How Players of Habbo Hotel Turned to Financial Crime (the Habbo Mafia & Habbo Corporate Crime)

[BossAttack]

Every now and then YouTube recommendations actually yield some good stuff and I just came across this recent video explaining the history and sophistication of financial crime within the online game Habbo Hotel. Now, what I learned upon watching this video were two main things : (1) that Habbo Hotel still existed, like holy shit I played that nonsense when I was just a lad in the 00's; and (2) that the Habbo Mafia exists, lol.

Seriously though, it's a really good video essay you should check out. I find it fascinating how economies develop in purely virtual spaces as they completely challenge the way we think about currency and allow us to view capitalism in seperate forms. Also, the sophisticaion of many of these scams impress me.

 

[VirtuaModel]

Oh, I'm definitely going to watch this. I used to be really into Habbo Hotel in my teens. I had no idea it still existed.

 

[skeezx]

as somebody in his 20s in the 00's i'm impressed where teenage internet culture at the time wound up. it's for all the wrong reasons by all means but they did it up

 

[ConfusedOwl]

I always preferred Coke Music. Will have to check this out.

 

[Rotobit]

This is very interesting, I love learning about the weird intricacies of these communities I long since forgot.

Habbo Hotel is weirdly nostalgic for me, even if the only thing I really remember is accidentally walking into two people cybering, which in Habbo just meant two lifeless block people laying on a bed next to each other, motionless. Guess that scarred my memory.

 

[Cheezeman3000]

This was recommended for me today too! The YouTube algorithm works in strange ways...

 

[BossAttack]

I always preferred Coke Music. Will have to check this out.

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Holy shit, yes. Until you posted this I forgot that Habbo Hotel and Coke Music were two seperate platforms.

 

[ConfusedOwl]

Holy shit, yes. Until you posted this I forgot that Habbo Hotel and Coke Music were two seperate platforms.

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Can't blame you for forgetting. Coke Music is basically just a branded reskin of Habbo. I liked that you could make shitty music tracks with their editor and share them in the chatrooms. Furniture also didn't cost real money to buy.

 

[pswii60]

Always remember seeing adverts for this back in the day but never tried it.

Loved the look of the colourful, clean and detailed pixel art though.

But what exactly was/is it? Like an isometric PlayStation Home?

 

[LordRuyn]

I am 16 minutes into the video and I feel like I am tripping balls. These Corporations were player made and run? Wow, I am so lucky I stuck with MapleStory and a bit of WoW as a kid.

 

[KartuneDX]

Habbo was wild even it's heyday. Definitely watching this.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

Years ago one guy here said that he was invited to a Cult... Inside PlayStation Home.

 

[Keyouta]

I played this quite a bit with friends in my early teens. I'll definitely be watching this with interest.

 

[Invoker]

I didn't saw the video yet, so I don't know exactly what is this video about, sorry if what I will say doesn't have nothing about this topic.

But most of MMO games that has an economy and specially an open market between players, has players trying to get something more.

There's a 23 years old game called Tibia, which players have built guilds in-game and dominated entirely official servers.
They create rules for that server, dominating dungeons, killing players that tries to not follow these rules, or try to go to those "prohibited" places.

Most leaders from those guilds charges guild members with taxes (guild bank), and if you don't pay you are kicked out of the guild, meaning that you can't go to the best dungeons of the game, or even worst, them hunting you down, till you lose all your items and levels.

That's not even the worst, there's "loyal" leaders that uses the guild bank to get supplies for the guild members in case of wars (PvP), but there's also, guild leaders that use the guild bank to sell for money in real life, some of them live with that money.

 

[EchoChamber]

I had a desk job in habbo it was weird haha

 

[Cutty]

So much cybering in Habbo. I went on there are a dumb 2000s kid trying to make friends and was astounded by the dirty mofos loitering in the lobbies.

 

[wideface]

What a bizarre place Habbo is...
Always loved its aesthetic, and having your own room, the mini games and weird places to visit is what made me log in from time to time back in the day. Never paid for anything though, so I was a nobody. An online-only super capitalist version of Animal Crossing, you could say.

