Real arrest for virtual theft

  • By Emma_UK, GameSpot
  • Posted Nov 15, 2007 3:19 am PT

A Dutch teen who "borrowed" some virtual furniture has found himself behind real-life bars, reports the BBC. The 17-year-old has been arrested for allegedly stealing €4,000 (approx $6,000) of virtual furniture from a social-networking site.The furniture in question was from virtual rooms...

A Dutch teen who "borrowed" some virtual furniture has found himself behind real-life bars, reports the BBC. The 17-year-old has been arrested for allegedly stealing €4,000 (approx $6,000) of virtual furniture from a social-networking site.

The furniture in question was from virtual rooms inside the Habbo Hotel, a virtual networking site for teens. Users are given their own room, which they can personalise and decorate. As with other games that can be personalised, including Second Life and The Sims, a virtual economy trading in real-life cash for items has sprung up.

Five other teenagers, all 15-year-olds, have also been questioned by police, and the group are suspected to have gained access to the virtual furniture by obtaining the owners' log-in information through a phishing scam.

Sulake, the company that runs Habbo Hotel, contacted police regarding the missing furniture. A spokesperson said, "It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords, and then log in and take the furniture. We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are pretending to be Habbo. People might then try and log in and get their details stolen."

Habbo Hotel is reported to have six million active users across 30 different countries worldwide.

136 Comments

  • ENDOT12123

    Posted Nov 29, 2007 4:48 pm PT

    thats some real geeky sh** goin down c'mon spendin cash on in game furniture wtf, then stealing it thats even worse, wats this world coming to?

  • Pete5506

    Posted Nov 19, 2007 4:14 pm PT

    Dang, would not want to be that kid

  • zombey1333

    Posted Nov 19, 2007 11:16 am PT

    Heheh. Well, serves them all right for falling for phishing scams. If you don't know to watch out for that kind of bull, then you shouldn't be on the internet. Phishing scams are old, OLD news. Older than the internet. If you get caught in one I, and many others, won't feel one bit of pity for you.
    As for this guy? Why steal that much? $20 worth probably wouldn't have gotten you noticed. Noone would have really cared. But €4,000??? That's just begging for punishment.
    All in all it's a good news report. The stupid pay for their stupidity.

  • Final_Odyssey

    Posted Nov 18, 2007 4:50 pm PT

    $6000 for virtual furniture??? Well this explanes why Sony wants Home up and running.

    Anyways I hope this guy has fun trying to explain this to his cellmate.

  • 1q3er5

    Posted Nov 17, 2007 5:47 pm PT

    haven't heard of haboo hotel? Thats where i take all my girls!!

    Hope that guy gets @ssraped in jail. BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY!

  • Artemyr

    Posted Nov 17, 2007 4:45 pm PT

    I'd say the fact that people are paying for "virtual furniture" is the real issue here

  • wakko19991

    Posted Nov 17, 2007 5:48 am PT

    this is framed wrong. at the core it was a thefy of identity and an asset paid for that had economic value on real currency. so while it sounds funny to say someone was arrested for steling non-real furniture, it was actually a tangible theft.

  • eeo10

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 7:50 pm PT

    Habbo Huh?

  • DryvBy2

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 7:37 pm PT

    This is the best example of retardedness (not a real work, lawl) on the internet. Thank you for showing me that people are not evolving forward.

  • princeofgames90

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 12:24 pm PT

    you mean that my virtual room is not safe noooooo!

  • ChitoKiryoku

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 11:53 am PT

    ah, my sweet country, the only place where this could happen.

    Seriously though , he stole $6000 worth of stuff, it's essentially the same as stealing $6000 IRL

  • SemiMaster

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 10:27 am PT

    You gotta be kidding me...

    Seriously.

  • X-RS

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 10:06 am PT

    as far as im concerned if you pay for electronic/virtual code your already robbed and punched in the teeth, course its your own stupidity to buy it.

  • kakashi_00x000

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 6:14 am PT

    yeah, that's dumb.....what would he do with that stuff? sell it? oh, man this dumb.

  • MetalZombieII

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 3:05 am PT

    Okay this has gotten completely out of hand, we have real world rapists, drug dealers, and other such criminals roaming the streets of the world and someone is going to jail for stealing virtual furniture. I have an idea why don't you tell the fool who spent $6000.00 on virtual furniture to go get some help.

    They should arrest the creators of this product for perpetuating mental illness and turning it's users into socially inept shut ins, who are willing to spend 1000s of dollars in real money on virtual items.

    Whats next virtual homicide, leads to real world death sentence... man this world gets more ridiculous by the second.

  • aDhAmMe13

    Posted Nov 16, 2007 12:29 am PT

    Honestly I don't really like the idea of the virtual furntiture. Yet, no matter, the bars serve him right.

