Kid arrested for scamming people out of virtual goods

Hobbes

Source

Bonaire teen charged in Internet scam

By Joyce Bailey
The Macon Telegraph

BONAIRE - A 16-year-old boy who dabbled in an Internet role-playing game was charged this week with four counts of theft by deception, a Houston County sheriff's juvenile investigator said.

The teen-ager allegedly scammed people he met during an Internet game called "Ultima Online," Houston sheriff's Sgt. Darin Meadows said.

"It's a game where you meet online and trade things," Meadows said. "What this individual was doing was promising things to people and then never providing them."

According to Meadows, the teen-ager - who is not identified because of his age - began running the alleged scam for about a week in early August.

But activity in the boy's account had been going on for two months, all told. He conducted $2,000 worth of business that so far has not been connected to any illegal activity, Meadows said.

The boy goes before a Houston County Juvenile Court judge today to answer to the charges that were leveled Tuesday, Meadows said.

Four individuals from as far away as Texas and Hawaii reported being defrauded by the boy. The victims helped the sheriff's office find the teen, Meadows said.

Each of the victims had been charged $200 for items they thought they had purchased through the game, Meadows said. They will receive compensation through their credit card companies, he noted.

He said he confiscated the teen's computer and checks totaling $825 from PayPal, the company that handled the account for him.

PayPal is an online service by which individuals can use their credit cards or bank accounts to send money to other computer users via e-mail.

Hobbes

It's called people with too much money. But everyone buys something for a silly price and never uses it again, this is no different.

Shiminay

It's quite common in online RPG's that isn't it? The selling of goods I mean.

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All the best,

Dav
@B^)
My page of stuff

Hobbes

Yep. For silly prices too.

Here is an example of Ultima Online

Here is Everquest, which incidently is illegal to do by terms of service. A quick look there is a character for sale for $1700+.

and Asherons Call.

Mills

I cant really see a problem with people who are completely loaded paying for "Virtual goods". It's extremely sad but there's no harm in making a few quid from the game that I can see. If they want to waste their cash on Computer game characters let them

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I am inflatible !

Hobbes

The major worry is how far this would be taken in game.

For example. Let's say the game company allows an inbuilt credit card system.

So Mr X wants to sell a Tinfoil Axe of ass kicking for 100000 gold or $20.

No problem, the company gets 10% of that and both people are happy.

Now the company takes the next step and only allows you to buy the item from them, making it 100% profit.

What would be the point? Part of the game is getting the items in game. The people who pay are normally just lazy.

Now lets say you just bought your Axe, and you drop it and someone takes it or it's stolen in game. What then? You sue the person because they stole something which is worth cash?

Blitzkrieger

I don't get it - they paid him real money for things in the game? If they did that's so sad.

DeVore

Come on guys, buying stuff for an online game is pretty sad alright, but thats not the point here.

The kid promised a service or product, the people paid, he didnt deliver and skived off with their cash. Its fraud. Its not really got anything to do with online gaming except that the service he was defrauding them over involved it. The news are only interested in this because they've never heard of selling virtual items like this before.

Suppose he had offered to sell them .com names he didnt own. Would there be this news piece?

DeV.

Hobbes

True Devore, however it does set a president that virtual property is real. There have been a number of similar scams outside of eBay which haven't stood up in court, the most noticable in UO history was a UO Bank which got scammed out of 100,000 for cash.

The guy sent them a legal summons and it didn't stand up in court.