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A hacker has been arrested for stealing players' identities, skills, weapons and virtual money in an online computer game.
In the first case of its kind, the 23-year-old man was held for hijacking hundreds of teenage boys' accounts to gain access to their hard-won virtual abilities.
The boys were taking part in RuneScape, a medieval fantasy game which has more than 100million players worldwide.
Though against the rules of the game, a lucrative black market exists where players can buy powerful characters and items within RuneScape, without having to spend hundreds of hours building up their own profile.
One RuneScape account was recently sold on eBay for ÂŁ46,000.
However, the arrested hacker did not steal the accounts to sell on. Police believe the man, who has not been named, simply wanted to boost his own standing in the computer game.
He was arrested last Tuesday in the Avon and Somerset area and accepted a police caution for hacking into 284 accounts.
Originally posted by berenike
I suppose cheating can spoil the enjoyment of a game, but when it can take years to build up your skills and fortune... I think I can understand why he did it
Originally posted by fooffstarr
Lets just all agree that its a terrible game full of rude 12 year olds
Originally posted by Anjin
Originally posted by berenike
I suppose cheating can spoil the enjoyment of a game, but when it can take years to build up your skills and fortune... I think I can understand why he did it
Cheating is cheating. What about the people that also spent years building up their skills the he stole from?