Gold Farmer Sues Over Stolen Real-Life Gold

[Darkauthor81]

I think I was the most surprised when I learned she was actually successful at gold farming. I mean first of all, isn't that straight out illegal? Secondly, it seems like mostly it doesn't pay that well for a lot of time and effort.

After that, she bought REAL gold? I don't even know what to say, something about comic books or fort knox... whatever.

Gold farming isn't illegal, but it is against the terms of service. Admitting this could allow Blizzard to ban her account.

On the other hand, stealing other peoples' accounts and using them as bots to harvest gold - well, that IS illegal. Of course, it's not necessarily the case that every gold farmer does this, but they're already shady, so I'm not willing to trust that they haven't. Therefore, I kind of hope she doesn't get her money. Unless she really had it stolen and isn't a jerk. In which case, good luck to her!

I see, that makes sense.

I'm half and half. Half of me wants her to get back her stolen property, the other half thinks she probably deserved it for spending money on gold bars (what is she, a super villain?).

Gold is the best investment there is. It never loses value. The problem with investing in the stock market, bonds, etc is that it takes so much time that inflation cuts deep into your profits.

For a rough general example.

In 2000 a loaf of bread cost 1.50. I invested a dollar into the stock market.

In 2010 my dollar has grown to 2.50. Woo. But bread costs 2.00 now. So .50 of my investment just got eaten by inflation because, while I have more money, the money isn't worth as much.

On the other hand. A Toyota Prius costs 12,000 today. Today I bought 12,000 in gold. Then years from now the Prius will sell for 20,000 and I can sell that gold I bought for 20,000 dollars. While the dollar's worth drops like a rock over time, gold doesn't. It will always be worth the same when you sell it as when you bought it.

It use to be the dollar was linked directly to the gold stored in Fort Knocks. A dollar was worth exactly so much gold. The only way it dropped in value was when more gold was available and since gold is one of the rarest metals on earth, that meant the dollar staid at a set value.

Well, at some point, the American government started to spend more money than they were making. To pay for the extra expenses they started to print more money and so the worth of money stopped being backed by gold.

Today the worth of money is purely faith based. You believe it has worth and so it does. When in reality it's not backed by gold. It's not backed by anything in fact other than belief that it's worth something. This makes our money as stable as our faith in it and that my friend, is scary.

 

[SpcyhknBC]

Just want to say that has the woman never heard of a safety deposit box? Though she did have insurance at least so I can't fault her too hard about it. Maybe she just liked waking up every day and being like, "There's my gold, MY GOLD! IT'S SOOO SHINY!!!"

I'm also not too sure about gold keeping its value for very much longer. Right now it is worth a lot of money because it is rare, but I think that at some point gold is going to be regulated to electronics only and that owning it in large quantities will be illegal. But this is just me reading too much science fiction.

 

[Baldr]

Lets get things clear here. The insurance company refusal reasoning is NOT because the gold bars were gain by gold farming.

The reasoning is because they were not stolen, didn't exist to begin with, or she was in on the theft and they have pretty strong evidence to prove it.

I guess some people believe the rules don't apply to them in the virtual and real world.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'm confused.

Why would anyone buy gold bullion? It seems so pointless.

Gold is a solid investment. If the economy is good, it goes down, but not much, and can be sold for scrap. If the economy goes south (like now) gold is a safe and stable asset that can keep you rather well off if you have enough. Cashing that much in for that value (cause gold is usually about a 1:1 return or more) can get someone through a really tough time.

TL;DR its a good investment.

EDIT: You already had that answered, but I'll keep that there cause its a good explanation for anyone ask wondering.

OT: I did a college report on how real world economy is effected by virtual economy. I found an awesome video game academic journal site to use while I was at it. But this is crap. Just like how All State wouldnt reward this guy at a hockey promotion event when he did something thats rather incredible because he was three steps over a line that in the end doesnt really matter cause Pro hockey players have difficulty making the same shot from the same place he did.

EDIT:

Snip

the gold bar or invest in a bank in a savings account kinda deal? Cause some people are weird and dont like the idea of their gold sitting somehwere, cause then they think it will be resold to someone when they buy gold, and if the person (this lady for example) goes to the bank, the gold bar wont be there and the bank gives you an IOU.

Then again, some people just like to keep it around cause they think its safer at their house and they like to flaunt it.

