Online Game Crime – Virtual Theft

I’m afraid that online game crime does happen and is a lot more common than you would imagine.   I recently read a story about a young girl who played a very popular online game called Lineage, she spoke a lot with a male friend who slowly became rather infatuated.  Eventually the girl said to her friend ” give me your password to prove simply how much you care about me.”   The youthful boy duly agreed and was rather horrified to discover later the fact that object of his affections and transferred all his online money, gold and equipment to her own character.

Would you describe this act as one of theft? The young lady didn’t think so, citing the fact it was just a game.  Even so the sale of online possessions is really a huge ‘real world’ business which grosses millions of dollars every year.  There  was no real world financial gain in this instance however there easily might have been as the online proceeds of this cruel act could easily have been sold.   At least this young man has learnt a valuable life lesson with virtually no real damage.  He definitely won’t be the last to fall for this kind of ploy on or offline I’m certain.  As we speak an army of cyber criminals using an elaborate network of anonymous proxies are targeting user accounts for all sorts of online systems

It is a real danger, each and every year a huge number of viruses and trojans are written specifically to steal the passwords of online game enthusiasts everywhere.  For those who have ever logged into any of the online games then you’ve probably come across people offering to sell gold or possessions at very low prices.   It is big business and your accounts are at risk be careful with them. We might laugh at the poor victim of an alleged cyber mugging – however the players of these games invest huge parts of their lives in their online personnas.  The truth is many of them would handle being robbed in real life better than having their online goods stolen.

All of the important lessons we learn in the real world often are just as relevant online.  You could be actually mislead, deceived or robbed online a good deal more easily than in real life.   Although you’d think criminals wouldn’t target games, most don’t care how they steal – actually stealing virtually from young adults is low risk which has a high reward. Be careful with your accounts and never, ever hand out your passwords to anyone online, even if you adore them !  Keep your PC updated with the latest security patches, never open attachments on emails unless you trust  the sender and ensure that your pc includes a firewall and virus protection.

Remember all that virtual wealth you’ve attained in a game like World of Warcraft has a value, if someone has access to your account they control your character and his possessions.  If you lose everything it’s going to hurt and you will feel pretty stupid trying to explain at the local police station that Asgrad of Vannekin has been robbed of all his armour and his flying mount by a chinese teenager who runs a power leveling site from Shanghai.   Online game crime is real and happening now, but if you’re a victim then your pretty much on your own.