The Times: Tech column - virtual currency fraud/Vodafone censorship
By David Rowan
Forget about internet banking fraud: that's old news. The real growth area for online criminals involves currencies that you will probably not even have heard of. With the boom in multi-player online games such as EverQuest and Lineage II, the imaginary wealth that players accumulate has become a surprisingly tradeable commodity in the "real" off-line world. If you have built up "Linden dollars" in the game Second Life, or "gold" in Ultima Online, you will always find other players keen to acquire them, and perhaps your screen character, for cash.
Not surprisingly, fraudsters are targeting these virtual currencies.
Counterfeiting has long been a problem on some "currency exchange" websites, usually blamed on software glitches that let players "mint" unearned rewards. But now a more ruthless criminal fraternity is coveting these most unlikely commodities. The Gaming Open Market, one of the more popular online exchanges, has just suspended most trades after a con artist obtained virtual goods worth $3,000 (£1,650) from the games EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies. The scam followed another recent theft via the site involving $1,200 (£650) of Linden dollars.
The addictive qualities of these role-playing games will be confirmed by any of the hardcore EverQuest fans who commonly spend ten or even 20 consecutive hours online. Their neglected partners share their woes at online support groups such as "EverQuest Widows" -but if they knew how much real-world value their partners might inadvertently be acquiring, they might be more supportive. Three years ago an economist in California named Edward Castronova tracked 600 auctions of EverQuest-related goods. With almost half a million paying participants, this is one of the more successful multi-player games. Castronova calculated that the treasure and platinum pieces traded were bringing their owners the equivalent of $3.42 for each hour they spent online. In other words, this non-existent realm had a per-capita income of $2,266, making it the world's 77th richest nation ahead of India and China.
Since then, dozens of private brokerages have been established, from PlayerAuctions to the IGE Virtual Exchange. Today, even non-playing speculators are investing thousands of dollars. You might want to demand firmer anti-fraud guarantees before cashing in your buy-to-let to join them, but don't dismiss the phenomenon as a geekish indulgence. This online world has become anything but a game.
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It is always entertaining to watch mobile-phone operators come over all self-righteous. Vodafone claimed on Friday to be the first network to "protect children" from adult content, amid intense self-congratulation in the press. Let's forget for a moment that its filtering system will be useless if a child's 3G phone is registered under an adult's credit card. Vodafone has already conceded that sexual content "is a big commercial opportunity", doubtless something that some of its executives were considering as they networked at Amsterdam's recent Adult Online Europe conference. All the porn-friendly networks regard sex and gambling as reliable ways of recouping chunks of their licence debts. With the under-tens now the country's fastest-growing group of mobile-phone owners, it will take more than press releases to prove corporate responsibility.
(The Times, July 6 2004)
Forget about internet banking fraud: that's old news. The real growth area for online criminals involves currencies that you will probably not even have heard of. With the boom in multi-player online games such as EverQuest and Lineage II, the imaginary wealth that players accumulate has become a surprisingly tradeable commodity in the "real" off-line world. If you have built up "Linden dollars" in the game Second Life, or "gold" in Ultima Online, you will always find other players keen to acquire them, and perhaps your screen character, for cash.
Not surprisingly, fraudsters are targeting these virtual currencies.
Counterfeiting has long been a problem on some "currency exchange" websites, usually blamed on software glitches that let players "mint" unearned rewards. But now a more ruthless criminal fraternity is coveting these most unlikely commodities. The Gaming Open Market, one of the more popular online exchanges, has just suspended most trades after a con artist obtained virtual goods worth $3,000 (£1,650) from the games EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies. The scam followed another recent theft via the site involving $1,200 (£650) of Linden dollars.
The addictive qualities of these role-playing games will be confirmed by any of the hardcore EverQuest fans who commonly spend ten or even 20 consecutive hours online. Their neglected partners share their woes at online support groups such as "EverQuest Widows" -but if they knew how much real-world value their partners might inadvertently be acquiring, they might be more supportive. Three years ago an economist in California named Edward Castronova tracked 600 auctions of EverQuest-related goods. With almost half a million paying participants, this is one of the more successful multi-player games. Castronova calculated that the treasure and platinum pieces traded were bringing their owners the equivalent of $3.42 for each hour they spent online. In other words, this non-existent realm had a per-capita income of $2,266, making it the world's 77th richest nation ahead of India and China.
Since then, dozens of private brokerages have been established, from PlayerAuctions to the IGE Virtual Exchange. Today, even non-playing speculators are investing thousands of dollars. You might want to demand firmer anti-fraud guarantees before cashing in your buy-to-let to join them, but don't dismiss the phenomenon as a geekish indulgence. This online world has become anything but a game.
+++
It is always entertaining to watch mobile-phone operators come over all self-righteous. Vodafone claimed on Friday to be the first network to "protect children" from adult content, amid intense self-congratulation in the press. Let's forget for a moment that its filtering system will be useless if a child's 3G phone is registered under an adult's credit card. Vodafone has already conceded that sexual content "is a big commercial opportunity", doubtless something that some of its executives were considering as they networked at Amsterdam's recent Adult Online Europe conference. All the porn-friendly networks regard sex and gambling as reliable ways of recouping chunks of their licence debts. With the under-tens now the country's fastest-growing group of mobile-phone owners, it will take more than press releases to prove corporate responsibility.
(The Times, July 6 2004)
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