Police in Brazil arrested a gang on Tuesday that reportedly kidnapped the top scorer of online game GunBound in order to obtain his account by forcing him to transfer it to them.
According to Xinhua News, the player, whose identity is being kept a secret, was the owner of the account with the highest score in the online game GunBound.
The police say the self-titled “La Firma” gang threatened gamers and tried to force them to transfer their accounts to the group’s members. According to investigations, they tried to transfer GunBound’s top scorer’s account 23 times. After failing, they allegedly lured the victim by setting him up on a date with a girl.
Tamires Rodrigues Vieira, 19, reportedly met with the game’s top scorer in an online chat room and arranged the date. However, instead of showing up, another member of the scheme confronted the victim with a handgun. From there, the gang member forced the gamer into an Internet cafe to transfer his points. The gang then released the victim’s score for sale on a website for $8,000.
“Police arrested Vieira, along with other suspects Anderson Faquini, 19; Alexsander Kaiser Pereira, 27; and Igor da Silva Carvalho, 27. Police also seized a digital camera, a mobile phone,a laptop and other computer devices,” said Sun Yunlong of Xinhua News.
“OnGame stated that GunBound is one of the most popular online games in some Asian countries, and which was released in 2004 in Brazil, where it has 2.7 million registered users. Although the company forbids the trade of personal accounts, police have uncovered a black market selling scores for up to $2,700,” he said.
