FBI raids, confiscate computers, sealed documents, no charges laid

[marcus_of_augustus]

First they came for the on-line poker, then the WoW gold, then the bitcoins?

http://www.blacklistednews.com/FBI_raids_wrong_home,_searching_for_WoW_gold/13733/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Records that have been made public at this stage show that the agents executed a search warrant at 8:45am March 30th, seizing laptops, hard drives, gaming consoles, credit cards, a mobile phone, paperwork and other computer equipment. For a student, we imagine this is quite a frustrating experience.

According to the FBI, “at least one person” at the address is believed to be engaged in a scheme using fraudulent bank accounts to buy and sell in-game gold. The investigators were looking for any records of online transactions relating to World of Warcraft, Blizzard, a Chinese-based gold-farming website, and a number of online banking websites and auction houses.

The apartment, home to two male students at the University of Michigan, believe the FBI have the wrong people as neither of them play WoW.

“They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud. I’m pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff.”

Both men – who cannot be named as they have not actually been charged with a crime – are exploring their legal options with student services.

more ....
http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/fbi-agents-search-university-towers-apartment-during-probe-involving-world-of-warcraft-gamers/

No arrests have been made, FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold, a bureau spokeswoman in Detroit, said Wednesday.

Berchtold said she could not comment further on the March 30 raid because many documents in the case remain sealed.

[Shortline]

Is bitcoin involved in some way?

[marcus_of_augustus]

Is bitcoin involved in some way?

Not a lot of details, since the documents are sealed but they have said "virtual currencies" are involved. Basically secret police tactics.

[eleuthria]

The raid had nothing to do with the fact that it was WoW gold.  It was due to using fraudulent bank accounts (stolen debit/credit card numbers probably).  The fact it is believed it was part of a warcraft gold farming/hacking operation has nothing to do with the purpose of the raid.  This has absolutely nothing that ties it back into a threat to BitCoin.  There isn't even a "slippery slope" argument to be made based on the information in the article.

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Yet another encouragement to use Truecrypt.

[gigabytecoin]

The student in question was "using fraudulent bank accounts to buy and sell in-game gold" ...

That is why the FBI came.

Just don't buy your bitcoins with credit card numbers you bought off of somebody named Nikolai and you should be safe. Case closed.

[Darth Severus]

Yet another encouragement to use Truecrypt.

Don´t forget to backup, and store this elswhere. Or the data can be lost.

[em3rgentOrdr]

Yet another encouragement to use Truecrypt.

Don´t forget to backup, and store this elswhere. Or the data can be lost.

I just installed Lubuntu 11.04 on my notebook, and I made sure to *encrypt* my home directory...

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Yet another encouragement to use Truecrypt.

Don´t forget to backup, and store this elswhere. Or the data can be lost.

Any data can be lost.

I have 5-year experience with Truecrypt drives and they are not suspectible to data loss much more than any other/normal hard drive.

Unless, of course, you forget the password.
But there are ways to easily memorize a long password.

[Darth Severus]

I have 5-year experience with Truecrypt drives and they are not suspectible to data loss much more than any other/normal hard drive.

Unless, of course, you forget the password.
But there are ways to easily memorize a long password.

If you would have been visited by FBI, the data would be lost. This was ment. Have to backup and store the backup elswhere, maybe also online. Wualla accepts bitcoins, but their prices bases on a lower BTC value.