Team Rocket strikes!

[LaCroix]

Pokémon Go: armed robbers use mobile game to lure players into trap

Missouri suspects used app’s geolocation feature to target ‘unwitting victims’, says police after another incident saw game lead player to dead body.

Armed robbers used the game Pokémon Go to lure victims to an isolated trap in Missouri, police reported on Sunday.

At about 2am in O’Fallon, Missouri, officers responded to a robbery report that led them to four people, all local residents aged 16 to 18, in a black BMW in a CVS parking lot. The occupants tried to discard a handgun out of the car when an officer approached, said Sgt Bill Stringer. The officer then identified the four people as suspects of similar armed robberies described in St Louis and St Charles counties.

The adult suspects were charged with first degree robbery, a felony, and had bond set at $100,000 cash, Stringer said.

Stringer added that police believe the suspects used the phone app, which directs users to capture imaginary creatures superimposed onto the real world, to tempt players into secluded areas where they could be easily robbed. At a certain level in the game, he noted, players can congregate at local landmarks to join teams and battle.
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“Using the geolocation feature,” Stringer said, “the robbers were able to anticipate the location and level of seclusion of unwitting victims.”

In a separate statement, a department spokesperson added: “you can add a beacon to a pokestop to lure more players. Apparently they were using the app to locate [people] standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in.”

A statement from police quoted from a news article to explain the allure of the game: “Seeing a Pikachu on the sidewalk in front of you is a fan’s digital dream come true.”

The department added a warning, however. “If you use this app (or other similar type apps) or have children that do we ask you to please use caution when alerting strangers of your future location.”

Pokémon Go warns players to keep aware of their surroundings during their virtual treasure hunt, but after only a few days since its release it has already led people into a string of bizarre incidents. People have ended up in hospitals after chasing nonexistent animals into hazardous spots, and schools, a state agency and Australian police have warned people not to break the law or endanger themselves while “Pokemoning”. The game has also led wanderers to at least one home misidentified as a church, a venue the app considers a public space.

In Wyoming on Friday, the game led a teenager to a dead body in a river. “I just got up and went for my little walk, a walk to catch Pokémon,” 19-year-old Shayla Wiggens told local KCWY news. The pursuit led her to a highway bridge over the river, where she jumped a fence to approach the water. She spotted two deer near the water’s edge, and then a black shirt and pants – a corpse lying prone in the water, 6ft to her left.

The Fremont County sheriff’s office said in a statement that it was investigating the death, but that they do not suspect homicide. “The death appears to be accidental in nature,” said undersheriff Ryan Lee. Though the water is only 3ft deep where the body was found, investigators said the man possibly drowned.

Wiggins said the discovery of a corpse would not deter her from returning to the game. “I might go get a water Pokémon,” she told CNN. “I’m going to try.”

A lot of people called it, and within a few days, it actually happened...

[K. A. Pital]

It is the same as Ingress or many geocaching games, actually. One needs to take care.

BTW, it is easy to get that Pikachu at the start of the game if you ignore the good old professor and keep walking away.

[Borgholio]

Despite this, I personally hold out hope for more games like this. My wife has been bugging me to get out and take more walks with her, since I spend a lot of time sitting down during the day. I'm actually doing it now because of the game, so both her and I are walking our beagle around the block and grabbing pokemon at the same time. Since we actually take care to be aware of our surroundings, the game is having a net positive benefit on our health.

[mr friendly guy]

Despite this, I personally hold out hope for more games like this. My wife has been bugging me to get out and take more walks with her, since I spend a lot of time sitting down during the day. I'm actually doing it now because of the game, so both her and I are walking our beagle around the block and grabbing pokemon at the same time. Since we actually take care to be aware of our surroundings, the game is having a net positive benefit on our health.

That's what my sister says as well.

Although I have no interest to "catch them all."

[K. A. Pital]

You can ignore the collecting aspect and just evolve your Pokemon and put him in various spots to defend. Or attack other people's pokemon with it.

[Borgholio]

Yeah but my collection is sub-par at the moment. Plus I need to get candy to evolve by capturing more of the same species.

[K. A. Pital]

Yeah, or by letting go the weak ones. For that you also get candy.

[bilateralrope]

How about luring people to a gang HQ ?

Pokemon Go leads players to Hells Angels

Whanganui's Hells Angels headquarters may be getting a little extra traffic this week as Pokemon Go players show up for their free pokeballs.

The popular app has players move around in real life to move an avatar on their phone screen, and has them travelling to different areas to catch Pokemon.

Some landmarks and monuments are designated as "pokestops", where players can pick up items such as pokeballs, eggs, and potions.

Players have discovered that the Whanganui Hells Angels pad on Kaikokopu Rd, Aramoho has been set down as a pokestop, a fact that has gained attention on Facebook.

A post about it on Facebook page Only In New Zealand has so far received more than 5000 likes, and more than 1000 comments.

One person said it was "Team Rocket's NZ chapter".

A man who answered the gate at the Hells Angels club did not know what Pokemon Go was, and said to "Go talk to the police."

[Zixinus]

I think the app just takes a list of notable places on a map, along with coordinates, and just plunks whatever on it. That's how it got a pokémon gym in the middle of a lake because it actually had a monument (Carter fountain IIRC) there. The app creators may be ignorant of that.

Even aside that, there is the danger that the app will make people go to areas that are not safe as they thought it would be.

The dead body thing is not really interesting (unless it was caused by the app) because joggers and stuff find dead bodies too. That she was playing the app was a coincidence.

[Elheru Aran]

The app's locator is obviously largely automated because Ninty simply doesn't have the time to go through maps of every. damn. town. and pick out the ideal places to locate Pokemon. Hell, if you went somewhere desolate in Africa or Australia, you'd probably still be able to find Pokemon if you somehow could get a signal.

[K. A. Pital]

Game was developed by Niantic, who also made Ingress, and the portal locations from the previous game have become Pokestops and Gyms.

They were assembled via crowdsourcing, at least a part of them.

So it is not as simple as it sounds.

[ThatOneCatC]

It has been great to see my son and wife going out hunting together. The closest gym we found was oddly in the middle of the (for real) abandoned mental hospital across the street from us. I thought it was odd to place one in closed off private property. Did not stop us from finding it though.

[Lonestar]

How about luring people to a gang HQ ?

My 60+ Dad started playing Go, and discovered that the "Old" Church in his Parish(which is adjacent to the current one) was a pokestop. He had to explain to other knights of Columbus why people were randomly walking up to the church and leaving.

Anyway, since my Dad works in the IC and is a statistics nerd he's been looking at pokestops and trying to crunch numbers on how many pictures of the landmark have to be on the Internet until it's picked as Pokestop.

[mr friendly guy]

A lot of people are asking if I caught any Pokemon and I don't even play the game. I was just looking at the GPS on my phone.

[Napoleon the Clown]

A lot of people are asking if I caught any Pokemon and I don't even play the game. I was just looking at the GPS on my phone.

Next time, just say "152, turns out even Missingno is in it."

Assuming you can say complete bullshit with a straight face, anyway.