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The offences are believed to be for using phishing e-mails to trick people into handing over login details for rs gold accounts.

Once hi-tech thieves have these credentials they plunder the accounts, strip characters of their items and sell off the rare virtual goods for rs gold. This virtual money can be traded to others in-game or sold for real world cash.

Current underground exchange rates suggest that 2mrs gold costs about £6 ($10).

"We have pinned down and identified the handful of ring leaders and we are going after them with both barrels," Mark Gerhard, chief executive of Jagex told BBC News.

"Any online games company will tell you that as soon as the game has value, there's a very small foreign element that tries to exploit that value," he said.