Identity theft

Sorry dude I should’ve gave you your account back.

Cruel implies that it is in some way excessive or undeserved. I think what he got was perfectly fitting for what he was trying to do:

  1. He was trying to steal someone else’s account. Hence he was committing a crime, no matter how old the little shit was.
  2. He was stupid enough to get scammed out of his account name and password
  3. He was stupid enough to get scammed out of his account name and password through the very same method he had just attempted to use on someone else
  4. He was stupid enough to get scammed out of his account name and password through the very same method he had just attempted to use on someone else, even after that person had JUST explained to him why that scam didn’t work.
  5. He had done to him exactly what he had been attempting to do to someone else, and it was only done to him BECAUSE he had tried to do it to someone else.
  6. Though important to him, what he lost is easily replaceable by, as was said, “mowing some lawns” and earning the money to buy the games again under a new account.
  7. He otherwise suffered no lasting harm or repercussions other than the complete shame and humiliation of being so completely pwned.

With how points 5, 6, and 7 are, I think he just might LEARN from that experience. In which case, that’s the best service that could ever have been given to him when you consider points 1 through 4.

Just because it was done, doesn’t mean it is right in the first place. Stealing should never have a defense especially in a democratic society.

Simply put, if it isn’t yours, don’t take it.

^ in the end, someone manages to put into one sentence what I’m going for again…I must suck at communication.

Stealing already is a defense that is used in a democratic society, it’s called fines. When you steal something or even attempt theft, you can be jailed or fined X number of dollars, hence you can have your money stolen from you. Just because it’s the government doesn’t mean that they aren’t taking something that doesn’t belong to them.
By your logic, what would have been “right” would have been to contact valve and report him, possibly file legal charges against him, opening up not only the kid to a criminal record but also his parents to fines over whatever damages the kid may have occurred (just because the kid was stupid doesn’t mean he might not have already been successful using that method to scam someone who simply happened to be more gullible)
This method simply gave the kid a taste of his own medicine along with a strong dose of humility. If more people solved problems this way, maybe a trend of personal responsibility could actually be started instead of constantly resorting to lawyers and lawsuits.

So what you’re trying to tell us bascially, is instead of calling a theft a crime, we should behave like a bunch of kids and steal what some one tried to steal from us?

Some naughty, silly person created my account when the forums came back up. Thankfully I was able to recover it.

_>

It’s not acting like a bunch of kids, it’s acting like a misbehaving child being punished by an adult who has come up with a simple, effective, and memorable punishment that is not so severe that it has any debilitating consequences on their future development.

I think a lot of people misunderstand what brOkenrabbit actually did to poor little shit-for-brains Greg. He didn’t ‘steal’ his account as everyone seems to think… he gave it back to him a few days later.

What he did do, and quite rightly so, was to humiliate the wannabe thief throughout the entire internet community.

Before the thread was finally closed, brOkenrabbit’s post in the Fururemark General Discussion Forum had 1,247,372 views, plus thousands of views in countless forums all around the world… so a lot of people, (and I’m sure that included Valve), got to know about Greg’s failed hijacking attempt.

Even now, a Google search for ‘Greg_ValveOLS’ still brings up 976 results - so his misery continues to this day.

When I origionally posted this ‘conversation’ on the BM Forum a couple of years ago, I was trawling through the various websites to follow people’s reactions as the saga was unfolding… and the vast, vast majority thought it was hilarious and that Greg had got exactly what he deserved.

Apart from a few addled-brained do-gooders who felt sorry for poor little 13-year old Greg, because that bad brOkenrabbit person had actually lied to him and had taken his hard-earned account, most of the negative reaction seemed to be from those who were really annoyed and pissed-off - not by anything that brOkenrabbit had done - but only because the would-be hijacker had been caught out.

To get back to your original point… no, I don’t think that we should ‘steal what someone tried to steal from us’. If someone stole, or tried to steal from me, I would have both their hands amputated!

It’s very difficult to steal, (or use a keyboard), with stumps… particularly if the hands are removed from the shoulder joint!

:brow:

Actually it’s very funny.

Am I lucky no-one wants to be me :slight_smile:

wait… ;___;

And this is what the start of this whole thread was originally about. Poor Jambo and Reverend were not the only victims and I was pitching a fit about it.

hotnumbers was also unable to use his old username.

I’m glad I don’t give two shits about usernames, if mine was taken I would just use sersoft.corp or npc_sersoft again…

Bloody hell, that spawned a big discussion. :stuck_out_tongue: Personally, I think he deserved every bit of what he got, but likely I’m not good enough with words to sufficiently explain why. He deserved it one for getting into that stuff in the first place, and two for not thinking through the basics. I mean, msn? :jizz:
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Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.