Can you steal something that is not real? Do virtual objects have a value? How do you prove that they have been stolen and who is going to investigate their disappearance?
The concept of virtual theft has been debated in legal and philosophical circles, in particularly regarding the ontological status of virtual objects: are they “real” or merely fictional constructs? And while not all jurisdictions recognize virtual theft as a criminal offence, virtual theft is very much a profitable activity for cybercriminals.
What is virtual theft?
- Virtual theft is the act of illegally taking a virtual object of value that has been conceived, constructed, and delivered online.
Virtual objects include virtual currency, equipment, or unique digital items that are typically owned by a player through account access, effort, or real-money purchases. Although virtual items exist in a digital space, they can represent significant economic or sentimental value in the non-virtual world, making their theft a matter of legal and moral concern.
Virtual theft is enabled online, and the crime stays online. In this sense, virtual thefts are cyber-dependent crimes.
The concept of virtual property
In a landmark case, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled in 2012 that virtual items such as a magic amulet and enchanted mask from the game RuneScape could be considered “goods” under criminal law, and thus their theft constituted a real crime, even when the coercion involved real-world violence. This decision affirmed that virtual property with demonstrable value can be subject to theft laws.
In these cases, the verification of the ownership rights has become crucial in allowing access to virtual environments and the exchange transactions that take place within them.
Virtual burglary
Virtual burglary specifically involves illegally accessing a secured virtual space (like a player’s private home, vault, or account) with the intent to commit theft. It mirrors real-world burglary, which requires unlawful entry into a structure. In virtual terms, this could mean exploiting a game vulnerability to break into a protected digital area where valuables are stored, even if nothing is ultimately taken.
In essence:
- Theft = taking virtual property.
- Burglary = breaking into a virtual space to steal (or attempt to steal) property.
While legal systems are still evolving in how they treat these acts, the distinction follows traditional criminal law logic: burglary emphasizes the unauthorized intrusion, while theft emphasizes the unauthorized taking.
Trademark and copyrighted imagery scams
Internet technologies lend themselves to digitizing physical intellectual property. That’s the case of merchandized trademarks and copyrighted imagery that have become the real estate of the cyberspace: a company’s logo and brand names can be worth quite a lot.
Trademark and copyrighted images scams involve fraudsters falsely claiming that you are using their client’s trademarked or copyrighted images without permission, typically through fake legal notices sent via email. These scams often mimic official DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices and may appear to come from a law firm, using professional branding, fake attorney names, and legitimate-looking addresses.
The scammer will demand that you either credit a specific website (e.g., by adding a backlink), or pay a fee to indemnify them for the missed business. These scams exploit fear of legal action, using urgent language and legal jargon to pressure victims into compliance. However, real copyright claims require specific details, a good-faith statement, and proof of ownership. Scammers will provide none of those.
NFT scams
A new hunting ground for fraudsters is the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Common types include phishing scams (fake websites or emails mimic legitimate platforms to steal wallet credentials), rug pulls (developers hype an NFT project, collect investor funds, then disappear), fake or counterfeit NFTs (scammers sell plagiarized or unauthorized copies of popular art), and pump-and-dump schemes (coordinated buying inflates prices, then insiders sell, crashing the market.)
Other types of NFT schemes include malicious airdrop, where free NFTs contain hidden smart contracts that drain wallets when viewed, and more ‘classic’ impersonation scams, bidding scams, and fake marketplaces.
The case of Donald Trump and his NFT digital trading cards
In December 2022, Donald Trump released a series of digital trading cards (NFTs), which showed Trump as ‘various characters’. Prices ranged from $99 to $999, with some rare editions. While the project was officially promoted as part of Trump’s post-presidency ventures, critics raised concerns over high prices for what some viewed as low-effort digital art and their lack of utility beyond collectibility.
Nevertheless, these cards were popular with his followers and sold out quickly, allegedly netting him $1 million in the cryptocurrency Ethereum. In April 2023, Trump announced a second series of digital trading cards, which also sold out. The trading price of the first series soared with the speculation that Trump was to be indicted in New York, then it slumped when the arrest didn’t take place.
This pattern reflects market manipulation driven by news cycles and hype, rather than intrinsic value. While not a scam in the traditional sense, the volatility of NFTs highlights how such projects can exploit real-world events to influence speculative trading.
