Making Money and Money Crooks

Here are two interesting, though unrelated, money stories I found today while surfing around.

Gamer buys $26,500 virtual land:

A 22-year-old gamer has spent $26,500 on an island that exists only in a computer role-playing game (RPG). The Australian gamer, known only by his gaming moniker Deathifier, bought the island in an online auction. The land exists within the game Project Entropia, an RPG which allows thousands of players to interact with each other.

Entropia allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash, while fans of other titles often use auction site eBay to sell their virtual wares.

Earlier this year economists calculated that these massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have a gross economic impact equivalent to the GDP of the African nation of Namibia.

Deathifier will make money from his investment as he is able to tax other gamers who come to his virtual land to hunt or mine for gold. He has also begun to sell plots to people who wish to build virtual homes.

"This type of investment will definitely become a trend in online gaming," said Deathifier.

Unbelievable. I'm familiar with this sort of "game", but I've never played a RPG. But I have heard of people making money creating clothes, selling real estate, etc. in games like Second Life. But $26,500? Wow!

Couple accused of fleecing elderly men:

Yana T. Ristick (31 years old), also known as Yana Tanya Schinman, and Ristick's boyfriend Michael Evans Jr. both pleaded not guilty Thursday morning to several charges of first-degree theft. According to police and prosecutors, the couple cooperated in bilking elderly men after Ristick befriended them.

According to police, Ristick met one 86-year-old widower who has trouble with his short-term memory several months ago inside a Seattle grocery store. Soon after, according to police, Ristick told the man she was romantically interested in him, and on June 28 the two were married in Reno.

Ristick allegedly told the man she was a wedding planner for wealthy people and needed a nice place where she could meet with clients. The victim provided her with $20,000 to rent a lavishly furnished 4th Avenue apartment where she and Evans lived with the elderly man until their arrest July 15. Ristick also received a $7,000 engagement ring, and Evans took the elderly man to the bank where he withdrew $30,000 and gave it to Evans as an "investment" in a car-sales business, according to charging papers.

When the man's nephew, who has power of attorney, became suspicious, Ristick took her elderly husband to the bank and opened a joint checking account where they transferred most of his funds, police said.

The relationship is just the most recent in a string of so-called "sweetheart scams" Ristick perpetrated on vulnerable victims, prosecutors allege.

Holy cow! How terrible!!!! Just when you think you've seen it all, along comes something like this.

Comments

[Jim]

Thats a shame to hear how those people stole from that man, glad they got caught.

Theres big money in trading of goods and currency for MMORPGs. In 2005 someone paid $100k for a resort in the game Second Life. Theres a huge market in World of Warcraft stuff.

Jim

I'd like to point out that the $26,500 purchase of virtual land was in 2004, and in 2005 Entropia sold more land for $100,000. What's more amazing is that both investments were recouped in under a year.

**This information is on the "Entropia Universe" Wikipedia page.

[FMF]

Anon --

So it is. I guess "new to me" can be "old to everyone else". ;-)

$100k? Wow. Wow. Wow.

[Foobarista]

That RPG stuff is worth money should be no more shocking than the idea that a TV show is worth money. It is an exclusive property, whose existence is purely a matter of legal and contractual convention, that can be ultimately used to entertain lots of people.

[James]

If I had $26,500 to spare the last thing I would invest it in is anything virtual. Give me real real estate or equities any day.

[aphexbr]

@FMF: Yeah, if you think that's bad, look at how much they sold the banking licences for in 2007... There's a lot of info on the wiki page.

By the way, the BBC does keep accurate datestamps on all its articles. From the article you linked: "Friday, 17 December, 2004, 13:06 GMT". Old news can be interesting, but it's good to check the dates first ;)

[Saria]

Interesting you should mention RPG's because I read this post in my Google Reader and at the end of the post there was a picture ad to play an online RPG.

I always thought these ads were part of FMF but after coming straight to the site to see if indeed these ads were showing up on your site, it looks like they're just ads Google sponsors. Unless I'm mistaken...