July 3rd, 2009
With Public Enemies (starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, among others) bring bankrober John Dillinger back to the big screen this week, it seems fitting that there is news about a bank robber. However, this 27-year-old Australian is doing his thievery in the online world (which is not in a Great Depression but rather is the Wild Wild West) and he might not be viewed as a modern day Robin Hood, like some felt Dillinger was.
Ricdic, as he was known online, helped run the EBank, one of the leragest player-run banks, in the game Eve Online. In this online game, players use resoruces to build colonies and spaceships in the space-theme fantasy world. Ricdic took about 200 billion interstellar credits from the bank and traded them for real money to players who prefer to buy credits rather than earning them through the game.
He netted about $5,800, which Ricdic said he will use to cover a deposit on his house and pay expenses related to his son’s medical problems. While he said he was not proud of what he had done, Ricdic told Reuters “if I had to do it again, I probably would’ve chosen the same path based on the same situation.”
If Ricdic had just committed robbery in the game, there would have been no penalty as piracy, racketeering and ransom are among the online world’s accepted activities. As he took his “illegal” activities to outside the game, his account frozen by the game’s developers.
Ricdic is not the first person to take advantage of the pay for credit situation. This week the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has banned the trade of real money for online currency. This business is estimated to worth as much as $1 billion U.S. annually.