Virtual Theft in the news

[Jordy]

Came across this while looking through news earlier...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10207486.stm
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/20...investigation/
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100601...a-879dccc.html

Finnish police are investigating up to 400 cases of theft, with some members reporting the loss of up to €1000 (£840) worth of virtual furniture and other items, according to Detective Sergeant Marko Levonen. "We have done five home searches in five cities in Finland," he said.

This is not the first time Habbo Hotel, which allows users to meet friends and buy virtual goods, has been targeted.

In 2007, a Dutch teenager was arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture worth thousands of euros on the site, which is believed to have more than 100 million registered "avatars".

People reporting to the police about being hacked or scammed on Habbo. Not the first time but attracting media attention never the less.

[marriott0.01]

Funniest article I've ever read. Seriously some people need to get over it. Things like this happen all the time, why waste the police's time.

[Kieran]

How sad.....

[Kyle]

lol at home searches as if they're gonna find some HCs stashed under the kitchen table or something

[Alkaz]

Funniest article I've ever read. Seriously some people need to get over it. Things like this happen all the time, why waste the police's time.

Hacking, stealing etc both real offences.

Good that they're finally making significant investigations.

[Jordy]

Not really convinced it's worth their time, most Habbo's are asking for it they so easily give away their details. If users are getting keylogged or something, I think that is quite serious and worthy of an investigation but people shouting out their passwords and falling for dodgy websites really aren't worthy of the Polices time.

The police wouldn't investigate a burglary very seriously if you left the front door open, so why bother investigating these?

[.shawty]

well, hopefully sulake/habbo staff see this in the paper, and a light bulb goes off, telling them they need to make changes.
after all, its not the kids that read newspapers, its the adults, and they will no longer buy credits for there children for fear of losing money to scammers.
in other words, habbo is just going to start losing alot of money over it, if they dont do something soon.
and its not just finland, its every hotel.
after the merge, theres probably going to be even more scamming.
i also hope that, every scammer that reads those articles, will realize, that a ban on habbo isnt the only consequnce they might have to deal with, but also jail time or being sued.
as much as we all love habbo, we can all agree, there are some major issues.

[Accipiter]

lol at home searches as if they're gonna find some HCs stashed under the kitchen table or something

Onoes, they're gunna find mah habbo skateboardzzzz

gunna go read it now, i need a good laugh.

[Mathew]

I agree with Jordy here. In majority of cases, it's the user's fault for falling into the scammer's trap. Not really worth polices time unless they are actually taking real money.. imo.

[Accipiter]

they're not talking about direct habbo scams, they're talking about those that can lead to pay pal acc's etc.

thing i found funny was:

A representative from Sulake was not immediately available for comment.

is there ever a habbo staff immediately available ever?

"Please use the HHT Tool"