Virtual Poker Chips Thief Receives Two-Year Jail Sentence

A 29-year-old man who stole 400 billion virtual poker chips from online gaming giant Zynga was sentenced to two years in prison.

Ashley Mitchell, 29, of Little Park Road, Paignton, UK, admitted earlier this year to hacking into Zynga's back-end systems by using stolen employee credentials and fraudulently crediting virtual poker chips to several accounts he set up.

The man, who was battling with a gambling addiction at the time, managed to sell a third of the chips for £53,000 (almost $86,000).

That's a very small sum considering the total amount he stole would cost $12 million at the normal rate practiced by Zynga.

The company began noticing the chips transfers in August 2009 and originally focused its attention on the two employees whose accounts Mitchell was abusing.

The hacker was engaging in the fraudulent activity from the WiFi of his neighbours, which led authorities to seize their computers in the first stages of the investigation.

"The dishonesty in this case was substantial and protracted. Online security is a priority for everyone these days.

"From internet banking to major international transactions, people rely on the security of systems and anyone who comes before the courts who has gone through these security systems from their own ends can expect custody," said Judge Philip Wassall, according to Thinq_.

"The sentence has to reflect the impact on public confidence in security systems and online business when someone breaches security in this way," he added.

In addition to the two-year sentence received for the four counts of converting criminal property and one of obtaining unauthorised access to a computer with intent to commit an offence, Mitchell also received an additional 30 weeks for performing the hacking while on a suspended sentence.

In 2008 he received 40 weeks of suspended jail time for hacking into a Torbay Council computer system in order to fraudulently pay himself benefits.