What should you do if your character in the game is stolen?

We are working with Cyber ​​Security Specialist Okan Algün on how to solve the negative situations in the sector. In this article, we are interested in the players “What should you do if your character in the game is stolen?” and we talked about how to proceed with an example.

It is known that the number of players in the game industry has exceeded 3 billion people and the budget spent on the industry is over 150 billion dollars. When the industry is this big, of course, gaming platforms are attractive and attractive for malicious people who want to turn this business into an opportunity.

I would like to write to you, dear Merlin’s cauldron readers, our exemplary judicial case, which took place when our subject was the game and the actor and the material was added to the work. The subject describes a real forensic event, the names we use are representative.

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game character theft

Our game lover named Emre, who is under the age of 18, becomes friends with a person named Ayhan from the chat section of the online game x. Together they chat about the game and further their intimacy. As the days pass, mutual trust begins to form.

After a certain period of time, Emre’s rise to the stages in the game, the products he bought, his character and other items in the game gained economic value. Aware of this, Ayhan uses his persuasion and technical ability to intervene (the server) in the game. He steals Emre’s game character and belongings, which are of monetary value.

The next day, when Emre goes to his computer, he realizes that his password has changed and he cannot access the game character. The victim, Emre, re-enters the game by creating a new character and sees his own character being used. Emre gives himself a different name and gets in touch with the person who stole his character in the game he entered.

He writes that he likes the game character very much and wants to buy it, and communicates like a customer. Emre asks for his phone number to talk to Ayhan, who stole the game character. He negotiates the price for his stolen character without revealing anything in his first call on the phone. He accepts the highest/attractive price offered by Ayhan, asks for his identity information and bank account number for the payment he wishes to make. Ayhan, who is unaware of Emre’s identity, shares his personal information with the greed of money.

Emre shares this incident with his family elders. He goes to the Public Prosecutor’s Office with the evidence in his hand and makes a criminal complaint about Ayhan.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office identifies the person named Ayhan, his statement is taken by the law enforcement officers, and the case process begins by being referred to the courthouse.

Since Ayhan, who was brought to court, was younger than 18, the first instance court was charged with theft by using the IT system. TCK 142/2-e – TCK 244/4. makes a sentence of conviction.

At first glance, the incident seems like theft, but Emre’s deception with fraudulent behavior carries the case to another legal process. Since information systems are used in the incident, unlike theft, we can call the crime committed as “cyber fraud”.

In the law numbered 5237, it is clearly expressed as “to protect individual rights and freedoms, public order and security, the rule of law, public health and environment, public peace, and to prevent crime”. The crime of fraud is regulated in Articles 157 and 158 of Law No. 5237;

Article 157: “Anyone who deceives a person with fraudulent acts and provides benefit to himself or another person to the detriment of him or someone else is sentenced to imprisonment from one year to five years and a judicial fine of up to five thousand days.” and 158. It is regulated in a simple and qualified manner.

We come across these events a lot in our daily lives. What should we pay attention to on these platforms that we are involved in to have fun or have a good time:

• Prefer safe sites when downloading mobile and PC games.
• Pay attention to your personal information when filling out membership forms in online games, use virtual pos for transactions made with credit cards, choose 11 characters in your passwords consisting of numbers, punctuation marks, upper and lowercase letters.
• Arrange your passwords that you use in the playgrounds differently from special passwords such as e-mail and bank.
• Be suspicious of people you have just met online, and do not share information that concerns you and your family.
• Do not click on the links sent from the chat sections of the games, these links are harmful links that we usually call Phishing.
• I recommend that you apply the security updates of your software fully and use your licensed antivirus software actively.

We must now be aware of the fact that we live in a cyber society and apply the necessary security measures accordingly. We must stop ignoring malicious people in the virtual world or pretending they don’t affect us. Take care of your own safety and the safety of those around us.