Is gold buying being used to launder money?
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 16th 2007 at 2:30PM
Law of the Game postulated that gold sellers would make an effective way to launder money for criminal organizations. Now, I can't say that I find his idea to actually have to pay real tax in-game money (which, at least in WoW's case, isn't even really yours, as Blizzard has repeatedly stated that all in game items and assets belong to them) but I can understand that, if Symantec is right and real life criminals are using our MMO hobby as a means to not only make money but to clean up money made from other, illicit activities, then eventually something will have to be done to make it less attractive to them. At present, gold selling or RMT (real money trading) is a incredibly safe business for people to commit crimes with (as, for an example, stealing your password in order to convert all of your character's gear to gold that can be sold to others) because it's new territory. The new danger would be that not only is there money to be made in the trading of on-line gold and items, but there's even more money to be made in using that trade to conceal yet more money made through already established vices and crimes. Which, to be honest, kind of messes with my head: the idea that someone pretending to be a stealthy rogue or bloodthirsty brute of a warrior could in fact be helping honest to murgatroyd killers, thieves and pushers to conceal how they made their money by buying pretend gold with real money.
Filed under: Virtual selves, Odds and ends, News items, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chilblain Oct 16th 2007 2:37PM
Buying gold causes cancer, global warming, funds al -Qaeda terrorist operations and is responsible for drowning innocent kittens.
CthulhuCalling Oct 16th 2007 2:40PM
Certainly possible, but I think someone's been reading too much Grisham.
Buckshot Oct 16th 2007 2:51PM
I'm calling shenanigans. Pure BS. Agree with #1 and #2
Zumwalah Oct 16th 2007 3:00PM
i heard its a clan of international ninajs who sell gold, they are trying to make enough money to buy toyota's for all of them cause everyone know ninajs drive toyotas..
i think my theory is more believeable
dreadlorde Oct 16th 2007 3:07PM
YES!!!11!
treyger Oct 16th 2007 3:14PM
you know i heard that they are secretly funding lab work to make savory deviate delights a real life item so that they may turn into pirates or ninjas and hold underground fighting competitions - to find out once and for all who would win
Mad Cow Oct 16th 2007 3:33PM
I think you guys need a few more gold selling, gold seller, gold buying, gold buyer, gold banking, gold conspiracy posts on this blog.
For not supporting gold sellers, you guys cover the topic quite heavily. This blog should change it's name to WoWGoldInsider.
Brian Carnell Oct 16th 2007 3:42PM
Hmm...the actual article says that Second Life could be used for money laundering. It says that WoW users are being victimized by trojans advertised as addons to the game.
It would be very difficult to use WoW for money laundering as the game is currently constituted since it is relatively difficult to get your money out, as opposed to Second Life where its far less difficult (and much easier to create the needed thousands of accounts without creating a great deal of overhead).
I got a friend of mine playing WoW for awhile and then for months we were both pretty much playing Auctioneer. I used my proceeds to gear up. He sold his gold to a goldseller and bought a DSLR.
Dave Oct 16th 2007 3:43PM
um.
i'm not sure everyone involved actually understands what money laundering is.
It definitely doesn't involve a 3rd party legit credit card processor, paypal or anything that creates its own in/out paper trail. Anyone who is "laundering" money by having people buy gold... I mean I don't know how you can even draw that conclusion, because you're not giving people real money on the other end.
I guess maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe if you've got a company that doesn't actually farm up the gold on their own, and just buys gold from people and resells it, yes you could have a money laundering situation. But you'd still have one hell of a paper trail, which is pretty foolish for money laundering .
Ladorius Oct 16th 2007 4:09PM
A friend request popped up on my MSN the other day. I didn't know who it was but I thought I would entertain the person to find out how they got on my list.
-They said they had no idea how they got on my list that I just appeared there.
-They said that they were female 21 yrs old college student chilling at home.
-After a while "she" asked if I played games to which i said i play wow. She said oh me too I am on the area 52 server and my name is "amyliu". (yes she also said she lived in china)
-Believe me it still hadn't clicked it was a farmer. e-mail addres was amy@onmyway2007.com (or something like that - the important part is the onmyway domain name)
-I googled this name and lo and behold what do i see? A Wow character farming service! They offer to pay you for "renting" your character.
-I immediately went back to Amy SHOUTING....GOLD FARMER!!! She denied it. I accused her of trying to steal my account to which replied she only wanted to rent it. I told her if someone logged in to my account from china it would get banned. She said "only" for 3 days. So after 3 days I log in to my account and find myself naked standing in front of a mailbox in IF. She said we don't take everything. I called her a thief a liar! (repeatedly) She still insisted on me introducing her to my friends who play wow so she could "rent" their accounts. I of course told her to go fuck herself and blocked her.
