Hackers stole victims' official Korean ID numbers to register hundreds of thousands of Lineage accounts
Class action lawsuit seeks damages after Lineage players suffered widespread identity theft

Identity theft victims to sue NCsoft

Online games giant faces potential $230m lawsuit

Simon Burns

Lawyers in South Korea have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 230,000 victims of identity theft in an online game.

The suit will claim damages of about $1,000 for each plaintiff whose identity was used to register new accounts in NCsoft's popular games, Lineage and Lineage 2, according to media reports

Advertisement

Most of the identify thefts took place over the past six months as underground gaming syndicates stole victims' official Korean ID numbers in hacking attacks and used them to register hundreds of thousands of Lineage accounts.

As reported last week by vnunet.com, the new accounts were then 'farmed' by low paid workers in Chinese gaming sweatshops to generate 'gold' and other game-world items that could be sold for real world cash.

NCsoft has claimed that it registered the bogus accounts in good faith, and has denied responsibility for the initial theft of ID numbers that made the crime possible.

As well as Lineage, which claims millions of players worldwide, NCsoft operates popular games like City of Heroes, City of Villains and Guild Wars in Europe and the US, and plans to release the much-anticipated Auto Assault this summer. 

The company earned pre-tax profits of $86m last year on revenue of $346m. Staff who answered a call to NCsoft's office in Seoul declined to identify themselves or to comment on the identity theft case.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Further reading

South Korea's online gamers are plagued by identity theft

Identity theft feeds $1bn gaming black market

Almost a quarter of a million fake accounts created in South Korea alone

Asia Pacific

Korea wins on game exports

Early investment in broadband makes country a world leader in games

Korea becoming a nation of phone junkies

Addicted teens suffer stress and hallucinations, mobile phone research finds

Online games go free in China

Falling income forces revenue model switch

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

a padlock

Microsoft to plug security holes

Microsoft has given advance warning of a number of security...

Nokia handset

Top 10 articles, 10 July 09

No Nokia Android phone, ActiveX attacks and Google enters into...

Can Google beat Microsoft at its own game?

Google's announcement this week that it plans to step into...

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

Primary Navigation