Hydraides Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 'Virtual theft' leads to arrest A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website. The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money. Five 15-year-olds have also been questioned by police, who were contacted by the website's owners. The six teenagers are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own Habbo rooms. A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: "The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites. "In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people's personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a while. Sulake spokesman "We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is the first case where the police have taken legal action." Habbo users can create their own characters, decorate their own rooms and play a number of games, paying with Habbo Credits, which they have to buy with real cash. "It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture. "We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are pretending to be Habbo. People might then try and log in and get their details stolen." Six million people in more than 30 countries play Habbo Hotel each month. Virtual theft is a growing issue in virtual worlds; in 2005 a Chinese gamer was stabbed to death in a row over a sword in a game. Shanghai gamer Qiu Chengwei killed player Zhu Caoyuan when he discovered he had sold a "dragon sabre" he had been loaned. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094764.stm Very Interesting, Mabye this is one reason why Jagex dosent allow Real world trading This is the first case I've Seen, I am Wondering what can will happen frm here...mabye more arrests?...Even mabye on other MMORPGs :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x_bow80 Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Hehehe, maybe thoes guys played RS and got banned from scamming. Then they went over to another game and got the suprise of their left, getting arrested for scamming. :XD: 99 Pics - Range, Defence, HP, Attack, Magic, Strength, Cooking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenin64 Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Lol at "Habbo" :P But....what? Some guys got keylogged and the guy arrested? And who pays money to play online games? :P Command the Murderous Chalices! Drink ye harpooners! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow- Death to Moby Dick!BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indy500fan Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 This is different from RS because you have to pay real life money for those items in Habbo. Also, he didn't scam them he just got their accounts and stole their stuff. At least that's what I gathered from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydraides Posted November 14, 2007 Author Share Posted November 14, 2007 That's What I was saying, But there are so many websites around trying to steal your rs password, The ones where they offer you lots of items etc I am sure there are other MMORPGs which allow real world trading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denismage Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Lol at "Habbo" :P But....what? Some guys got keylogged and the guy arrested? And who pays money to play online games? :P Judging by the fact you are/were a member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenin64 Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Lol at "Habbo" :P But....what? Some guys got keylogged and the guy arrested? And who pays money to play online games? :P Judging by the fact you are/were a member... Exactly. But really, how do people profit from this? other than in-game profits, can they even? Command the Murderous Chalices! Drink ye harpooners! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow- Death to Moby Dick!BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denismage Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Lol at "Habbo" :P But....what? Some guys got keylogged and the guy arrested? And who pays money to play online games? :P Judging by the fact you are/were a member... Exactly. But really, how do people profit from this? other than in-game profits, can they even? What do you mean? How can they profit from stealing items? They can sell them on eBay and other sites like that (mostly other sites, eBay is bad for selling in-game items). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Lol at "Habbo" :P But....what? Some guys got keylogged and the guy arrested? And who pays money to play online games? :P Judging by the fact you are/were a member... Exactly. But really, how do people profit from this? other than in-game profits, can they even? What do you mean? How can they profit from stealing items? They can sell them on eBay and other sites like that (mostly other sites, eBay is bad for selling in-game items). Game sales are against the rules on eBay now. That being said you can make a profit from MMO's... not speaking from experience or anything of course. :-$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrOwez Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 another day another pointless news story, when I read it on the BBCNEWS websites, my initial thoughts were that its great advertising for HABBO, I bet they'll make around 100k new users from that. A friend to all is a friend to none. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallettheif Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Habbo sucks, though. :-s The game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren211 Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Well I never played habbo before, so I'm gonna say... WHAT??? You have to PAY real cash for pixels in Habbo??? Jeez, and I thought WoW was expensive... I guess this is one reason Jagex restricts real world item trading. Not only because of ingame unfairness, but threats from no-lifers in the real world too. Comon, stabbed to death over a "dragon sabre?" not sure what game thats from (unless it was misread from a dragon wep in runescape). Either that item was worth a life savings in the game, or the murderer just had serious issues... and now, you can even get arrested for this! Now, I think thats a very good idea. Since apparently habbo items cost real world money, that means stealing the pixels that cost real world money is equivalent to stealing real world items costing real world money. in otherwords... real world stealing. Remember kids, thats what you get for scamming! [hide=]tip it would pay me $500.00 to keep my clothes ON :( :lol:But then again, you fail to realize that 101% of the people in this universe hate you. Yes, humankind's hatred against you goes beyond mathematical possibilities.That tears it. I'm starting an animal rebellion using my mind powers. Those PETA bastards will never see it coming until the porcupines are half way up their asses.