The World of Warcraft game universe has grown so large (between 3.5 million and 4 million worldwide players) that those who would make money illegally have begun to create program viruses to steal passwords from unsuspecting and underprotected players.

One such virus is called "PWSteal.Wowcraft." The virus captures a World of Warcraft subscriber's username and password and sends this information to a thief who logs in to the account (assuming the user's identity) and strips it of all of its valuable but virtual goods. The goods are then sold for real cash on online marketplaces such as eBay or PlayerAuctions.com.

As the number of subscribers to MMOGs continues to grow expect to see crimes of this sort with increasing frequency. There are many millions of dollars of real money sloshing around in the form of virtual gold. It's only natural that criminal elements will follow the money.

The metaverse still hasn't arrived, though. When criminals no longer feel the need to convert their stolen WoW gold into currencies backed by governments then we'll know it has arrived.

[via CollisionDetection.net]