Dutch police arrest teenage online furniture thief

[Bernard_Monsha]

Comeing soon to a country near you.


Dutch police arrest teenage online furniture thief
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071114/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_dutch_online_theft)


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police have made their first arrest of an online thief -- a 17-year-old accused of stealing virtual furniture from rooms in the Habbo Hotel -- a popular teenager networking Web site.

An Amsterdam police spokeswoman confirmed a report that the teenager was accused of stealing 4,000 euros (2,844 pounds) worth of virtual furniture by hacking into the accounts of other users.

Four other 15-year-olds have also been questioned in the case, which was instigated by the Web site. They are suspected of moving the stolen furniture into their own online hotel rooms.

Habbo users can create their own characters, decorate their own rooms and play a number of games, paying with Habbo Credits, which they have to buy with real cash.

Habbo Hotel is owned by Finnish Internet company Sulake which said last month it had reached 80 million registered users of its sites in 31 countries.

[Animematt55]

Ha...the Dutch
EDIT: To quote Milhouse's Uncle Norbert "Dang Dutchmen!"

[VidelCoolGirl]

Those Gaia folks better watch out.

[Old Ape Face]

Uh oh where's Austin Powers when we need him the most?

[Undrave]

Habbo Credit (to buy that furniture) is gained by paying with REAL CASH, as such the furniture, as virtual as it might be, still has a monetary value and thus thievery of such data packets would be a genuine concern and a good basis for charges (Let alone the charges of hacking a website!).

The real WTH? moment is when you start wondering why the hackers even bothered doing it XD

[Leader Desslock]

The real WTH? moment is when you start wondering why the hackers even bothered doing it XD
Yeah. I mean, if you steal a sofa in real life, unless someone saw you walk away with it, nobody can connect you with the sofa.

In a virtual world where all objects are tracked, finding a virtual sofa is as easy as a DB query. All you need is the object ID, and the system could tell you exactly which virtual room it's linked to.

If you knew that every stick of furniture in the real world had a GPS tracker insie, would you still want to steal furniture? Probably not, but that's what these kids did. That's just stoopid.

[Talon]

Lol

POOL'S CLOSED

[Undrave]

Yeah. I mean, if you steal a sofa in real life, unless someone saw you walk away with it, nobody can connect you with the sofa.

In a virtual world where all objects are tracked, finding a virtual sofa is as easy as a DB query. All you need is the object ID, and the system could tell you exactly which virtual room it's linked to.

If you knew that every stick of furniture in the real world had a GPS tracker insie, would you still want to steal furniture? Probably not, but that's what these kids did. That's just stoopid.

They were probably a bunch of 'script kiddies' using somebody else's hacking program.

[Lord Timaeus]

It looks like Habbo will be needing yet another visit by the /b/rotherhood. I just hope they come up with some fresh content rather than simply "POOLS CLOSED."

[Chousho]

In a virtual world where all objects are tracked, finding a virtual sofa is as easy as a DB query. All you need is the object ID, and the system could tell you exactly which virtual room it's linked to.

SELECT COUNT (*) FROM `furniture` WHERE `object` = 'sofa' AND `userid` = 9000;

4000

Hmmm.... nothing out of the ordinary here.

[GreatNekoKoneko]

...damn. that's what you get for riding the short bus.

[Old Ape Face]

I miss understand the point of buying virtual furniture for a fake house using real money.

[Animematt55]

I miss understand the point of buying virtual furniture for a fake house using real money.

some people have made money off of that stuff.
On SL, which I havent been to in a while, the price for X amount of virtual dollars has went up a lot. People can sell their items for more, etc, inflation this etc etc

[Old Ape Face]

hmm I suppose if you could make more money off of virtual items then that's a good reason to buy, but, I have a better investment for you, it's called the stock market.

[Caster13]

Uh oh where's Austin Powers when we need him the most?

specifically his dad.

"There are two things that I hate most in this world. One is smoking. And the other, is the Dutch." i dont know if i got it exactly though.