[/hide]Apparently a lot of people say it. I own. http://linkagg.com/ Not my site, but a simple, budding site that links often unheard-of websites that are amazing for usefulness and fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Well I never played habbo before, so I'm gonna say... WHAT??? You have to PAY real cash for pixels in Habbo??? Jeez, and I thought WoW was expensive... I guess this is one reason Jagex restricts real world item trading. Not only because of ingame unfairness, but threats from no-lifers in the real world too. Comon, stabbed to death over a "dragon sabre?" not sure what game thats from (unless it was misread from a dragon wep in runescape). Either that item was worth a life savings in the game, or the murderer just had serious issues... and now, you can even get arrested for this! Now, I think thats a very good idea. Since apparently habbo items cost real world money, that means stealing the pixels that cost real world money is equivalent to stealing real world items costing real world money. in otherwords... real world stealing. Remember kids, thats what you get for scamming! I just hope to god this doesn't start a slow downward path on how the government treats in game economies. I would hate to start having to pay taxes for in game cash because its worth something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errdoth Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 Well I never played habbo before, so I'm gonna say... WHAT??? You have to PAY real cash for pixels in Habbo??? Jeez, and I thought WoW was expensive... I guess this is one reason Jagex restricts real world item trading. Not only because of ingame unfairness, but threats from no-lifers in the real world too. Comon, stabbed to death over a "dragon sabre?" not sure what game thats from (unless it was misread from a dragon wep in runescape). Either that item was worth a life savings in the game, or the murderer just had serious issues... and now, you can even get arrested for this! Now, I think thats a very good idea. Since apparently habbo items cost real world money, that means stealing the pixels that cost real world money is equivalent to stealing real world items costing real world money. in otherwords... real world stealing. Remember kids, thats what you get for scamming! You can't really compare that to something like runescape. In runescape, you make the money in game, and buy stuff with that money in game. You don't buy items for real money, so technically, you're not at all stealing someones real money. They paid for that sword with in-game money that they earned in game. They didn't buy the money or the sword in a real currency. Last.fm Signature Overlays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 Well I never played habbo before, so I'm gonna say... WHAT??? You have to PAY real cash for pixels in Habbo??? Jeez, and I thought WoW was expensive... I guess this is one reason Jagex restricts real world item trading. Not only because of ingame unfairness, but threats from no-lifers in the real world too. Comon, stabbed to death over a "dragon sabre?" not sure what game thats from (unless it was misread from a dragon wep in runescape). Either that item was worth a life savings in the game, or the murderer just had serious issues... and now, you can even get arrested for this! Now, I think thats a very good idea. Since apparently habbo items cost real world money, that means stealing the pixels that cost real world money is equivalent to stealing real world items costing real world money. in otherwords... real world stealing. Remember kids, thats what you get for scamming! You can't really compare that to something like runescape. In runescape, you make the money in game, and buy stuff with that money in game. You don't buy items for real money, so technically, you're not at all stealing someones real money. They paid for that sword with in-game money that they earned in game. They didn't buy the money or the sword in a real currency. The only problem with this is how the court sees it. Techniclly, yes... its not supposed to be worth money. Technically it is against the game rules (but not illegal) to buy and/or sell in game currencies. However that doesn't mean it is worthless. Just like any other type of currency in game currency also has an exchange value. 1M in runescape is roughly worth around $5 USD for example. Any popular MMORPG, within time, will build up its own 'worth' for currency. World of Warcraft, Lineage II and countless others are worth real life money. So obviously like I said the problem is how a court views it. If more cases like this happen they'll probably end up viewing any in game currency as an actual currency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malo2 Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 [hide]Lol at "Habbo" :P But....what? Some guys got keylogged and the guy arrested? And who pays money to play online games? :P Judging by the fact you are/were a member... Exactly. But really, how do people profit from this? other than in-game profits, can they even? What do you mean? How can they profit from stealing items? They can sell them on eBay and other sites like that (mostly other sites, eBay is bad for selling in-game items). Game sales are against the rules on eBay now. That being said you can make a profit from MMO's... not speaking from experience or anything of course. :-$[/hide] wow, trading pixels is really over now :roll: anyway, they got owned with my full support :D Lastfm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixfd64 Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 Speaking of real-world trading, I've heard that eBay recently disallowed all such sales. However, I checked their policies and could find nothing on "virtual items." http://pages.ebay.in/help/policies/overview.html Does anyone know where the new rule is listed? ARENAscape: Baratus [AS] max hit: 166 with Moon Battle Hammer ixfd64 [AS] max hit: 116 with (untitled spell #2) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
transcript80 Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 I also know a famous dutch RS player who real life traded in RS. He got banned.... Well....that's the Dutch for you! We are great in exploiting other people. We started with africans 300 years ago when we invented slavery, now we "cyber thieve" our way through the internet. I'm curious how the court will appraoch this, though. It's more a test case really, because there is no jurisprudence on this in Duch law. BTW: as long as we can not get to your stuff, we are quite nice people to be with :P Other data was removed when acoount got hacked... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryztalwing Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 I can easy see Taxes will be comming soon for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercifull Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 I can easy see Taxes will be comming soon for this.Taxes coming from arresting someone? Lol I love your posts, they make entertaining reading. You should be a comedian. Mercifull <3 Suzi "We don't want players to be able to buy their way to success in RuneScape. If we let players start doing this, it devalues RuneScape for others. We feel your status in real-life shouldn't affect your ability to be successful in RuneScape" Jagex 01/04/01 - 02/03/12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryztalwing Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 No, I mean taxes for paying real money for virtual items.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denismage Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 I also know a famous dutch RS player who real life traded in RS. He got banned.... Well....that's the Dutch for you! We are great in exploiting other people. We started with africans 300 years ago when we invented slavery, now we "cyber thieve" our way through the internet. I'm curious how the court will appraoch this, though. It's more a test case really, because there is no jurisprudence on this in Duch law. BTW: as long as we can not get to your stuff, we are quite nice people to be with :P Dutch weren't the ones who invented slavery, and it didn't start with Africans. The word itself comes from Slavic, (Slav - Slave), you get the point, and slavery started before the common era, not 300 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadril Posted November 15, 2007 Share Posted November 15, 2007 No, I mean taxes for paying real money for virtual items.. One small case isn't going to do anything for this. However, if a large company such as blizzard were to sue gold farmers for selling in game gold it may be a start -- or enough to grab attention. as it is companies such as blizzard try and rid of gold farmers for spam, not actual sale of items. I really hope they don't tax games though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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