Comments on: Second Life, Entropia Universe, and Money Laundering

by: turtlejuice

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:45:32 +0000

I havent taken any money out of Entropia partly because its *&^% fustrating and ive since gone to wow and am very happy there, but Second Life I played a lot for a long time and had a buisness which made nice money, bout 500bucks a month give or take, it takes some time to get your withdraw limit up to a sizeable amount on sl, but if you sell rediculously priced items or extremely cheap ones and thus gain a huge income, it wont look like money laundering even if it is.

Money in there can be traced pretty easily but those tracks could go to dead ends, so sl is probably more at risk but only if the crook isnt looking for a fast cleaning.

I do agree that if you are going through a divorce, or bankrupcy or some other financial issue, prolly with taxes or something, if done with care, nobody would think to ask you, “have you declared all your assets, real and virtual?” at some point uncle sam is going to show up in sl kicking @ss and takin names

by: Should we tax virtual income? « Can I make you some bucks?

Mon, 05 May 2008 19:57:03 +0000

[…] Understandably, governments are worried that virtual reality makes tax evasion and money-laundering easier. Perhaps there is some need to regulate virtual reality money. But please, let’s be sensible about it. The you-scratch-my-back and I’ll-scratch-yours policy doesn’t apply if governments are going to tax players for virtual-reality assets which never leave the virtual world. Surely if anyone is going to be doing the taxing it should be virtual governments. But since there aren’t any , maybe it’s the job of companies, like Linden Lab and Mindark which created these virtual reality worlds. […]

by: Malachi RD

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:45:39 +0000

Yes, all true Gandi, but what you dont realize is, most courts wont ever even think about such a thing as an online avatar and its worth durring a divorce. Seriously half of the old pricks dont know anything about it. Yes it is recorded, and stored every transaction, but if they dont know about it, how do they take it into consideration…….they dont.

by: Gandi

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:47:45 +0000

You can’t “hide” money in the game because there is no way to put “Cash” into it. They only accept a “transfer” type transaction-Even with systems like Ukash you have to show ID’s and have limits on the size of your cash over counter transaction to them which they turn around and transfer to the game. There is always a record which only makes the trail longer but still shows the trail. Divorce courts in the US take into consideration an asset like your Avatar and his/her wealth. You would be required to either “Buyout” the spouse or disolve the Avatar and his/her wealth and split the value in accordance with the divorce courts decision. MA does share all logs/information with law enforcement/court orders when requested by these entities-they also lock accounts that engage in suspicious activities as well multiple accounts from the same IP/Mac addresses. Heck they locked a whole country so it would be a very poor decision on someones part to try and exploit EU for laundering purposes. All that aside you are a very foolish launderer if you trust your money in the hands of someone who has nothing to lose by calling you out and that is exactly the position MA is in.

by: Entropia Universe News » Comment on Second Life, Entropia Universe, and Money Laundering by ...

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:56:54 +0000

[…] Original post by unknown […]

by: CareBear

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:29:24 +0000

I’ve also thought about this in terms of hiding money. Anyone going through a divorce? “Honestly… I spent $10,000 on that game last month” www.entropiatools.com

by: cbb

Wed, 30 May 2007 09:04:31 +0000

i doubt its profitabel for money laundring, to much hassle, and everyhtign is tracable, both the origin of the money as to where it ends up.
a more intresting discussion perhaps is taxes.
some gamers earn money or see their investements grow in value.
so its sorta income or a possible revenue investment.
Will be intresting how different countries aplly their laws on such a global happening.
i game in EU and trust my money there 100% , its a kick ass gaming experience and the money aspect adds fun and excitment, making it count more to a satisfying experience. in the 3 years i play there, i never ran itno trouble with my deposits, or money moved in or out.
and also its the first game ever to capture me for such a logn period

greetz CBB

ps if u ever try entropia, goto a place called atlas haven and ask for me, we can chat there and i ll answer all u liek to know

by: Matt

Tue, 29 May 2007 10:04:07 +0000

Very cool Mark. Speaks well, in my mind, that they’re so on top of things.

–matt

by: Mark Herpel

Sun, 27 May 2007 14:47:14 +0000

I agree with you about MindArk, I wrote an article on Entropia Universe about one month ago on DigitalMoneyWorld.com and in it I half joked about “”I wonder if they will have an Anti-Virtual-Money Laundering Policy?”"

Well about an hour or two after publishing, I received an email from one of their top guys discussing their AML policy and the lengths they go to watch out for unusual money patterns and more. I was totally impressed they were already on top of anything that could potentially go wrong with the movement of their virtual money into national currency. I have no doubt they are NOT being used by any large criminals to move dirty cash. I can’t speak for Second Life or Linden.
Mark Herpel
PS. Good post and discussion above.

by: Kabalyero

Mon, 21 May 2007 08:52:17 +0000

Aw, Entropia is a nice game. I just hope that it won’t be used to facilitate illegal activities such as money laundering.