FBI crack down on gold farmers

Published on 15th April 2011 by David Hing

The FBI has raided the homes to two Michigan students in relation to gold farming claims.

The FBI has raided the homes of two students at the University of Michigan in connection with World of Warcraft gold farming, according to ComputerWorld.

The students, who share an apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, deny the allegations and claim neither of them even play World of Warcraft. Despite their claims, computer equipment, cell phones, credit cards and paperwork has been seized by FBI representatives.

'They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud,' said one of the students, whose identity is currently unknown. 'I'm pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff.'

Court records show the FBI were specifically looking for transaction records connected to World of Warcraft, Chinese gold farming website gameusd.com, eBay, PayPal and the United Services Automobile Association. It's not known if any of these records were found.

It is speculated that the FBI is interested in gold farming due to potential links between terrorism and MMOs. A data mining programme called The Reynard Project was started back in 2008 and was designed to profile emerging social, behavioural and cultural norms with a view to detecting suspicious behaviour.

I know at first it reads like the FBI is cracking down on "illegal gold farming" which isn't illegal in the USA. It breaks Blizzard's TOS/EULA but not illegal.

So the only general conclusion they are doing this is because MMO gold is becoming more valued than the US dollar and people are trading it as if it is real currency, which they are. So just like the liberty dollar guy, I'd assume that if you purchased gold from a Chinese gold farmer you will become a "domestic terrorist" in the FBI's eyes because you are purchasing an alternate currency for use in the USA??? I guess. Sadly this sounds absurd, but considering the trouble the US Federal Reserve is in right now them getting the FBI to grasp these types of straws is not at all shocking.  So watch out!

You would think resources would be used more effectively in stopping different types of crime. I am not saying these acts shouldn't be possibly looked at, but the use of the FBI seems unnecessary. 

lol, when the us budget is only decided for two weeks at a time they have to take the smaller cases because theyre capable of finishing them within two weeks

if they took any other cases that required them to do something it would take them longer than two weeks to complete them and they wouldnt know if they would have funding enough to finish their investigations

"So the only general conclusion they are doing this is because MMO gold is becoming more valued than the US dollar and people are trading it as if it is real currency, which they are"

I dont think that is the problem. It may be. I would think it more likely that the fear is terroist groups will farm gold in MMO's to sell for profit and fund terroism. Kind of the same argument for drugs. I could be wrong but that seems more plausible

while the fbi's reason seems fishy, the thread starter's reasoning is so absurd its kind of funny. Not even going to guess at the true motives for this.

but their main target is a Chinese gold farming website/company http://gameusd.com/ and translations for sales using eBay, PayPal, etc. 99% of all gold farming is in China and Korea. Both countries are cracking down on it. And I also doubt China would fund terrorism, they rely on us to much.

While yes this could just be about terrorism due to the Reynard Project. Even so, the fact the targeted college kids is pretty lame. They should be investigating the companies that do the gold mining. A college kid playing WoW probably couldn't give a damn where their money goes as long as they get their gold. Seizing everything the two students had, including credit cards, was way to extreme.

The main reason I am questioning this is that this happened after the announcement that DHS would take control of all security of civilian networks and the recent crackdown on non-official coinage. And the government has shown that they will use "terrorism" to do whatever the hell they want. What better excuse than terrorism to crackdown on possible threats to the US dollar and use it to take control of the internet in this country.

Tinfoil hats.

Tinfoil hats, here.

Two hats for a platinum piece.

Ill take one please make that two  I need one to leave in my car incase I forgot to grab mine in a hurry

No that's about it.  The FBI is a bit ahead of the curve actually... well, ahead of most people who are waaaaay freaking behind the curve.

Online Videogame ecosystems are a very real part of the economy today with their own value.  A lot of MMO's have GDP's worth more then most major countries.

US investors have been known to buy "Online MMO Realestate" for millions of dollars worth of virtual land to get around tax laws.(seriously)  Buy it... give your kid the land, then have him sell it.

MMO's have actual come up lately as a place where terrorists can meet and talk and basically be "monitor free" while looking a lot more innocent then some random sceevy chatrooms, or social networking sites that always leave a permanent mark of what was said.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/09/world-of-warcra/

Is this the same China that hacks into our databases at will to steal technology and dares anyone to try and call them on it?

If you want to fuel your conspiracy though.  They're also cracking down on Internet Gambling. 

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/0416/Crackdown-on-Full-Tilt-Poker-clouds-future-of-online-gambling