Virtual Theft From Habbo Hotel

A virtual theft of virtual goods valued at more than $5,800 occurred at Habbo Hotel, a world-building site much like Second Life. A seventeen year-old Dutch teenager is under arrest for the robbery. 

The site allows users to create their own spaces; you can buy furnishings and other virtual goods for your space with real money. Stores like Target and Rite Aid sell prepaid Habbo cards.

Although police are still investigating the online heist, it appears that the scheme involved stealing passwords from legitimate users with a fake website that invited Habbo habitues to participate and leave their login passwords during a registration process.

The stolen passwords allowed (habbohotel coins) the teen to walk into another user's Habbo space and take the goods. The stolen virtual swag was later found in the Dutch boy's Habbo hotel space.

This scenario is remarkably like the events that occur in the first few pages of Halting State, a brand-new novel by Charles Stross.

In the novel, a company that provides a virtual banking service for online virtual worlds is robbed.