Vengeful online paramour deletes MMO account, gets arrested IRL
by Tateru Nino 
Oct 23rd 2008 at 3:30PM
Filed under: MapleStory, News items, Legal
The AP reports that a Japanese woman who had an online-only marriage with a Japanese man has been arrested for taking unlawful action against his avatar. We were talking about this sort of thing only this-morning, actually. You might want to refer back to that.
When her online hubbie broke off the relationship, she retaliated by using her ex's password to get into his Maplestory account and deleted his avatar/character there. AP doesn't say what the charges are likely to be, but we can take a good guess. It passes the dishonesty and deprivation tests (Dishonest appropriation of property with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it), so that's criminal theft right there. Likely "destruction of property" will also be added as a rider. At the very least, we imagine that unlawful accessing of a computer and illegal data manipulation will wind up on the list.
The 43 year-old woman has been remanded into custody in Sappporo, the jurisdiction where the 33 year-old man lives. AP says that she may face a prison term of up to five years, or a fine of up to US$5,000, though without any formal charges being laid, that seems a touch premature. Though the AP also bandies about the terms 'divorce' and 'murder', both of which are clearly inapplicable to the current case.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Evi said on 3:42PM 10-23-2008
After further examination, the story isn't quite as sensational as it is at first glance. They intend to charge her with hacking, not the specific act of "murdering" the gentleman's character. Can you even "kill" a character in MapleStory? Or did she just delete his account? Using the word murder makes me feel like it's a tabloid headline.
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JP said on 5:47PM 10-23-2008
... women...
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Jack said on 4:38PM 10-23-2008
OK, A Japanese woman VS Japanese man that not will go well in Japan she may end up with the a prison term of up to five years and a fine of up to US$5,000!
Now when the rolls where turn around and the Japanese man did delete the womans account we did not even read about it here...
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