Jagex Games Studio, the team behind RuneScape, confirmed that a UK resident has been arrested for stealing accounts through phishing websites, which tricked players into providing their game logon information. The development team noted that they collalborated with the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) to facilitate the arrest.

Mark Gerhard, CEO of Jagex, notes that "Account theft and the use of phishing websites is a problem facing the entire online games industry and Jagex maintains a specialist team to combat any law breaking within our games. Where there is any evidence to suggest someone has committed a crime, as is clearly the case with any phishing or hijacking, we work closely with law enforcement agencies around the world to bring these people to account."

Gerhard also informed the media that "just a handful of individuals" are responsible for over 95% of all accounts hijacked in RuneScape. A PCeU spokesperson stated that "People who seek to destroy others online gaming experience could be committing criminal offences, leaving themselves liable to prosecution." Perhaps we will see this level of enforcement coming to other mainstream MMOs, like World of Warcraft? Only time will tell!