Users of Habbo Hotel virtual world hit by thieves

If you’re not an online gamer or a user of virtual worlds, it is easy to make light of the occasional news of account hijacking or thefts of virtual goods or money.

Luckily for those who do use these modern conveniences, the police often treats such thefts as real ones – recognizing that even if the items do not have a material form, the money paid for them was real enough.

The Finnish police recently received around 400 complaints from users of the virtual world of Habbo Hotel (ran by Finnish company Sulake) that someone had stolen their virtual furniture and other items, the worth of which occasionally reached a sum of €1000.

This kind of thing happened to Habbo users before – three years ago a Dutch teenager was arrested for performing a similar heist.

News of WoW accounts getting hijacked and pillaged by hackers have become common. Farmille users and the players of similar online games are also occasionally hit.

According to Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure, even online poker games are targeted by cybercriminals – Trojans that show the player’s cards to other users playing on the table are not uncommon.

BBC News reports that the Finnish police has conducted five home searches in five different cities in Finland, but so far, the culprits behind this latest theft have yet to be identified. It is believed that the thieves gained access to the accounts by phishing account credentials.