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ID Theft Victims Sue NCSoft in South Korea

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-their-settlement-in-adena dept.

greyfeld writes "South Korean lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit against NCSoft related to the identity theft of 230,000 people whose information was then used to register accounts on Lineage and Lineage2. From the Vnunet article: 'Most of the identify thefts took place over the past six months as underground gaming syndicates stole victims' official Korean ID numbers in hacking attacks and used them to register hundreds of thousands of Lineage accounts...the new accounts were then 'farmed' by low paid workers in Chinese gaming sweatshops to generate 'gold' and other game-world items that could be sold for real world cash.'"

5 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Going around your elbow... by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Because we've already got tons of seasoned international enforcement against bank and credit fraud, while selling farmed gold to online gamers is a relatively new scam that will leave most modern investigators scratching their heads.

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  2. Oddly attractive deal... by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    the new accounts were then 'farmed' by low paid workers in Chinese gaming sweatshops to generate 'gold' and other game-world items that could be sold for real world cash.

    Wow! The low-paid workers in my country are stuck flipping hamburgers or stocking walmart shelves. In South Korea, they get to play MMOs all day!

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  3. Ridiculous? by christian.elliott · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, if I'm reading this correctly, People are suing NCSoft, because rogue groups stole these peoples identities and created accounts with those identities. Is this even NCSofts problem (other than fixing the problem when the real people step forward).>

    So next time my car is stolen and driven into a bank during a heist, I can sue the bank? Thats what is is coming across as to me at least.

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    1. Re:Ridiculous? by FusionDragon2099 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Some of the players have taken it into their own hands. Korean Lineage players are killing anybody on their server who doesn't speak their language http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/216094.html. Man, gold farmers ruin EVERYTHING.

  4. Re:ID Numbers by QuantaStarFire · · Score: 4, Informative
    Is the reason they use the stolen IDs so that they cannot get busted for farming? Or are they trying to bypass having to pay a monthly fee, thereby increasing their margins significantly?

    In order to play MMOs on Korean servers, you must have a Korean SSN so that you can register. To get a SSN, you have to actually live in South Korea, or be from South Korea. If you don't have one, you either have to steal it, or you simply don't play on their servers.