We learn this weekend that a 19-year-old college student is looking at 15 years in jail after robbing one of his classmates at gunpoint. He wasn’t after money or jewels or anything like that, though. Humza Bajwa just wanted more “magic” coins for his adventures in the medieval fantasy online game “RuneScape.” Of course, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.It all started out innocently enough. Bajwa arranged a deal with fellow gamer Jonathan Dokler to buy nearly 5 billion coins for $3,300 in real cash and asked for a face-to-face meeting to make the switch. Dokler sent his friend David Emani to meet Bajwa to a Fordham University library on July 11, but worried that the money Bajwa brought to the deal looked fake. Bajwa backed out of the deal at the last minute, and asked Emani to meet the next night in a classroom. When it came time to do the deal, Emani called Bajwa out on his envelope of fake cash. Bajwa proceeded to pull out an airgun that looked like a real gun and demand that Emani finish the deal."I whispered, 'Take it easy, man. No need for that gun,' " Emani told the New York Post. "I couldn't believe I was about to get shot over RuneScape! I was so scared I was about to die." With a gun to his head, Emani called Dokler, who transferred the magic coins to Bajwa. (A cursory Facebook search yielded a profile page for a Humza Bajwa with an assault weapon profile pic.)Turns out Bajwa was a pretty sloppy video game currency thief. Fordham’s security cameras caught him on tape, and police busted him a few days after the incident.
Other virtual currencies – most famously BitCoin – have been a target for online thieves, but rarely have robberies involved weapons. After being charged with second-degree robbery and grand larceny, Bajwa posted $20,000 bail and could face 15 years in prison if convicted. But the law gets harsher: he’s also facing a ban from RuneScape, since it’s against the rules to engage in any real-world trading of the game’s virtual goods.We know now RuneScape robberies are not uncommon. In 2009, police arrested a 23-year-old British man for phishing usernames and passwords from RuneScape players in order to clean out their inventories. A couple of years before that, a 13-year-old Dutch boy was beaten up and threatened at knifepoint over an amulet and mask from RuneScape, in what eventually became a ground-breaking legal case that established a global precedent for virtual theft law.The game also has its fair share of swindlers who manipulate the system for personal profit. But hey, at least the game’s not killing people. You have to play Halo or Warcraft for that experience.
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Other virtual currencies – most famously BitCoin – have been a target for online thieves, but rarely have robberies involved weapons. After being charged with second-degree robbery and grand larceny, Bajwa posted $20,000 bail and could face 15 years in prison if convicted. But the law gets harsher: he’s also facing a ban from RuneScape, since it’s against the rules to engage in any real-world trading of the game’s virtual goods.We know now RuneScape robberies are not uncommon. In 2009, police arrested a 23-year-old British man for phishing usernames and passwords from RuneScape players in order to clean out their inventories. A couple of years before that, a 13-year-old Dutch boy was beaten up and threatened at knifepoint over an amulet and mask from RuneScape, in what eventually became a ground-breaking legal case that established a global precedent for virtual theft law.The game also has its fair share of swindlers who manipulate the system for personal profit. But hey, at least the game’s not killing people. You have to play Halo or Warcraft for that experience.