This article is published in Italian, below is the translated version. The original source as well as the translated version in english is provided at the end.
“Drugs and sex, by their nature, are at the margins of the formal economy of civilized countries, so that’s where many of the new technologies are emerging to turn the money,” says A., a retired bank and experienced hi- tech in Hong Kong. The potential impact in the real economy of developing technologies such as virtual currency and laundering of money derived from the global online games and virtual worlds, is a source of growing concern to governments and international media. And if England and the United States, the phenomenon has not yet targeted by authorities, the governments of South Korea and China are eyeing it for years.
“In China,” says Steve Davis, a security consultant with over fifteen years of experience in the gaming industry, “the use of QQ coins (see glossary at the end) was so widespread that the government feared would compete with real currency. “Chuck Cohen, a police lieutenant in Indiana with extensive experience in digital crime unit, is about a raid by U.S. $ 38 million in South Korea, in 2008. For the time being in Europe or the United States did not happen anything like that. “This means that here there is less money laundering, or just that England and the United States do not find him because they have the tools authorities South Korean? “.” The problem of traceability, “says Cohen,” is that the authorities at all levels and in all countries, tend to react rather slowly. So we put a little ‘to realize the extent the phenomenon. “Currently, the main difficulty is to isolate the criminal element.” Almost always, the authorities are not familiar with these online communities. In non-virtual, we know where are the bars and restaurants, who attends them, and those at the helm . Those online instead end up as extensions of the physical world, but are unknown to the authorities. “
Original article in Italian: here
Translated version of the article in English: here