Gamertell

Five teens arrested and charged for the virtual theft of furniture from various residence in Habbo Hotel, a popular virtual networking hang out website for youngsters.

Many people reading this article may not see why Amsterdam police officers and creators of Habbo Hotel are taking this problem way too seriously. The crime committed is that the teen and the virtual furniture and items are paid for with real world money. The arrest of one of the online thief makes this the first ever online law enforcement action.

The thief, a Dutch 17-year-old who has yet to be named, is accused of computer fraud and stealing more than £2,800 (approximately $1,400 in US dollars) of furniture and other from the virtual homes of other members on Habbo Hotel and moving them into their own virtual rooms. The 17-year-old is not alone in this virtual criminal activity, having received help from four 15-year-olds who were traced and called by the Web site’s owners and taken for questioning by the Dutch police.

“We are trying to bring charges of theft. It is a little difficult and new. There has not yet been a judgment in a case like this,” said a spokesman. “The furniture may not be physical objects but because it represents a certain value we think theft is involved.”

Habbo Hotel, which was launched seven years ago by Finnish Internet company Sulake, claims the website has 80 million registered users in 31 countries. The site allows users to create their own characters and decorate their personal hotel rooms using credits which they pay for with real money.

Officials from Sulake believe that the six teens have gained access to other members rooms by tricking the members into giving up their personal login and password information.

“The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites,” explained a Sulake representative. “In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people’s personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a while. We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is the first case where the police have taken legal action.”

This case has already raised concerns over internet security and teenagers having the ability to spend money online.

“We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are pretending to be Habbo,” the Sulake representative added. “People might then try and log in and get their details stolen.”

Because the trickery wasn’t big enough to warrant full attention by Sulake, users are asked by Sulake to protect themselves by never giving out their passwords, beware of phishing scams and for added security type in the URL by hand to access their accounts instead of using the auto-login function on their PC.

Read [Reuters] Also Read [The Telegraph] Site [Habbo Hotel]

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