 

[Baldr]

I think I was the most surprised when I learned she was actually successful at gold farming. I mean first of all, isn't that straight out illegal? Secondly, it seems like mostly it doesn't pay that well for a lot of time and effort.

After that, she bought REAL gold? I don't even know what to say, something about comic books or fort knox... whatever.

Gold farming isn't illegal, but it is against the terms of service. Admitting this could allow Blizzard to ban her account.

On the other hand, stealing other peoples' accounts and using them as bots to harvest gold - well, that IS illegal. Of course, it's not necessarily the case that every gold farmer does this, but they're already shady, so I'm not willing to trust that they haven't. Therefore, I kind of hope she doesn't get her money. Unless she really had it stolen and isn't a jerk. In which case, good luck to her!

I see, that makes sense.

I'm half and half. Half of me wants her to get back her stolen property, the other half thinks she probably deserved it for spending money on gold bars (what is she, a super villain?).

Gold is the best investment there is. It never loses value. The problem with investing in the stock market, bonds, etc is that it takes so much time that inflation cuts deep into your profits.

For a rough general example.

In 2000 a loaf of bread cost 1.50. I invested a dollar into the stock market.

In 2010 my dollar has grown to 2.50. Woo. But bread costs 2.00 now. So .50 of my investment just got eaten by inflation because, while I have more money, the money isn't worth as much.

On the other hand. A Toyota Prius costs 12,000 today. Today I bought 12,000 in gold. Then years from now the Prius will sell for 20,000 and I can sell that gold I bought for 20,000 dollars. While the dollar's worth drops like a rock over time, gold doesn't. It will always be worth the same when you sell it as when you bought it.

Wow are you wrong. Gold goes up and down in price all the time. As an investment in whole the past couple years it has only gone up, but could drop at anytime.

 

[Sovvolf]

Wow, you know what... I'm not interested in the case or whether or not she gets her money back... I'm more interested in how the thieves managed to take 45 gold bars from the house without no one noticing.

I mean, golden bars tend to weigh around 10-15kg, which isn't exactly light... Not light enough to run around with and store in your pocket. Which means it would have had to have been a group job. They must have known about the gold before and came with a truck or something. At 10-15kg per bar they couldn't have held much more than two bars at a time. So even with a group of 4, they'd have needed to make around 5-6 trips at the least. Which, depending on the size of the house, could have taken a while.

Yet they managed this without alerting any sort of attention. I mean, I can accept the fact that she was out of town at the time but surely some one would have noticed 4 strangers packing golden bars into a truck or a car. Unless she lives in a very isolated location that the thieves just happened to pick out and get lucky.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

"Would you like a tour of the home? Here's the kitchen, down there are the bedrooms, oh and here's my GIANT PILE OF GOLD BULLION."

 

[Lucane]

Wait... Ain't the whole "Selling gold to people over the internet" illegal or atleast again Blizzard's terms?

It's not illegal but Blizzard can ban her for breaking their rules if they find out her account(s) but it's the part where her property was stolen (not so much how it was paid for except to have purpose on a gaming site) and her insurance not willing to cover it due to them thinking she arranged for it to be stolen. So it'd be like finding Ivory selling it for cash then using the cash to buy a Sports Car if the CAr is stolen the how you paid for it shouldn't effect the insurance on it,but They think the particual situation is just being done to double her money.

 

[Canid117]

This woman probably had dreams of becoming a super-villain but alas such dreams were cut short.

 

[MrJoyless]

I think the real story here isnt that this woman made that much money selling gold but that her insurance policy that apparently was supposed to cover said "phat lewts" isnt covering her because it is claiming fraud.

jesus tho....75K in gold farming earnings....seriously why do people pay real money for this stuff.....

 

[esperandote]

I wonder how long it took her to earn that much money.

 

[Tron-tonian]

Gold is the best investment there is. It never loses value. The problem with investing in the stock market, bonds, etc is that it takes so much time that inflation cuts deep into your profits.

Wow are you wrong. Gold goes up and down in price all the time. As an investment in whole the past couple years it has only gone up, but could drop at anytime.

Pfft. Next you'll tell me that my real estate investments could possibly lose value. Like that would ever happen...

/Old enough to remember gold at $300/oz
//Waiting for the inevitable crash and crying and gnashing of teeth that accompanies it.

