Theft of online ‘virtual’ goods is on the rise in Japan, as the popularity of MMOGs increases.
On Monday, police from apprehended a 12-year-old boy from the Kanagawa prefecture, who admitted stealing other players’ goods from an online game.
He said he’d illegally accessed a game (unnamed) using the password of a female user. He transferred goods from her account to his own on 11 occasions adding items to his character at the expense of hers.
The commercial value of each item has been estimated at 100 yen (about a buck). In many online games in Japan characters must pay for elements inside the game, like items and additional characters. Users often pay for these items in convenience stores.
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http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=974&Itemid=2
what I like about this is the police ARE starting to get involved even for such a low value of items, let hope this trend spreads to Europe 
