Patent ID: 8332913

Claim:
A method, comprising: performing fraud mitigation in a virtual universe using at least one computing device, wherein the performing of the fraud mitigation includes: correlating a first avatar in the virtual universe with a single, real-world user, wherein the single, real-world user directly controls actions of the first avatar in the virtual universe; correlating at least one of a plurality of avatars in the virtual universe with the single, real-world user, wherein the single, real-world user directly controls actions of the at least one of the plurality of avatars in the virtual universe; determining, using the at least one computing device, whether the single, real-world user is separately and directly controlling actions of the first avatar and the at least one of the plurality of avatars in the virtual universe, each of the at least one of the plurality of avatars distinct from the first avatar, wherein the at least one of the plurality of avatars and the first avatar are concurrently acting in the virtual universe; and performing a fraud mitigation action in response to determining that the single, real-world user is separately and directly controlling the actions of the first avatar and the at least one of the plurality of avatars in the virtual universe, wherein the performing of the fraud mitigation action includes at least one of: penalizing at least one of the first avatar, the at least one of the plurality of distinct avatars, or the single, real-world user, or notifying at least one other user of the virtual universe that the actions of the first avatar and the at least one of the plurality of avatars are being controlled by the single, real-world user, wherein the correlating of the first avatar and the at least one of the plurality of avatars in the virtual universe with the single, real-world user, further comprises: interrogating a client computer of the single, real-world user for data associated with the single, real-world user, and wherein the data associated with the single, real-world user comprises: at least one of a media access control address; an IP address; and a client computer serial number and at least one of: a virtual universe client registration data; a login ID; and profile or identification data.