FBI Agents Seize Students Computers over WoW Fraud?

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I just want to know what you can possibly do in World of Warcraft that would prompt an FBI raid on your home?

"They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud," he said. "I'm pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff." He said he has been consulting with student legal services to explore his options.
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Seems kind of unlikely they would seize stuff from people that don't even play wow. I guess it's possible but I don't think FBI would go through all the trouble if that didn't have something. Maybe it wasn't this guy but his roommate and he just got shaft since they likely share internet.
 
Poor guys.
Final examinations start mid-late April. I hope they backed up their notes.
If they actually don't own the game, legal is going to have a sharp stick!
 
Looks like the authorities wanted to do some raiding of their own. I wonder what will drop?
 
uh...whut??
ok, after reading better it's the "...investigating whether at least one person engaged in a scheme to set up fraudulent bank accounts..." that's the issue.
DON'T SCREW WITH BANKS OR THE IRS M'KAY????
 
Blizzard should just sell virtual gold for real money for their WoW. Obviously it's worth looking into. I mean, big enough that there's tons of gold farmers. I mean, what's the difference between that and selling a invisible unicorn for $20.
 
How is no one pissed about our government spending our dollars on stopping virtual currency from being sold....
 
The FBI people must play WOW that's how this was made to happen. Too bad they don't play MW2 also.
 
"Hackers" who steal and sell WoW gold do more than just brute force peoples accounts trying to get access, they load typical spyware and other malware on peoples computers to try to get that info and more. They re-activate expired accounts using stolen CCs, transfer high level characters between servers to move gold from high supply to high demand servers, again using stolen CCs, its not exactly a stretch to imagine they'd use stolen bank accounts (or accounts made from stolen identities) to move money around or keep ahead of banks trying to recoup fraudulent CC fees.

So it may seem odd that the FBI would care about "theft" of virtual currency, it's the associated fraud and theft of real currency that they're trying to crack down on.
 
weebling1 said:
uh...whut??
ok, after reading better it's the "...investigating whether at least one person engaged in a scheme to set up fraudulent bank accounts..." that's the issue.
DON'T SCREW WITH BANKS OR THE IRS M'KAY????
Click to expand...

Since banks are always networked and always have offices outside of your state, bam... instant interstate fraud. That's federal.
 
Steve said:
I just want to know what you can possibly do in World of Warcraft that would prompt an FBI raid on your home?
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Because they don't have time to go after corporations and with all the new RIAA copyright laws being enacted and small time criminals and I do mean small time vs bankers , Ceo's and other such riffraff, it keeps the famous FBI busy. Rumor has it the FBI will be hiring thousands to go after file sharers , game cheaters, old pensioners, kids not old enough to buy games their playing online.
 
I'm glad the FBI is on top of the menacing WoW gold farmer threat. I will sleep better tonight as a result.
 
Rusty4560 said:
How is no one pissed about our government spending our dollars on stopping virtual currency from being sold....
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I don't think they care what reason the people were doing it for. They could be selling counterfeit gucci underwear for all purposes. The main reason for the raid was that whoever was selling WoW gold was setting up fraudulent bank accounts to do it. I think that's worth spending our dollars to look into.
 
If they were stealing credit card numbers to fund their personal habit that would do it.If they were stealing hundreds of CC numbers and then selling those to gold farmers.

If WoW was used in some manner to launder illegal drug money (ie through gold farming) that would do it as well.

The list goes on...
 
great use of government resources. just like the government investigating steroid use in baseball. ya that seems like stuff the government should be doing. sure the government almost was shutdown and we where considering not paying our troops but hey we got some college student who was selling gold in wow.
 
I wouldn't blame anybody who got "raided" by "mistake" if they went apeshit and dropped whichever bastard was responsible for the mistake in a big vat of acid. (Would be very difficult I assume, they would have to bide their time and have some elaborate plan)

I would love to read about successful retribution for some of these "raids" I've been reading about lately.
 
WOW that is sad. The FBI involved over fraud... in a game?!?! Come on. That's what GMs are for... Whether or not they are useless is an issue that should be brought up to Blizzard, not the FBI!
 
I'd like to see FBI raids on all the people who took big bonuses when they got TARP payments.
 
Probably worth repeating for those who never read articles: "Agents are investigating whether at least one person engaged in a scheme to set up fraudulent bank accounts"

>FBI
>bank fraud

beep boop it does compute

Dopes should have used PayPal.
 
glad we didn't shut down the federal government, important things like this wouldn't be able to be done!
 
Rusty4560 said:
How is no one pissed about our government spending our dollars on stopping virtual currency from being sold....
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I'm certainly not happy about it. If Blizzard doesn't like gold farmers they should handle it themselves, at most take it to civil court.

What next, arrested for shooting someone in Call of Duty?
 
BladeVenom said:
I'm certainly not happy about it. If Blizzard doesn't like gold farmers they should handle it themselves, at most take it to civil court.

What next, arrested for shooting someone in Call of Duty?
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As many people have already said above in more polite words, rtfa.
 
Read the fucking article or don't post. It's that simple. No one wants to read your ignorant bitching based on the blurb posted on the site.

FBI got involved because of bank fraud, which is a bit more serious than someone just engaged in transactions using their own legit bank accounts.
 
Call the FBI, someone hacked my WoW account!!

sheldon-cooper-wow.jpg
 
NKDietrich said:
Read the fucking article or don't post. It's that simple. No one wants to read your ignorant bitching based on the blurb posted on the site.
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Today I step into the shoes of a great man, a man by the name of Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.
 
If I had to guess the students' computers were malware infected and the actual criminals were using the zombies to set up fraudulent bank accounts. Also, rtfa...
 
Agent Jenkins: All right, let's do this...

If they get their stuff back it will have kiddie porn.
 
BladeVenom said:
I'm certainly not happy about it. If Blizzard doesn't like gold farmers they should handle it themselves, at most take it to civil court.

What next, arrested for shooting someone in Call of Duty?
Click to expand...

Um... I think they should arrest people for playing GTA! ;) :p :rolleyes:
 
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