A court in east China has handed down jail sentences of up to three years to 11 people for their roles in online gaming scams. The scammers pocketed the grand sum of 140,000 dollars which is big money behind the bamboo curtain.

Lu Yizhong and Zeng Yifu wrote malicious Trojan horse viruses and nicked 5.3 million user names and passwords from online gamers. The cash was then used for "illegal gains", the Xinhua news agency said. It did not say what those illegal gains were but it seems that the cash was used as seed finance for other scams. (Like democracy. sub.ed.)

Yan Renhai, his girlfriend Chen Huiting and other accomplices sold or used the viruses to steal online credits. Lu was sentenced to three years in jail and Zeng to two-and-a-half years, while the others received lesser sentences, Xinhua said. The group of 11 were also ordered to pay back most of the profits as a fine.

The state media said that more than 80 people nationwide were involved in the case and other defendants were to be sentenced soon.