Habbo Claims Free Publicity by getting 17 year olds arrested

[joshuar]

Sulake told me when I lost furni that I could never get hacked. So then they make a total contradition of themselves by arresting someone for hacking an account and stealing furni?

Wonder if the user got the furni refunded.

[RICHe]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094764.stm

its on BBCNEWS now ;]

[Callum.]

But say you had 1000 norms, all 3 credits each.

That's 3000 credits worth.

Credit = 10p

So thats £3000 I think.

??

[The Professor]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094764.stm

its on BBCNEWS now ;]

Yeah, I saw that at school, the bit at the bottom about the person getting murdered is quite worrying.

[Pirrom]

Yeh, well if you get that much, the people are either really dumb, or your good. Still, i don't see the point.

[Abzii]

That's crazy, but true!

[e5]

It wont get them publicity tbh, peopel will think "what a **** game" with all this scamming and might not use it.. but on the other hand they might think the opposite.

[Falcon]

When are Habbo not claiming free publicity?

[Pitch]

Sulake are stupid for either of the below reasons:

1 - alienating current members; if they can arrest a 17 year old (regardless of their own terms and conditions, what will they do for your money, or what could they do with your personal information.. of which no-one is truly sure how much they have)

2 - Gross unpopularity within the online sector; to have a user arrested is unprecedented, and will set a dangerous precedent for both sulake and fellow online companies, who will now be seen as failing to do their utmost to protect their users should wrong doers of the highest level not be arrested.

3 - Potential new users. If a company will get a 17 year old user arrested, do you really want to join their `user base`?

4 - Parents. Will they allow their children to play on a website were the management have had to resort to calling in the law enforcement to solve their problems?

5 - Cynicism within current users; The fact we're so cynical towards their motives will just strengthen the distrust within users.. is the fact callie not there really the reason the numbers of users fallen?

Hugely wrong move, is there even a shred of good that can come from this?

[obiki]

By clicking here you can view how they are going to arrest the suspect. You can also view a interview with Marcel Pordon, called Yanoa in Habbo. Click on 'Bekijk item' to view it.

The movie is in Dutch, I have translated the Dutch subtitles for you.

Police: We zijn nu bezig met de rechter-commissaris en de Amsterdamse politie in verband met de aanhouding van uw zoon.
P: We are busy with the judge and the police of Amsterdam connecting the arresting of your son.

Mother: Dat dacht ik al ja.
Police: Dat had u al gedacht?
Mother: Ja.
M: I already thought that, yes.
P: You did?
M: Yes.

Police: Is hij thuis?
Mother: Ja, hij komt eraan.
P: Is he at home?
M: Yes, he's coming.

Suspect: Stomme computer, ik haat je!
S: Stupid computer, I hate you!

Police: Na het onderzoek zijn we bij jou terecht gekomen.
Police: Wat er nu gaat gebeuren is, je gaat nu zometeen mee met deze twee geüniformeerde collega's mee.
P: After the investigation we found you. What is gonna happen in right now is that you are going with these two colleagues.

Police: Dan ga je naar het politiebureau. Je bent officieel aangehouden.
P: You will go to the police-station. You are official arrested.

Police: Je hoeft nu ook geen antwoord te geven als je niet wil, op de vragen die we stellen.
P: You don't have to answer the questions we are asking you if you don't want to.