ID Theft Feeds Billion-Dollar Black Market

A plague of identity theft is afflicting South Korea’s online gamers, with almost a quarter of a million cases reported. Many of the stolen identities are being used in gaming farms in China as part of a $1 billion a year black market in cash and items from online games. In the farms, ranks of low-paid workers work 14-hour shifts performing repetitive tasks in online games in order to generate gold and other valuable items. These items can then be sold to players overseas