 

[Tochtli79]

I feel like such a Habbo scrub, I never even scratched the surface apparently. Habbo Mafia, Habbo White House, elaborate gambling venues. Jesus.

 

[Fantastical]

Habbo was my life from like 11-13. This is interesting.

I remember I ran a (small) casino lol

 

[Deleted member 16908]

Pool's closed.

 

[Hybrid Rainbow]

I always preferred Coke Music. Will have to check this out.

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I just had a flashback. I used to play Coke Music religiously as a teenager haha.

 

[VISION]

Found this video really interesting. Anyone have recommendations for similar content? The guy that made this video doesn't have much else on his page.

 

[TheChrisGlass]

I only ever used The Palace...

 

[Real]

I paid for part of my college expenses selling my Habbo Hotel account with riches I made off of an in-game casino when I was really young. It was a lucrative market with really shady ways to make money.

 

[bry]

This was one of the sites i played as a kid haha
Habbo, neopets and gaiaonline
alll of them have these black markets

 

[MrNewVegas]

I was an OG Haboo scammer.

I started playing habbo some time in 2001/2002. Finding out you needed to do some intricate phone nonsense to purchase credits to buy furni, I didnt even bother asking my parents.

I really wanted furni. I ended up finding a hacking app for habbo. It allowed me to do things such as have green skin or show a moderator badge. So to start my scamming career, I would show up with my crazy skin and tell kids for some furni I would show them the way. This was all done with multiple accounts. I would have my main hidden away in a private room. Once my hacked char got a piece of furni I would go trade it back with my main in case the hack account got banned.

After a while I got a partner to scam with. I would go into a room and claim to be able to duplicate furni. My partner would already be in the room. He would ask for his furni to be duplicated. We would do the act as though I duplicated his furni. If anybody was skeptical I would have tons of rubber ducks and tell them to send a rubber duck before sending other furni to test. I would send them 2 rubber ducks back and the floodgate would open with tons of furni.

I built an empire with rooms and rooms filled with furni.

 

[Zen Hero]

Fantastic video.

The innovation of scammers never ceases to impress me.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Oh wow, I saw this guy's Haunter joke video yesterday. Did not know he did serious video essays. Will watch, was always fascinated by this game as an outsider.

 

[Kevers]

I always preferred Coke Music. Will have to check this out.

Click to shrink...

The best was that I worked at the bottle return at a grocery store and just constantly collected caps for codes.

 

[Tochtli79]

I was an OG Haboo scammer.

I started playing habbo some time in 2001/2002. Finding out you needed to do some intricate phone nonsense to purchase credits to buy furni, I didnt even bother asking my parents.

I really wanted furni. I ended up finding a hacking app for habbo. It allowed me to do things such as have green skin or show a moderator badge. So to start my scamming career, I would show up with my crazy skin and tell kids for some furni I would show them the way. This was all done with multiple accounts. I would have my main hidden away in a private room. Once my hacked char got a piece of furni I would go trade it back with my main in case the hack account got banned.

After a while I got a partner to scam with. I would go into a room and claim to be able to duplicate furni. My partner would already be in the room. He would ask for his furni to be duplicated. We would do the act as though I duplicated his furni. If anybody was skeptical I would have tons of rubber ducks and tell them to send a rubber duck before sending other furni to test. I would send them 2 rubber ducks back and the floodgate would open with tons of furni.

I built an empire with rooms and rooms filled with furni.

Click to shrink...

Pretty sure I saw this movie on Netflix

 

[Vommy]

It has been decades since I played. Impressive that Habbo Hotel still is up and running

 

[MrNewVegas]

No way lol, watching now and in the video somebody did my duck dupe trick.

Amazing I was on the forefront of Habbo scamming.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Pool's closed.

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This is pretty much all I remember Habbo for, haha.

 

[Deleted member 5621]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing, OP.

 

[Praedyth]

The memories. I've always wanted to be a rare mobi dealer but I was broke, lol. Thanks for sharing, OP.

 

[justiceiro]

Damm, incredible. Not really what I was expecting to see today.

 

[Tunesmith]

I was an OG Haboo scammer.

