Virtual crimes leading to real life arrests
There is a report today of a woman in Japan, killing her online lover’s avatar. She apparently had been divorced, in game, and decided retribution was called for.
The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game “Maple Story” to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
This woman probably had never even met her “husband” in real life. The murder in question was merely a matter of knowing the victim’s birthdate and clicking delete from the log in screen.
The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said…
She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000…
The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.
I find it fascinating that the crimes committed in a virtual world are being made accountable for in real life. Second Life has had their own issues with virtual crimes, and popular online role playing games have had instances of people scamming other users and using profile information to create havoc in their real lives, outside of the game.
Online interactions are often held to a different standard than face to face encounters. Someone online can be whomever they want to, they can reveal whatever they want and even embellish or outright lie about themselves.
Article Tags: CNN | Maple Story | News article | online interaction | Second Life | Technology
Filed under: Life, News article, Second Life, Technology
What a strange blurring of the virtual/actual line.
As we begin to “live” more and more in virtual and social online spaces, it may be that we will be held even more accountable there for our words, actions, and ideas, than in the “real” world.
Thanks for posting this unusual story, I do hope we won’t see too much more “virtual spouse-icide”!
Virginia
Was on a CNet radio show yesterday and we spoke about the same thing that happened in the Netherlands. Apparently some kids stole some other kids “virtual goods”. Interesting stuff…
It’s amazing that there are legal ramifications around something like this. I imagine this will become more common with the ever growing popularity of online worlds and the development of those types of interactions. A little scary at the end of the day.