Two people have been arrested in Japan under suspicion of stealing. The thing is, they weren't arrested for pinching real-world items, but virtual goods from players of MMO Lineage II.
Yu Nishimura and Kaori Tanaka tricked gamers with a scam that involved giving away an add-on program that promised to boost a character's fighting stats. Instead, it is alleged that the script stole account names and passwords, leaving Nishimura and Tanaka to raid rare items and weapons to sell on for a hefty real-world price tag.
100 people were said to have fallen foul of the trap, earning the pair around 1 million yen (or as the BBC estimates, £7,630). Nishimura and Tanaka were accused under a Japanese law concerning unauthorised access to computers.
If found guilty, they'll face a fine up to 500,000 yen or a year in jail. That's on top of any action operators NC Japan may take against the duo, as the outfit is considering suing for compensation on behalf of its 1.5 million domestic users.
Source: BBC
Yu Nishimura and Kaori Tanaka tricked gamers with a scam that involved giving away an add-on program that promised to boost a character's fighting stats. Instead, it is alleged that the script stole account names and passwords, leaving Nishimura and Tanaka to raid rare items and weapons to sell on for a hefty real-world price tag.
100 people were said to have fallen foul of the trap, earning the pair around 1 million yen (or as the BBC estimates, £7,630). Nishimura and Tanaka were accused under a Japanese law concerning unauthorised access to computers.
If found guilty, they'll face a fine up to 500,000 yen or a year in jail. That's on top of any action operators NC Japan may take against the duo, as the outfit is considering suing for compensation on behalf of its 1.5 million domestic users.
Source: BBC
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Comments
Daz 29 Nov 2010 15:57
1/1
if you ask me the 100 people who fell for it are just as much to blame, serves them right for wanting to cheat
