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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