Fraud in the Virtual World

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Fraud in the Virtual World

• Tim Sparrow, Consultant, Client and Technical
  Services

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Summary

• Virtual Services
• The MMO virtual marketplace
• Fraud
• What is MMO fraud?
• What impact does it have?
• Why is it attractive to fraudsters?
• What does the future hold?

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Virtual Services

• Selling the Goods
• Gold
• Lord of the Rings Online 1.0 gold
• Age of Conan 1.3 gold
• World of Warcraft 100 gold
• Eve Online 24 million gold
• Items
• Levelling (180 for max level)
• Characters (7,000 current record)
• Property (Anshe Chung 1 million)

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MMO Fraud

• The use of deception with the intention of
  obtaining an advantage, avoiding an obligation or
  causing loss to another party.
• Direct fraud vs. friendly fraud
• Hacked accounts
• Vulnerabilities and exploits

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Fraud Impact

• Direct
• Financial losses cost of providing service,
  administration costs, chargeback costs etc.
• Remedial costs Fixing exploits, changing
  gameplay rules, fraud screening
• Indirect
• Reputation losses
• Game economics
• Disadvantage to being honest

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What Attracts Fraudsters?

• Money!
• Virtual assets have a monetary value
• Low risk Governance little to none, no physical
  goods trail
• Fast and easy compared to conventional online
  fraud
• Difficult for providers to stop repeat offenders
• International access

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The Future of Fraud

• Techniques get increasingly complex and advanced
• Fraudsters are becoming more organised
• As MMO virtual worlds advance, so do the rewards
  from fraud
• Stronger, more advanced fraud screening
  techniques must be employed by MMO virtual world
  providers
• Geo-location checks, IP checks, device
  fingerprinting, velocity checks, identity
  morphing and other custom business rules
• Education and training

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The Future of Fraudcontd

• Fraud is affecting all providers
• MMO RPG
• MMO virtual world
• Gold/Item providers
• Guide providers
• But most of all
• The virtual community

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For More Information

• Speak to me
• Tim SparrowCall 44 (0)7884 431 472 Email
  tsparrow_at_cybersource.com
• Contact CyberSource
• Call 44 (0)118 929 4840Email
  uk_at_cybersource.comwww.cybersource.co.uk

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