Digitally tradable items or assets found in online environments, encompassing in-game items, digital skins, token-based collectibles, and virtual real estate. These items can be bought, sold, or exchanged in specialized online marketplaces or token-based platforms, often carrying real-world monetary value.
Main/
Virtual Goods
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Code
IN0002
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Name
Virtual Goods
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Version
1.0
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Category
Crypto & Other Digital Tokens
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Created
2025-03-12
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Modified
2025-04-02
Related Techniques
- Perpetrators list intangible digital items (e.g., downloadable software, in-game assets) at inflated prices, then repeatedly 'purchase' these goods with illicit funds.
- The nominally legitimate commerce structure makes it challenging to distinguish criminal money flows from ordinary customer transactions, thus adding a layer of complexity to AML efforts.
- Offenders accept payments or funnel illegal proceeds through in-game digital assets or online platform collectibles, taking advantage of the ease of transferring these items with minimal oversight.
- They can then convert virtual goods back into real currency or different digital assets, further complicating the traceability of funds derived from child exploitation.
- Criminals purchase or earn virtual items (e.g., skins, digital collectibles) using illicit funds, then resell them in secondary markets or via peer-to-peer transactions, masking the illegitimate origin behind seemingly normal gameplay trades.
- The perceived legitimacy of in-game assets and minimal identity checks in many trading hubs allow offenders to artificially inflate or conceal the value of these goods.
- Repeated buying and selling of digital items add layers of complexity, hindering investigators’ ability to link final proceeds back to the original illicit source.
- Criminals convert stolen tokens into metaverse-specific virtual goods (e.g., virtual real estate, wearables) to obscure the funds’ illegal origin. By carrying out these purchases in a high-volume marketplace, they insert additional transactional layers.
- The intangible nature of these assets and the cross-border reach of metaverse platforms diminish straightforward oversight, allowing illicit funds to be rapidly moved or resold with minimal scrutiny.
- When these virtual goods are quickly resold to legitimate buyers, criminals receive new tokens that appear unrelated to the initial illicit holdings, further distancing the funds from their criminal origins.
- Criminals acquire or sell in-game items, characters, or entire accounts across grey-market RMT platforms to layer illicit funds without using official in-game marketplaces.
- Because these digital assets are tradable outside legitimate channels, they can be exchanged multiple times across different gaming environments, obscuring the original source of value.
- Minimal or non-existent identity verification on many RMT sites enables rapid ownership transfers and hampers straightforward AML oversight.
- Criminals purchase or receive in-game items (e.g., digital skins, rare collectibles) using illicit funds or stolen payment methods.
- They then resell these items on online marketplaces at manipulated or inflated prices, receiving payment in real currency, cryptocurrencies, or gift cards.
- Repeated resales in small increments obscure the provenance of the funds, blending illicit proceeds with routine gaming transactions.