Celebrityscraps

So we all hear about online crime but those of us who hear about it rarely experience it unless we are either particularly careless or particularly gullible. I’d hate to think how many emails I’ve had from that “kind” Nigerian banker who has $2 million just waiting to be transferred to my account as soon as I give him my account details?

Only recently Ananova.com reported on how a 17-year-old was arrested after playing Habbo Hotel (an international game and online community with an estimated seven million members) and being found guilty of stealing £2,500 worth of virtual furniture (dutch police never do things by halves!).

Virtual theft is a growing issue in virtual worlds; in 2005 a Chinese gamer was stabbed to death in a row over a sword in a game. Shanghai gamer Qiu Chengwei killed player Zhu Caoyuan when he discovered he had sold a “dragon sabre” he had been loaned.

The most daring and awe inspiring online heist of course goes to the Guiding Hand Social Club (GHSC) corporation in Eve Online (open ended sci-fi mmorpg with a heavy emphasis on roleplaying).

GHSC; a freelance mercenary outfit that offers their services (which usually involves corp infiltration, theft and assassination) to the highest bidder pulled off a huge operation. Over a year in planning, the GHSC infiltrated their target’s corp with their own members and gained their trust, as well as access to the corp hangers, with time. It all concluded in a perfectly timed climax, with a massive theft in multiple corp hangars synchronized with the in-game killing of the corporation’s CEO, the primary target of the contract.

What’s most interesting and impressive about this operation is that it was entirely ‘legal’ and within the game’s own rules, and the mastermind and his agents pulled it off together flawlessly, all the while staying in character. The estimated real-life value of the items stolen is, according to PC Gamer, $16,500 US. The in-game value of course is much, much higher as the things stolen would take years and years to acquire.

Remember peeps!! Trust no-one!