‘World of Warcraft’ fraudsters: Cyber-crime chief warns of new threat

From The Independent:

‘World of Warcraft’ fraudsters: Cyber-crime chief warns of new threat

Young people are being drawn into increasingly serious cyber crime after beginning with acts of petty theft inside online fantasy games such as World of Warcraft, Britain’s most senior cyber detective has said.

I found these two paragraphs interesting:

“We have got people who are not necessarily motivated by the money, but either by the challenge or particular motivation… and can do a great deal of damage, but not in a traditional criminal way,” said Dr Saunders. “We’re not talking about yobs. I think we’re talking about people who are experimenting. We find that they don’t always realise what is legal and illegal.”

“We’re beginning to track that beginning of criminality and understand that,” said Dr Saunders. “We’re looking at those cases and trying to see patterns that [warrant] early intervention. The first point that has come out of this is that it does start with play: stealing swords and gold in online games.”