WoW and Second Life possible money laundering machines
In the world of organized crime, nothing is exempt as long as it will further their schemes. In line with this thinking, Symantec warned authorities with the possibility of criminals using online games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life for money laundering purposes. That's another form of online crime apart from piracy.
The two online games' use of microtransaction business models in exchanging virtual items for money makes it possible for organized criminals to "open several thousand MMOG accounts. Each could be used to trade with other players in the purchase or sale of in-game assets, the funds from which would ultimately be withdrawn from the accounts," according to the Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec.
With those myriad of accounts going through millions of transactions, tracing the true source of the accounts will ultimately become near-impossible.
