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It is possible they sold the ISK online, converting it into hard cash.
what kind of a bank... (Score:4, Funny)
What kind of a bank would take 'kredits' as deposit for a house and where can I sign up for an account? I have 500 billion ZWD [wikipedia.org] to use as collateral for a loan.
Re:what kind of a bank... (Score:4, Funny)
why, any bank that runs KDE on their desktops, of course!
Parent
Not virtual robbery... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, this is ordinary robbery, but carried out on a computer. Virtual robbery is when you steal items off a player character through an approved game mechanism, which is not an illegal act. And in other non-news, slashdot editors don't edit.
"virtual" robbery? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems to me the theft was real, not virtual. Ah, marketing terms ...
Well done to all involved. (Score:4, Insightful)
This 'story' should be held up as an example of all that is wrong with the slashdot story submission process.
Who tagged this 'isk'? (Score:2)
I really wouldn't steak 'isk' if I were you. The Icelandic Kronor isn't worth nearly as much as it use to be.
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Isk is also the in-game currency of EVE Online. CCP, the makers of EVE Online, are Icelandic. It would seem they didn't have much imagination when it came to naming their in-game currency.
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Isk is also the in-game currency of EVE Online.
Look there! Up, in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!
W h o o s h !
No, it's the joke going over your head.
There was no arrest for virtual killing (Score:5, Informative)
"in October last year a Japanese woman was arrested by police after allegedly hacking her virtual husband "to death""
Ok, let's get this corrected. There was no arrest for virtual murder. Repeat: There was no arrest for virtual murder. The woman was arrested for hacking into someone else's account. What she did in game is irrelevant and has just been repeated and twisted over and over for the sake of a sensationalistic "news" story.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/10/woman-arrested/ [wired.com]
I keep hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger (Score:2, Funny)
Horrible Summary (Score:2, Informative)
1:1) A person is guilty of an offence if: a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in a computer; b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorized; and c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that this is the case.
Not sure why people would somehow consider t
Not robbery unless something was taken (Score:2)
Virtual Murder (Score:2)
Is she going to be given the choice of:
1. Virtual lethal injection. (virus)
2. Virtual firing squad. (One of those FPS games seems relevent).
3. Virtual hanging. (Obama's good at this. Just ask any banker)
4. Electricution. (Throw her computer into the bathtub)
5. Virtual stoning. (tetris)
6. Bore them to death . (Make them read the entire health care bills, from both houses)
Eve Online is a "trading" game? (Score:2)
When I saw that this idiot called EVE Online a "trading" game, I realized I don't need to read any of the crap linked in the summary.
If someone can't get such a simple fact right, I am afraid what else he didn't get right...
Identity theft is not virtual (Score:4, Insightful)
Stealing virtual items in a MMORPG is not a crime, and at most a violation of the terms of service.
Stealing identities by way of online passwords is not a virtual crime, it's a very normal, plain computer crime.
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thx for the sig link, Absolute Shisen-Sho is addictive