2008 Fall Case Study

Organized Crime in a Virtual World

A fraud analyst at a credit card company has made an interesting discovery. A credit card owned by a 50 year-old, professional client company has been visiting an online virtual world and purchasing virtual items. The items were not expensive, between $2-$5 per transaction; however, the volume of microtransactions was very high and at regular intervals; 30 transactions had occurred between 14:00hrs and 15:30hrs occurring at almost exact 5 minute intervals.

In this year’s case study we will learn how a highly sophisticated international organized crime is running a stealth operation in the black markets of virtual world & game crime. The operation acquires victims’ assets and identities through various schemes. It then uses the capabilities of virtual worlds and auction sites to launder funds and fence the stolen goods.

 

We will learn how the credit card company, law enforcement and game developers worked together to help identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

 

In Phase Three we will also explore legal issues in prosecuting crimes involving virtual worlds and MMOGs (Massively Multi-player Online Games), which according to some estimates are approaching, if not exceeding, a half a billion subscriptions world wide.

 

Phase I - Intro to Virtual Worlds & Case Study
Phase II - Detection of the crime and law enforcement investigation
Phase III - Review of legal issues in prosecuting cases involving virtual worlds

 

Virtual crime was difficult to detect, until now....


Presenters

Host - John Clayton, Senior Security Analyst, Risk Management Consulting, Enterprise Group, Bell Canada

Jordan Janisson of Sylien Games - Trade Wars Rising ®

Dr. Ronggong Song, National Research Council

Jacques Boucher, Senior Cybercrime Instructor, Technological Crime Learning Institute, Canadian Police College

Susheel Gupta, Federal Prosecutor, Department of Justice

and more ...

<Speaker Biographies>


Agenda

Phase I, II, III

5:30-6:15 PM Registration, Networking, Cash Bar and Grill
6:15-6:20 PM Introduction of Speaker
6:20-7:40 PM Presentation
7:40-8:00 PM Question Period
8:00-8:10 PM Closing remarks