Hacker Steals Virtual Billions From Zynga

[uppitycracker]

a dude named ashley is not going to have an easy time in prison....

 

[standokan]

Maybe he thought that because no one really cared for Zynga, he wouldn't be punished.

 

[Jack Macaque]

/Owned first of all.

Second, stealing is just terrible, please don't do it.

 

[Albino Boo]

He stole millions of dollars? Unless he works on wall street I'm going to have to say that his punishment won't be a slap on the wrist.

He will probably get 18 months and be out in 6. He will spend his six months doing some gardening in an open prison.

 

[felixader]

The sad thing here is some of the honest working people of this world can barely get enough real money together to feed their family or even just themselves.

Meanwhile a thieve steals digital, NOT real, GAMEdata and makes nearly 90.000 Dollars with it.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Of all the things to steal . . . well at least it wasn't billions of special edition cows on Farmville.

 

[Bob_F_It]

While Zynga is one of those in the industry that I find annoying (please expel them from March Mayham) I'm totally on their side on this one. If one Blizzard found it that easy to wreck gold sellers.

 

[ionveau]

Someone tell me the program he used, Was it Packet editor?? or something new???

 

[Ice Car]

Well I've no love for Zynga, but serves the thief right.

Yeah. And for a facebook game? Are you fucking kidding me? Reminds me of that lady who killed her baby because she was playing Farmville and the crying was annoying her.

I find it funny that people present arguments that games like GTA are violent and cause violent behavior when something like Farmville causes a mother to kill her baby. HA.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

The sad thing here is some of the honest working people of this world can barely get enough real money together to feed their family or even just themselves.

Meanwhile a thieve steals digital, NOT real, GAMEdata and makes nearly 90.000 Dollars with it.

So true, except, you know, he's going to court now and is probably going to end up in jail and never actually be able to use the money that he "made."

Can't believe I'm on Zynga's side! Crazy.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Well I've no love for Zynga, but serves the thief right.

Yeah. And for a facebook game? Are you fucking kidding me? Reminds me of that lady who killed her baby because she was playing Farmville and the crying was annoying her.

I find it funny that people present arguments that games like GTA are violent and cause violent behavior when something like Farmville causes a mother to kill her baby. HA.

Well, I wouldn't blame the game so much as the person, because I prefer not to jump on the "games MAKE YOU AN EVIL MURDERER bandwagon", I guess the people who are in that particular bandwagon didn't bring it up much because they can't really justify this game as having caused it, in fact this works against them more than for, really...

anyways.

Kind of an odd choice, maybe their security isn't top notch but they'd have to suck not to notice someone selling chips for 50k Euros.

I've never really understood gambling...

 

[Super Toast]

Well, someones an idiot...

 

[Riobux]

Some would argue this is just a thief stealing from a thief.

 

[13lackfriday]

He should be taken into a virtual backroom and "roughed up" by a burly security associate with very nice...rings.

 

[fnartilter]

Maybe his username was ';UPDATE players SET chips=-1 WHERE uid=MAX(uid)--'

You sir, need a night off : P

Me too, apparently, because that made me lol.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Wait a minute here. So, Zynga is running an online poker game where people can exchange actual currency for virtual currency?

This is funny as hell to me. This game is actually, according to United States law well, illegal. I wonder how nobody managed to figure out that a game where you can continually pay real money to play, and is defined as a game of chance, that is played online is actually against the law.


I don't think they're in the wrong in terms of what they're doing to this guy, but that doesn't mean I have to like them for it.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

Wait a minute here. So, Zynga is running an online poker game where people can exchange actual currency for virtual currency?

This is funny as hell to me. This game is actually, according to United States law well, illegal. I wonder how nobody managed to figure out that a game where you can continually pay real money to play, and is defined as a game of chance, that is played online is actually against the law.


I don't think they're in the wrong in terms of what they're doing to this guy, but that doesn't mean I have to like them for it.

I think they might actually have a liscence to do this

 

[Twilight_guy]

Hum... so he steals virtual items and is prosecuted for it and everyone here thinks that's perfectly fine but if he stole a game a number of people would rush to defend him with "but they didn't lose anything" interesting that.

I'm just the kind of guy who likes to see people burn for stealing but I hope they keep in mind that this guy probably doesn't have millions in cash on him.

 

[Loonerinoes]

Mitchell recently appeared in court where a prosecutor said that in theory his theft was no different from a criminal stealing paper money from a government Mint, even though it was a virtual crime.

Oh for the love of...NO! Stealing virtual gaming world money is NOT the same as stealing actual money from the mint. I swear...sometimes the hyperbole the lawyers lay out really can be thick as hell, unless of course they want to equate Zynga to the freaking FED now.

But yes, there was a crime obviously because he profited actual money from someone elses' creation by distributing their currency (the poker chips) to others for actual cash. Hence I guess he knows that much since he pleaded guilty.

Still, for the love of god...get off your high horses already. I swear, the minute someone mentions the word ***MONEY*** people start treating themselves like they're the king of the Earth. Sure it's important, but keep some perspective about what kind of money it is that you distribute. Though I suppose Zynga frequently charging its customers actual money for its ingame currencies and products I shouldn't be surprised their lawyers would also get confused on this issue.

 

[joshuaayt]

Huh. Zynga's really putting this guy... *glasses* ...On the poker
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA­AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

...You know, like fireplace... poker, which gets... It's really hot, OK?

Anyway, I don't care that he "stole" virtual money, but he probably did divert funds from these guys by selling it. Plus, he obviously turned a considerable profit- and got caught, the eejit- so I support punishment, as long as they don't try to get him to pay the standard five hundred million billion like these companies tend to aim for.
"Oh, sure, I'll just write you a diamond cheque".