Online Gaming Fraud... Please advise

[jc464]

Please advise.

I have been playing this online game for about 7 years with my brother.
My brother and I will use each others game items to play sometime.
Last night while I was playing my brother's character came and asked to use the items and Requested to Trade which i accepted. While i was on the trading window i realized something was wrong. So i tried to cancel out of the window but it would not let me. the character used hacking to accept the trade by himself on both side of the trade and went off. I double checked the name and it was a letter off. ie. serialkiller -> serialklller

I spoke to my brother and he told me some character kept speaking to him in the game and kept Requesting Trade with him too... We compared screenshots and figured out that while the impersonating character traded with me the other character spoke and kept requesting trade to my real brother to keep my brother from talking to me during the trade. The impersonating character copied the way my brother spoke and his clothing and all.

These items that were stolen is worth a lot of money. Not gaming money.
I spent thousands of real cash to buy these items.

Please advise if there is anything i can do. i do not want to take him to court or anything. i want to find out if there is a way to get the Game Administrator to give me back the items from him. Possibly have his characters erased from the server.

 

[Zigner]

1) US Law Only!

2) You were the one who approved the trade. Your bad.

Please advise.

I have been playing this online game for about 7 years with my brother.
My brother and I will use each others game items to play sometime.
Last night while I was playing my brother's character came and asked to use the items and Requested to Trade which i accepted. While i was on the trading window i realized something was wrong. So i tried to cancel out of the window but it would not let me. the character used hacking to accept the trade by himself on both side of the trade and went off. I double checked the name and it was a letter off. ie. serialkiller -> serialklller

I spoke to my brother and he told me some character kept speaking to him in the game and kept Requesting Trade with him too... We compared screenshots and figured out that while the impersonating character traded with me the other character spoke and kept requesting trade to my real brother to keep my brother from talking to me during the trade. The impersonating character copied the way my brother spoke and his clothing and all.

These items that were stolen is worth a lot of money. Not gaming money.
I spent thousands of real cash to buy these items.

Please advise if there is anything i can do. i do not want to take him to court or anything. i want to find out if there is a way to get the Game Administrator to give me back the items from him. Possibly have his characters erased from the server.

 

[ErinGoBragh]

Please advise.

I have been playing this online game for about 7 years with my brother.
My brother and I will use each others game items to play sometime.
Last night while I was playing my brother's character came and asked to use the items and Requested to Trade which i accepted. While i was on the trading window i realized something was wrong. So i tried to cancel out of the window but it would not let me. the character used hacking to accept the trade by himself on both side of the trade and went off. I double checked the name and it was a letter off. ie. serialkiller -> serialklller

I spoke to my brother and he told me some character kept speaking to him in the game and kept Requesting Trade with him too... We compared screenshots and figured out that while the impersonating character traded with me the other character spoke and kept requesting trade to my real brother to keep my brother from talking to me during the trade. The impersonating character copied the way my brother spoke and his clothing and all.

These items that were stolen is worth a lot of money. Not gaming money.
I spent thousands of real cash to buy these items.

Please advise if there is anything i can do. i do not want to take him to court or anything. i want to find out if there is a way to get the Game Administrator to give me back the items from him. Possibly have his characters erased from the server.

You have absolutely NO recourse.

On a side note, gaming currency/items are NOT worth what they used to be anymore. And MOST gold buying/item buying with real cash for in-game items are violations of the TOS, with few exceptions for games that I can thing of.

No GM is going to erase another players characters over this. And this is not US law, this is virtual play.

 

[Indiana Filer]

These items that were stolen is worth a lot of money. Not gaming money.
I spent thousands of real cash to buy these items.

12 year olds have thousands to spend in a game?

 

[ErinGoBragh]

12 year olds have thousands to spend in a game?

Where did you get that he was 12? Did I miss something?

 

[cyjeff]

Okay... let's pretend that the game police have decided to take your case.

Who stole your stuff? Not their avatar or their screen name?

What is the name.. the real life name... of the person that stole from you?

If you don't know that, the rest of the case kinda falls apart.

 

[tranquility]

While I don't think the OP has a case, this is an emerging area of the law. There are a lot of law journal articles out there and it is imprudent to dismiss this without discussing the issues.

I don't dismiss, but I just don't have the time to discuss.

OP, I think you may be right. What do you want to do? How much money are you out and how much do you want to spend and do you think you can collect if you win?

When you answer those questions, you know you path.

 

[Indiana Filer]

Where did you get that he was 12? Did I miss something?

Who else would get that worked up over a game?

 

[ErinGoBragh]

Who else would get that worked up over a game?

I've played MMOs for about 12 years.. and I've seen 40 year old men flip out over stuff like that. Believe me, as sad as it is, it's not just the kids who react like that.

 

[ErinGoBragh]

While I don't think the OP has a case, this is an emerging area of the law. There are a lot of law journal articles out there and it is imprudent to dismiss this without discussing the issues.

I don't dismiss, but I just don't have the time to discuss.

OP, I think you may be right. What do you want to do? How much money are you out and how much do you want to spend and do you think you can collect if you win?

When you answer those questions, you know you path.

This area of the law, to the best of my knowledge, has only been tried and prosecuted to any extent in Japan, for theft of goods in Second Life.. far from US law. I agree that it is emerging, but as of right now, it is NOT covered under any existing US law, and even the GMs of the game are unlikely to do anything as this type of thing is frequently touted on official online sites of games as something to watch out for.

 

[BryanTucker]

No wonder that online gaming frauds are gaining momentum. It has become #1 internet related fraud. In your case, you do not have much to prove in your favor, it seems like.

 

[MattPAVT]

You have nothing. Lesson learned and move on.