Jagex gets RuneScape fraudster arrested in the UK

by Krystalle Voecks on Nov 29th 2009 4:00PM

For quite some time now cheating in an MMO generally only carried with it the repercussion of a virtual slap on the hand. Fake someone out of an item or two, and a GM might intervene, take the stuff and suspend your account. Do something against the terms of service and generally speaking, one might get an account ban. For many farmers and internet fraudsters, this really didn't seem to be much of a deterrent. Just start up a new account and off you go again, taking virtual items, breaking TOS/EULAs, or bilking people for money. Well, that is until now.

According to CasualGaming.biz Jagex Games Studio, not content to simply run the cheaters out of RuneScape, actually managed to successfully work with the Police Central e-Crime Unit in the UK to run down an online thief in the real world. The 23-year-old man was reportedly tied to a recent rash of account phishing scams according to an investigation, for which he was arrested. Furthermore, Jagex says that not only are they working with the PCeU overseas, but also with the FBI in the United States. Whether or not other MMO companies will follow this lead and start to chase down the Internet fraudsters plaguing their games for prosecution remains to be seen, but it's definitely worth reading the entire story for Jagex's side of things.

[Via PlayNoEvil]

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Tags: arrest, fbi, fraud, internet-fraud, jagex, jagex-games-studio, law, legal, PCeU, police-e-crime-cyber-unit, runescape

Reader Comments (23)

Newsflash: The money in your bank account, your 401K and everything else you are not currently holding onto is a 'virtual good'.

I don't know that the final outcome of this case will be fair or not; we don't even know if the accused will be convicted or of what or with what punishment. What I do know is in any system if one feels they can get away with something a considerable percentage will try, even if it is generally considered 'wrong'. One guy getting arrested will not stop a lot of scammers, but if it stops the one who was going to hack my account then that's nice.

Not that anyone would want to hack me, I play most games so casually my junk ain't worth nothin.

Seeing as many developers are pushing the MT model, I support efforts to deter this kind of activity. If I were to purchase an in-game item, I would like to know that it my information had some sort of guarantee behind it. I'm not going to spend $10 bucks on diamonds or whatever only to find out someone phished my account, deleted my toon, and bought a bunch of crap off e-bay. I think video games need to pursue identity theft and fraud vigorously if they want to maintain credibility. It's not so much as knowing that my items are real is that my financial information is safe. There's an article on Massively about ArenaNet discussing this very thing, so I think strong enforcement is necessary.

/Boggle at the number of people who think that the penalty for phishing and scamming account information is too harsh because it is a "virtual" piece of property.

I'm sorry, but I happen to PAY for that virtual property, usually upwards of $40 per month due to multiple accounts across a few different games so that I can enjoy some downtime with my family.

I pay for that virtual property both financially and with my personal investment of time. I would be furious if my account were hacked, my invested time and money stolen, and have it be topped off by someone saying that it's "no big deal" because it's just a game.

When have you ever heard of a phishing scam, or an account being hacked, so that whoever was behind it left more gold or items on the account than what they found there? Never. The simple fact is that these people broke the law, and with nefarious intentions stole from another person.

It should be treated every bit as harshly as if they had walked up to you on the street, pimp-slapped you and stole your ID, wallet, and the shirt off of your back while they were at it.

Not only do they deserve jail time, they deserve serious jail time as an example. I hope they continue this course of action in the future, and I hope other developers sit up and take notice, rather than continue to bend over the barrell and take it as if they have no choice.

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