-Interesting thing she fessed up though. She said she got my e-mail address from wow forums....where you apply for guilds. This person lied about EVERYTHING from the beginning.
Beware these thieves....they don't power level your characters. They steal the clothes off your back and the money from your pockets. How can I report these people to have that website shut down? Anybody know?
Moral of the story...>BEWARE....
oh and 1 more thing...before i blocked her i sent her this link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dkkf5NEIo0
Ni hao motherfucker
Wulfhere Oct 16th 2007 4:20PM
Wow, the stupidity in these comments is overwhelming. When did WoWinsider get such immense, uneducated, unvarnished idiots reading it?
He posts a link to a dry post which links to an article pointing out that Symantec is arguing this is happening. Can you morons even read? Or feed yourselves? Do you bother to get dressed in the morning or do you just stand naked over tarps while food is shot at you from high pressure hoses.
Seriously, just stick your heads under water for a while. It will help. Well, it will help those of us who can reason and have reading comprehension skills. You, it may not help so much.
klink-o Oct 16th 2007 4:42PM
"When did WoWinsider get such immense, uneducated, unvarnished idiots reading it?"
Read the Trade channel sometime, there's a link.
Anywho, while you could technically use WoW to launder your money, I just don't see it working well on a larger scale. There would be way too much overhead and there are certainly easier ways to do it.
Hookjaw Oct 16th 2007 5:03PM
@10, what were you thinking? Egad.
That Symantec article seemed a lot like filler being used to sell ads on the news site, more likely to make people afraid than inform them. *sigh*
Hexile Oct 16th 2007 5:52PM
*sigh* Where do I even begin?
Okay, any time you have a cash transaction in which the recipient does not pay the required taxes on the money you have an illegal situation.
Illegal situations attract other criminals.
It's unlikely someone will call the police if their tax-evaded stash is getting stolen. (IE- A hot dog vendor who has been making 90K a year yet only reported 25K earned last year is unlikely to report it if thieves break in his house and make off with his safe)
This is true across any business, not just online games. So the *potential* is there for this to happen, but the sane person must ask, is it likely?
Will organized crime families really spellunk into online gaming to launder money when they can just open up a strip club instead? A strip club is cash based and offers hardly any form of electronic trails for any business conducted. Not to mention it's a whole lot better of a way to get the job done. WOW or attractive women? Tough call indeed.
Symantec, being an internet security company, has it in their interest to be alarmist about anything that happens within the internet. It drives up sales.
However, that doesn't make what they say is true.
Krick Oct 16th 2007 6:07PM
I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up "money laundering" in a dictionary.
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
Kyron Oct 16th 2007 6:07PM
Just one word: Paranoia!!!
simplehiker Oct 16th 2007 8:47PM
What about the gold selling and powerleveling ads here on WOWI? Terrorism charges, I'm calling it now.
Coherent Oct 16th 2007 10:25PM
Using WoW to launder money is ridiculous because, while it would certainly work, the volumes are incredibly low in dollar amounts and they're limited absolutely - by the amount of gold that can be farmed by your farming resources.
The thing is, all the gold sold on any particular server or even multiple servers represents a teeny tiny amount of money compared to the average amount that would be worth laundering. Laundering a few thousand dollars is ridiculously easy. Laundering a few million dollars, or more realistically, tens of millions of dollars, that's a much bigger challenge.
And quite frankly, the WoW goldselling market just isn't up to it. I don't believe that there are tens of millions of dollars passing through the WoW goldselling industry on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Matt Oct 16th 2007 11:08PM
What an idiot that guy is. I think I pay enough freaking taxes without having to pay them on my pretend money too.
yotix Oct 17th 2007 5:10AM
@#1:
a) Buying gold is cheating. Who but the worst scum imaginable would cheat in an online game you play with others?
b) Most people will like a game less after they have cheated in it. That's actually the one thing I hope for - that people who are stupid enough to spend money on cheating in an MMO don't care about the game anyway and will either LEAVE, or get kicked out of the game for violating the TOS.
c) Buying gold finances the spammers who annoy the hell out of everyone.
d) It is rather well-known that the spamming gold-seller companies operate illegally and just can't be sued because no sane person attempts a lawsuit in China.
In short: IMO #1, #2, #3 are yelling and whining NOT because they think gold sellers are harmless. They're whining because they've cheated, and losing interest in the game because they cheated, and being loudmouthed in order to tell themselves they are not pathetic, cheating losers after all.