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Finnish police raids target virtual thieves

Seek stolen furniture

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Finnish police have raided five homes in a search for virtual furniture stolen from Habbo Hotel.

The virtual world, which is big in Finland, claims 15 million users and turns over about $60m a year by charging users for various virtual goods.

Finnish police told the Beeb that they were investigating 400 separate cases of missing pixels with some people reporting the loss of up to €1,000 of stuff.

Such virtual thefts have been relatively common in Asia where gaming and virtual worlds are massively popular. Nor has Europe been immune - a Dutch teenager was arrested for stealing from Habbo Hotel in 2007.

Police believe the latest round of thefts was carried out following phishing attacks to gain users' passwords. ®

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WTF?

Seriously?

"some people reporting the loss of up to €1,000 of stuff"

Who a) has that kind of money to spend on 'virtual' stuff

and b) who is stupid enough to waste that much money on 'virtual' stuff?

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Well, then...

...have you ever gone to see a movie? Stupid idiot! You just spent your hard earned money on a stupid movie! Do you have internet access? Stupid idiot! You're paying for a bunch of ones and zeroes! Have you ever bought a video game? Stupid idiot! You spent your hard-earned cash on a stupid game! Have you gone to an amusement park? Stupid idiot! You bought the right to walk through a gate when all you're going to do is walk back out of it again!

It boggles my mind how many people fail to understand that just because a form of entertainment-for-pay isn't appealing to them doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to others, and vice versa.

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Darwinism at work...

Hard to feel sympathy for anyone involved, really. Virtual worlds, virtual property, virtual theft - the world's gone potty. Presumably if convicted, the miscreants will serve a virtual sentence in a virtual gaol?

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