FBI Raids Students Over World of Warcraft Gold Farming

[Jadora]

I think a lot of people here are overreacting. The issue here is the fraudulent bank accounts, not the gold farming itself. That's a very serious crime.

But....but.....we wanna make fun of "the man" =(

[Deleted]

This is awesome but i wonder:

What class is Bin Laden playing? I'd go with a lock tbh

[Rhefeldt]

People forget that the FBI wasn't called because the kids were gold selling/farming/etc. They are suspected of fraudulent bank/credit accounts (ie identity theft) being setup/used to buy chinese gold.

Sadly I don't think any amount of repeating the truth will do any good.


As for the whole terrorism angle.. nowhere in the original article was terrorism mentioned once. It was added in the article for G4, and it isn't even an quote by someone within the FBI or any other government agency. It was a statement by the article writer.

[Conscious]

Why is the FBI raiding low level content?

lol'd in the middle of class, for the second time today

[llcjay1]

This is awesome but i wonder:

What class is Bin Laden playing? I'd go with a lock tbh

Frost Mage. You know its true. His profession is a Goblin Engineer.

[Deleted]

Helium is not explosive it is a noble gas that is lighter than air... I believe you are thinking hydrogen

Across the pond, we stereotype the average US citizen as being quite dim-witted, albeit due to the poor education standards subject to them by their curriculum. I'm merely playing on my sarcy humour towards the FBI.

[Zaabo]

This is just ridiculous. Public education in america is being absolutely massacred by budget cuts and union busting, yet the cia has enough surplus funds to crack down on college students buying wow gold?

The government needs a SERIOUS reality check.

The CIA =/= The FBI.

[Supafly87]

Why is the FBI raiding low level content?

Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha !!!! love it

[Super Dee]

So now if you buy gold you support terrorism? Very interesting.

[PsychoBone]

Blizzard doesn't sell gold, gold sellers cost them nothing. It's their effort to maintain quality in WoW. Hacker yes maybe, gold sellers no.

This is where people get confused though.

Most Gold Sellers are hackers. That is how they get their gold to sell. They steal peoples accounts and strip them of gold, rob the guild banks, and then start botting/farming on the account.

[FattyXP]

First off Helium is not explosive it is a noble gas that is lighter than air... I believe you are thinking hydrogen?

Secondly, there is a realistic threat with terrorists using MMOs as channels for laundering and planning because cell phones are so closely monitored. They can bury chat in an MMO very easily and using coded language can go unnoitced in MMOs. This really is not a media embelishment and has been discussed before now.

While the gov't does some funny things sometimes this one is probably justified. Fun article though =)

If it wasn't justified, then we wouldn't know about it.

[bosel]

Why is the FBI raiding low level content?

+10000000 internets to you, sir

[Sazbi]

Why is the FBI raiding low level content?

i died....

btw i was told that they wiped on Hogger

[Romire]

Why is the FBI raiding low level content?

This is the best response ever written on MMO!

[shadowlich]

Proof the justice system has failed us(and blizz to for not banning them quicker).

[Fuger]

Glad to know we pay taxes so the FBI can raid gold selling college students.

[MagicWaffle]

How retarded do you have to be to set up fraudulent bank accounts to do this. How ridiculously unnecessary and stupid. I hope they are raped in prison for their foolishness.

[Verdris]

Aside from the terrorism thing (which is paranoid bullshit imo), it seems to me that gold farming would probably just be a civil matter between Blizzard and the farmer. If Blizzard could show that the gold farmers' actions somehow devalued Blizzard's stock or profits, then they'd maybe be entitled to damages, but remember that a ToS isn't a legal agreement. Blizzard is a private corporation and it's up to them to enforce their ToS, the government has no say in it (unless of course enforcing the ToS would somehow violate law).

EDIT: just read deeper about the bank accounts. If that's what they did, well, that's indeed illegal.

[MagicWaffle]

They should have set up a LLC instead of trying to make fraudulent bank accounts. HARHARHARHAR

[Viradiance]

Interesting, disappointing read.