I started playing habbo some time in 2001/2002. Finding out you needed to do some intricate phone nonsense to purchase credits to buy furni, I didnt even bother asking my parents.

I really wanted furni. I ended up finding a hacking app for habbo. It allowed me to do things such as have green skin or show a moderator badge. So to start my scamming career, I would show up with my crazy skin and tell kids for some furni I would show them the way. This was all done with multiple accounts. I would have my main hidden away in a private room. Once my hacked char got a piece of furni I would go trade it back with my main in case the hack account got banned.

After a while I got a partner to scam with. I would go into a room and claim to be able to duplicate furni. My partner would already be in the room. He would ask for his furni to be duplicated. We would do the act as though I duplicated his furni. If anybody was skeptical I would have tons of rubber ducks and tell them to send a rubber duck before sending other furni to test. I would send them 2 rubber ducks back and the floodgate would open with tons of furni.

I built an empire with rooms and rooms filled with furni.

Click to shrink...

This brings me back, I used to work at Sulake during the early 2000s hunting folks like you down. 😂
The story you're telling were dime a dozen back then.

 

[Rogue Kiwi]

I always preferred Coke Music. Will have to check this out.

Click to shrink...

Fuck that's a flashback. I loved mixing my songs and playing them haha.

 

[MrNewVegas]

This brings me back, I used to work at Sulake during the early 2000s hunting folks like you down. 😂
The story you're telling were dime a dozen back then.

Click to shrink...

That's hilarious! I like your title, I'm currently back in school for IT security.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I find it fascinating how economies develop in purely virtual spaces as they completely challenge the way we think about currency and allow us to view capitalism in seperate forms.

Click to shrink...

I have an obsession / fascination with these things too. I still vividly remember reading a guide / FAQ about Ragnarok Online during the early 2000s and being positively mesmerized at the player-driven economy it described. I find e.g. EVE Online news like corporate takeovers and such much more interesting than playing the actual games. :D

 

[Basquiat]

I was massively into Habbo as a teenager in the 2000's. It weirdly had a huge impact on my life, more so than any other piece of media. It taught me so much about the world since it had its own economy, politics and culture. I saw how pure capitalism without any regulation was inherently flawed as the concentration of rare furniture moved towards an ever smaller group of players.

The game had a bunch of politics in it too. Each hotel had a hotel manager and a bunch of moderators who were all paid employees by the games developer sulake. Players who managed to become close with these staff members were regularly picked to win competitions and collect rare items.

There was also a bunch of exploits (furniture stacking), scripting and hacking of the game which allowed users to create rare and underground rooms which only a select few would get the privilege of viewing (so as not to rouse the suspicion of moderators). I actually attribute my current profession of software engineering to Habbo. I got into coding as I began altering the game client & spoofing requests to the server.

I was an OG Haboo scammer.

I started playing habbo some time in 2001/2002. Finding out you needed to do some intricate phone nonsense to purchase credits to buy furni, I didnt even bother asking my parents.

I really wanted furni. I ended up finding a hacking app for habbo. It allowed me to do things such as have green skin or show a moderator badge. So to start my scamming career, I would show up with my crazy skin and tell kids for some furni I would show them the way. This was all done with multiple accounts. I would have my main hidden away in a private room. Once my hacked char got a piece of furni I would go trade it back with my main in case the hack account got banned.

After a while I got a partner to scam with. I would go into a room and claim to be able to duplicate furni. My partner would already be in the room. He would ask for his furni to be duplicated. We would do the act as though I duplicated his furni. If anybody was skeptical I would have tons of rubber ducks and tell them to send a rubber duck before sending other furni to test. I would send them 2 rubber ducks back and the floodgate would open with tons of furni.

I built an empire with rooms and rooms filled with furni.

Click to shrink...

Haha that was a massive scam. My personal favourite was the quick click trading scam. A user would ask to trade with you multiple times and offer you a super rare item for something less rare but still expensive. Just as you'd go to accept the trade each time, they'd cancel. After repeating it a few times they'd place a cheap item that looks pretty similar to the super rare item in the trade window and hope that you'd accept without thinking. Sulake eventually modified to trade box to add a bunch of extra confirmation in for trades because of it.