Police Investigating Virtual Furniture Theft 103
krou writes "Finnish police are involved in the investigation of up to 400 cases of theft from virtual world Habbo Hotel, with some users reporting the loss of up to €1000 of virtual furniture and other items. Users were targeted using a phishing scam that used fake webpages to capture usernames and passwords. There is no mention as to whether or not the thieves made off with the bath towels, gowns, shampoo bottles, and soaps."
They should (Score:5, Interesting)
If someone stole your shares or "those bunch of digits" in your bank account, it's still theft. So it's the same in this case.
Some years back someone in China lent someone his virtual sword and the borrower refused to return it and actually sold it (for quite a bit of money), so the lender went to the cops but they laughed at him, so he took matters into his own hands and killed the thief. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4397159.stm [bbc.co.uk] )
Not saying it was right for him to do that, but it's quite understandable. The sword was worth a lot of money at market prices (USD1000), and probably worth even more to the lender since he didn't want to sell it. I'm sure people get killed for far less than that in China (or many other places).
p.s. reminder copying is not the same as stealing. These people lost access to stuff.
Great use of police resources (Score:2, Interesting)
How many people in Finland are getting away with real theft while the police are busy investigating imaginary theft?
Pool's closed... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:"Stealing" virtual property? (Score:3, Interesting)
No; it's rape (since the consent was dependent on the payment); I believe someone in the UK has been convicted of rape for paying a prostitute with counterfeit money.