Dutch Teen Arrested For Virtual Theft From Habbo Hotel
A VIRTUAL theft? A real crime or a though crime? Or a merging of the two?
A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from “rooms” in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (£2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money.
Five 15-year-olds have also been questioned by police, who were contacted by the website’s owners.
The six teenagers are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own Habbo rooms.
A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: “The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites.
“In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people’s personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a while.
“We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is the first case where the police have taken legal action.”
Do the police impound the stolen goods?
November 19th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Perhaps they could create virtual prisons and incarcerate them until they give back the furniture!