Dutch Teen Arrested for Virtual Property Theft

vuo writes "A story on the BBC website reports that Dutch police have arrested a teenager for robbery of virtual furniture worth roughly $5900. The crime took place in the virtual world/social network Habbo Hotel, a website run by Sulake Corporation. Sulake has 80 million registered users of its sites in 31 countries. ' 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. "It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people's usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture. We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are pretending to be Habbo. People might then try and log in and get their details stolen."'"

Comments

Habbo is like 'Sim City Chatroom'.

[argent]

You haven't heard of it because it's like something from the '80s, with sim-city style 2-d orthogonal projections, and is targeted towards young kids.

Can my child's Habbo Coins or 'Furni' be stolen?

Not if your child keeps their password secret. Someone else needs to know their password to check into the hotel as them and take their 'furni' or spend their Habbo Credits. Unfortunately, there are always some children who try to trick others into giving out their passwords, or who won't play fair. However, if your child keeps their password secret and uses the safe trading window as instructed, their account and items will remain safe.

[...]

Every conversation in the hotel passes through the Bobba Filter before it appears on the screen. This filters out swearing, racist and sexist terms and other words unsuitable for children. It also filters out email addresses and phone numbers so that they can't be given out. The filter covers Habbo names and missions, as well as room names and descriptions. The filters are updated on a daily basis and contain many hundreds of words and terms.

-- Habbo ~ Help & Safety