Company accused of taking no action to halt huge illegal registration
The number of victims in the world's largest identity theft case could surpass one million, authorities in South Korea have reported.
Police announced this week that the number of victims of ID theft connected to the online game Lineage is between 980,000 and 1.22 million, according to the Korea Herald.
The game's developer, NCsoft, said that, as of Sunday, it has received confirmation from over 175,000 people in South Korea that their national identity numbers have been used without their knowledge to register accounts in its Lineage series of multiplayer online role-playing games.
The bogus accounts were apparently used by China-based groups to generate virtual items in the game world which were then sold to gamers in exchange for real world cash.
Police now report that they have traced email addresses to China. Approximately 1,500 different IP addresses were used to connect to the illegal accounts.
New account registrations which provided a free trial period of several days could previously be obtained simply by entering an ID number into an online form. NCsoft said that it has since tightened up its registration procedures.
Korean media reports have suggested that the number of Lineage account registrations began to rise suspiciously rapidly in October.
Just seven different email addresses were used to register all one million of the illicit accounts, police told reporters.
Previous reports estimated the number of active, legitimate Lineage accounts at between three and four million.
Despite the surprising addition of about one million new accounts in only four months, the company was slow to take action, according to local press reports. News of the unprecedented ID theft did not become public until February.
Police have suggested that the huge number of stolen Korean ID numbers could have been handed over during a legitimate business deal between Korean online shopping websites and their Chinese subcontractors.
Earlier reports blamed hackers for stealing the ID numbers from Korean websites' databases.
In a case in which damage claims could theoretically exceed $1bn, Korean lawyers are planning to sue NCsoft for $1,000 per ID theft victim in a class action lawsuit. Reports late last month said that 3,500 potential plaintiffs had joined the action so far.
The furore generated by the case has reportedly led the Korean government to strengthen ID theft penalties with a new three-year jail sentence for offenders.
The number of victims in the world's largest identity theft case could surpass one million, authorities in South Korea have reported.
Police announced this week that the number of victims of ID theft connected to the online game Lineage is between 980,000 and 1.22 million, according to the Korea Herald.
The game's developer, NCsoft, said that, as of Sunday, it has received confirmation from over 175,000 people in South Korea that their national identity numbers have been used without their knowledge to register accounts in its Lineage series of multiplayer online role-playing games.
The bogus accounts were apparently used by China-based groups to generate virtual items in the game world which were then sold to gamers in exchange for real world cash.
Police now report that they have traced email addresses to China. Approximately 1,500 different IP addresses were used to connect to the illegal accounts.
New account registrations which provided a free trial period of several days could previously be obtained simply by entering an ID number into an online form. NCsoft said that it has since tightened up its registration procedures.
Korean media reports have suggested that the number of Lineage account registrations began to rise suspiciously rapidly in October.
Just seven different email addresses were used to register all one million of the illicit accounts, police told reporters.
Previous reports estimated the number of active, legitimate Lineage accounts at between three and four million.
Despite the surprising addition of about one million new accounts in only four months, the company was slow to take action, according to local press reports. News of the unprecedented ID theft did not become public until February.
Police have suggested that the huge number of stolen Korean ID numbers could have been handed over during a legitimate business deal between Korean online shopping websites and their Chinese subcontractors.
Earlier reports blamed hackers for stealing the ID numbers from Korean websites' databases.
In a case in which damage claims could theoretically exceed $1bn, Korean lawyers are planning to sue NCsoft for $1,000 per ID theft victim in a class action lawsuit. Reports late last month said that 3,500 potential plaintiffs had joined the action so far.
The furore generated by the case has reportedly led the Korean government to strengthen ID theft penalties with a new three-year jail sentence for offenders.
Share this page
Email this page
Back to Top
Home
Edit Post
0 comments: