Activision’s highly anticipated Modern Warfare 2 can already be found on a multitude of internet torrent sites (so I’ve been told), but the quick work of Dallas based IPCybercrime (hired by Activision) helped move one cyber-thief out of his spacious gadget filled hacker pad into something a little more “cozy”.

According to Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat, a Craigslist post offering a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundle perked the interest of Activision and prompted them to hire Dallas based IPCybercrime, a private investigation firm specializing in internet crime.

A little Facebook investigating revealed that two men stole a pallet of Modern Warfare bundled 360 units from a video game retailer. After apprehending the store thieves, the focus of the investigation shifted to locating a modder known online as “cdelamo815″ who planned to duplicate the Modern Warfare 2 game.

Again, the search started with Facebook, which ultimately pointed investigators to a console modding site. A little wheeling and dealing landed them 18-year-old Christian Del Amo’s cell phone number. They used that to pin point his residence and turn him over to authorities.

IPCybercrime owner, Rob Holmes, commented on the case:

“It all happened very fast … If these guys get their stuff out, then they can do some major damage to sales and spoil it for everybody. We plug leaks every day, but this was one of the biggest ones of the year.”

In the end this won’t do much to stop the leak of Modern Warfare 2 on torrent sites, as it’s already spreading across the web, but it does serve as an example of just how far an entity will to go to protect their intellectual property. Hell hath no furry like a publisher scorned.

Tags: Activision, Facebook, investigation, modern warfare 2, piracy, torrent sites

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