Technology Review, published by MIT, reports about allegations of fraud in virtual worlds. Most virtual worlds and online games use in-game currency that has no value tied to official currency, except for SecondLife. In SecondLife, 100 Lindens is equivalent to approximately $0.37 USD. This means that when someone commits an act of fraud within SecondLife real money is lost.

Ginko Financial was a type of savings bank in SecondLife. They advertised high interest rates on deposits and attracted a number of users and deposits in the range of $700,000 USD. First, withdrawal limits were imposed, then deposits were converted from Linden dollars to “Ginko perpetual bonds”. These bonds eventually became worthless and the users lost their money.

There were apparently no consequences for the “banker” who took the cash.