 

[Darkauthor81]

I think I was the most surprised when I learned she was actually successful at gold farming. I mean first of all, isn't that straight out illegal? Secondly, it seems like mostly it doesn't pay that well for a lot of time and effort.

After that, she bought REAL gold? I don't even know what to say, something about comic books or fort knox... whatever.

Gold farming isn't illegal, but it is against the terms of service. Admitting this could allow Blizzard to ban her account.

On the other hand, stealing other peoples' accounts and using them as bots to harvest gold - well, that IS illegal. Of course, it's not necessarily the case that every gold farmer does this, but they're already shady, so I'm not willing to trust that they haven't. Therefore, I kind of hope she doesn't get her money. Unless she really had it stolen and isn't a jerk. In which case, good luck to her!

I see, that makes sense.

I'm half and half. Half of me wants her to get back her stolen property, the other half thinks she probably deserved it for spending money on gold bars (what is she, a super villain?).

Gold is the best investment there is. It never loses value. The problem with investing in the stock market, bonds, etc is that it takes so much time that inflation cuts deep into your profits.

For a rough general example.

In 2000 a loaf of bread cost 1.50. I invested a dollar into the stock market.

In 2010 my dollar has grown to 2.50. Woo. But bread costs 2.00 now. So .50 of my investment just got eaten by inflation because, while I have more money, the money isn't worth as much.

On the other hand. A Toyota Prius costs 12,000 today. Today I bought 12,000 in gold. Then years from now the Prius will sell for 20,000 and I can sell that gold I bought for 20,000 dollars. While the dollar's worth drops like a rock over time, gold doesn't. It will always be worth the same when you sell it as when you bought it.

Wow are you wrong. Gold goes up and down in price all the time. As an investment in whole the past couple years it has only gone up, but could drop at anytime.

Wow are you wrong. As this chart plainly shows the worth of gold stayed steady for 20+ years. It only went up in the past five years because of the recession and in some small part, to Glenn Beck who scares people into buying gold with his fear mongering while he himself owns stocks in gold companies. So the more he scares people, the richer he gets. But that's an entirely different discussion.

Yes the worth of gold will drop when the recession ends but it will only drop to what it was the previous 20+ years which means it's still FAR more stable than the american dollar.

 

[jpoon]

I'm confused.

Why would anyone buy gold bullion? It seems so pointless.

Jesus, you must be joking. How about having a metal that NEVER loses it's real world value, a metal that will virtually always gain against the dollar. Sounds like a pretty stable investment to me...

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Wait... Ain't the whole "Selling gold to people over the internet" illegal or atleast again Blizzard's terms?

It's not illegal but Blizzard can ban her for breaking their rules if they find out her account(s) but it's the part where her property was stolen (not so much how it was paid for except to have purpose on a gaming site) and her insurance not willing to cover it due to them thinking she arranged for it to be stolen. So it'd be like finding Ivory selling it for cash then using the cash to buy a Sports Car if the CAr is stolen the how you paid for it shouldn't effect the insurance on it,but They think the particual situation is just being done to double her money.

Well it makes sense, and it is kinda shady... All those gold bars going missing. No mention of police reports though, so I'd live to know just HOW it was stolen. You'd think you'd keep gold bars like that in a vault of a safe or something. Also would love to know how much time went by before it was stolen

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I'm confused.

Why would anyone buy gold bullion? It seems so pointless.

Long term investment as gold is both a fungible asset and a necessary world commodity.

It's a safer bet to buy up gold in exchange for currencies then it is to just have currency.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I'm confused.

Why would anyone buy gold bullion? It seems so pointless.

Because gold bullion is quite literally currency, the meaning behind the little bits of paper you buy stuff with.

I hope she gets her money. Thats a lot of loot to lose.

Technically, it's still used as a 'safe' investment because it's value is more stable than money.

And money hasn't been backed by anything at all in decades, if not longer.

 

[Temah]

I want to feel sympathetic but i really don't like gold farmers...

 

[Sovvolf]

How much would $75,000 in gold weigh? That's no easy burglary job.

Around 10-15kg per bar. And yeah, I'm also questioning the burglary job, check my post on the first page for more details. To be quite honest, I find it easier to believe that she either arranged the theft of the gold herself or she never had the gold to begin with.

If we average that out to about 12.5 kg per bar, then according to my calculator, they shifted 937.5kg of gold without getting noticed... Sounds a little shifty to me.