Chinese police have busted a 44-member ring who allegedly earned tens of thousands of U.S. dollars by selling stolen internet virtual properties, the biggest case of its kind in the country.

The gang, led by suspects Jin and Yi based in Anshan and Changchun, two cities of Northeast China's Liaoning and Jilin provinces, are suspected of stealing millions of QQ IDs and on-line game accounts and properties using a virus called Cockhorse since May 2005, according to police with south China's booming city of Shenzhen.

They sold the stolen properties on the internet and made a profit of more than 700,000 yuan (89,000 U.S. dollars), said a spokesman from Shenzhen Public Security Bureau.

Tencent Company, a leading internet community operator based in Shenzhen, reported to police in May this year that they had received complaints from millions of clients claiming their QQ accounts and properties had been stolen, the spokesman said.

The bureau dispatched a special team to investigate the case and soon tracked down the gang with the assistance of local police, according to the spokesman.

Ten members of the gang have been detained and another is out on bail, said the spokesman.

There have been several virtual property-related cases in China.

In July 2005, six schoolchildren who stole virtual properties from online war game rivals were found guilty by a local court in central China's Henan Province, but escaped criminal punishment because they were under-age.

In December 2003, the Chinese mainland's first virtual-property case came before judges in Chaoyang District in Beijing. The court recognized the plaintiff's virtual holdings as a sort of intangible property, ordered the defendant return it and pay the plaintiff 1,560 yuan (200 U.S. dollars) in compensation.

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