  • Merl57

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 9:37 pm PT

    Heres my problem with this. MMO companies say that you can't sell their virtual stuff on e bay even though people are willing to pay real money for it. BUT we can prosecute people for stealing it? doesn't make sense to me.

  • ocdog45

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 9:17 pm PT

    i love america. that would not happen here.

  • speedjunkie4

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 8:55 pm PT

    Seriously, this might mean that virtual crime is on the rise.

  • delusional696

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 7:37 pm PT

    I understand the points being made here about real money being spent.
    But the fact is, that those who run the site could have easily just replaced the furniture and banned the thiefs. Solving the problem with out clogging the court systems and wasting taxpayer money, potentially amounting to much more lost than that $6000.

  • crippla87

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 6:59 pm PT

    pathetic

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 6:44 pm PT

    lol i think he should get a small thing on his record instead of all the jail. its kinda harsh. especially for a 17 year old.

  • rl_41

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 6:27 pm PT

    lmao you can actually get arrested for that stupid stuff? damn. Sure they bought the couch... but it's computer-generated, not made with hard work.

  • jrxbond

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 4:25 pm PT

    is it so damn hard to give the guy his **** back and ban the others? i mean seriously, this is rediculous. it's programmed, not physically touchable. idiots!!

  • Tsunami_pt

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 4:03 pm PT

    Absurd.

  • RELL1K

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 2:58 pm PT

    I just checked out the Habbo site, I guess the people that got robbed should have bought a Habbo dog to keep the burglars away! How much does a couch cost on this site anyway?

  • darknferno12

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 2:58 pm PT

    XD please send them to the virtual electric chair

  • VFA-102

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 2:21 pm PT

    Look, the bottom line is people used their own money for these items. Regardless if it's virtual or not, the items still have a cash value. It's time kids started learning that theft is theft, and that is simply not acceptable.

  • powerframe8

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 1:46 pm PT

    people who actually buy the furniture are idiots.

  • dr_jashugan

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 1:19 pm PT

    $6000 of "Virtual Furniture" ? Those things are worth nothing in the "Real World". The web site can return them by a push of a button.

  • God_father_87

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 12:17 pm PT

    And for this he gets sent to prison ?????????

  • snarple_basic

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 12:09 pm PT

    I can just imagine this phone call.

    cop: Hello this is 911
    Habbo: I would like to report some stolen virtual furniture
    cop: Virtual what???
    Habbo: Furniture
    Cop: What type of material is virtual??
    Habbo: Its not a material its a computer generated type of furniture
    Cop: I can buy furniture made by a computer for my house??
    Habbo: No for your virtual house.
    Cop: There you go with that world vrirtual again.
    Habbo: !!!!!

  • stevo-millz

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 12:06 pm PT

    WTF thats the stupidest thing that ive ever herd!! why would someone want to spend there hard earned money on something thats not even real!

  • Cwagmire21

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:52 am PT

    How will they only get a slap on the wrist for stealing $6,000 dollars worth of something - real or virtual

  • extremmotocross

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:46 am PT

    stupid site, stupid situation. it's not real!! P.S. i just made a virtual xbox 360 on MS paint so if anyone wants to buy it, i'll start the bidding at $250...

  • Holysapyn

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:44 am PT

    This is the most retarded thing I've ever heard!! Then again so is half the other headlines in the world today!!!

  • Gaticus

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:41 am PT

    I can't believe they consider this a news worthy report. These people must really have no lives... freakin losers. I'm gonna "virtually" kick their butts for this mindless drivel!

  • prioritymail

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:29 am PT

    LOL!!

  • Javier

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:10 am PT

    Shpouldnt they been sent to virtual jail?

  • Zoomer30

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 11:05 am PT

    And what I cant get about 2nd life is why people like it so much. The graphics are a joke, they look like that Dire Straits video from the mid 80s, they move at about 1 fps. Its choppy and does not seem fun.

  • sonicare

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:49 am PT

    Actually, maybe they should have sentenced him to "virtual jail"

  • sonicare

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:48 am PT

    Virtual crime has become a reality. Ugh.

  • Micropanic

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:47 am PT

    smeghead83, look at it in a different perspective:
    The kid stole $6000... easier now?

  • vass86

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:47 am PT

    we have pedaphiles walking free in england because the prisons are supposed to be full then in holland a kid gets put away for something like this. so if your a criminal i guess englands the place to be :-(

  • ShirkDawg

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:38 am PT

    Gamespot news has hit a new low.

  • wiidominance

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:37 am PT

    So now, can we all officially agree that Sweden is the most Geekish society in the world ?

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:34 am PT

    I'm surprised so much money was spent on Virtual Furniture in the first place.

  • OfficialJab

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:30 am PT

    Those police must feel dumb 'questioning' these people on this. That said, I don't think it's that ridiculous, he stole thousands of dollars from people.

  • uas-2001

    Posted Nov 15, 2007 10:29 am PT

    plain stupid.

advertisement

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!