MMOG Gangsters Brought to Justice

The Inquirer is reporting on the crackdown of a virtual gang by police. The officers caught the thugs who are "charged with stealing virtual wonga [ed. - UK slang for money] and around 50,000 usernames and passwords from multi-playing gamers. The ringleader, a Mr Lee, is reported to have hired a gang of Chinese hackers who sent in the Trojan horses to pinch the online identities."

Comments

"virtual Identity Theft"

[Bimo_Dude]

Hmmm... It seems that the authorities are taking the theft of virtual identities more seriously than the theft of real identities.

Re:"virtual Identity Theft"

[endx7]

Account information = billing information = possible realy identity theft depending on how much information you can get from the account management screens.

Re:"virtual Identity Theft"

[Bimo_Dude]

That's a really good point. Thank you for causing me to think about this a bit more.

If these people are cracking the systems for this information, then they are likely [at least trying] to do what you said. Actually, I would not be surprised if the level of RL identity theft were reduced a little bit as a result of these arrests.

Re:"virtual Identity Theft"

[keraneuology]

Account information = billing information = possible realy identity theft depending on how much information you can get from the account management screens.

True story: a car was stolen and a credit card fell into the wrong hands. The bad guy immediately started making charges all over town, including large ticket items that were delivered to a physical residence and signed for. The police response: "Sorry, there's nothing we can do."

A stolen credit card: just another bit of background static in the everyday noise of crime.

Online crime: newsworthy event that leads to a politician's name plastered over the evening news in a "you'd better reelect me because I'm cracking down on crime" soundbite.

Wonga

[JohnFluxx]

I'm in from London in the UK and I've never heard of 'Wonga'. hmm.

Re:Wonga

[slavemowgli]

It's listed on londonslang.com, though. H2G2 also mentions it, as does urbandictionary.com. I'm not from London, but it sure seems to be real.

Re:Wonga

[ActionJesus]

Im from scotland, and ive never heard of it either. Im pretty sure anyone that said "wonga" would get punched as well.

Re:Wonga

[Bimo_Dude]

Apparently (at least according to Google), it is modern London slang.

It is not, however, listed in the OED. The closest word in the OED is wonga-wonga, which is some sort of Australian pigeon.

Re:Wonga

[Peter Cooper]

I'm also from London, am aware of the term and have heard it used, though don't think I've ever used it myself. It's one of those "know what it means but never use it" words like "mullah" or "moolah", which has the same meaning.

You might not be working class enough to have heard it used a lot. It tends to be used by "duckers and divers" and chancers, market traders, etc. It's the sort of word people like Del Boy use.. I imagine he probably has used it in the show.

Anyway, It's definitely a real term. While not common by any means, it's a lot more common than the bullshit rhyming slang some people claim is popular like "Claire Rayners" for trainers!!!

Re:Wonga

[Babbster]

"Mullah" and "moolah" are the same in the UK? The former, in my experience, is a term for an Islamic cleric (particularly favored, I believe, in the Shi'a branch; as opposed to "Imam" for the Sunni). Moolah, though, is indeed slang for money.

Re:Wonga

[bar-agent]

Im from scotland, and ive never heard of it either. Im pretty sure anyone that said "wonga" would get punched as well.

Just on general principles, hm?

Re:Wonga

[Peter Cooper]

I was referring to pronunciation rather than official spellings for the words :)

Notice the sublte uses

[DeanMeister]

Y'know, there is alot of very subtle prejudices in that article. "South Koreans are the most wired-up of all Earthfolk and waste hours of their lives engaging in online gaming and assuming virtual identities in role-playing games." Not only does that assume that every Korean is addicted to MMO's, note also the use of the word "waste" thrown in very casually. Also, "Hackers are actively trying to steal from other players" that makes it sound like the second you get into an MMO your system is subject to the whim of every criminal mastermind on the planet. I dunno, just something I noticed.

Makings of a movie?

[pionzypher]

Wile Lee Wonga and the MMOGolate factory?

Re:Makings of a movie?

[idonthack]

Wile Lee Wonga and the MMOGolate factory?
That is the most terrible joke I have heard in my entire life, so I have no idea why I laughed so hard.
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Hahahah

[TheBot]

The Inquirer is a cheaply produced newstand piece of funky garbage. The stories are never close to being real, and they exaggerate everything. Britneys not having twins, she's having quaddruplets!!

Re:Hahahah

[Veliena]

I could easily be wrong, but are you instead thinking of: http://www.nationalenquirer.com/?

Re:Hahahah

[TheBot]

Oh snap, yeah. Haha, wrong mag, my mistake =\

Re:Hahahah

[Hack Jandy]

Not that it makes much of a difference with these ass clowns...

HJ

nice wording, ass!

[ISaidItOmega]

From TFA:

South Koreans are the most wired-up of all Earthfolk and waste hours of their lives engaging in online gaming and assuming virtual identities in role-playing games.

Hahahaha, I guess South Koreans "waste" hours of their lives playing MMORPGS. Other people waste hours of their lives spewing poorly-written copy for an internet-only newspaper. I'll take the first, please.

But

[Sv-Manowar]

Surely they could just bribe the corrupt e-police with e-money!

I look forward to them scaling this up more and more, and people finding out what police are spending their time doing instead of actually policing in real life.