Unscrupulous hackers are managing to lock Animal Crossing: Wild World gamers out of their own virtual villages.
The Nintendo DS game, which was released in the US last year, allows gamers to invite three friends to hang out in their village through the magic of the handheld's WiFi capability, but this can only happen if the DS users are all registered on one another's friends list.
But unsuspecting Animal Crossing fans who have revealed their details on websites have fallen prey to hackers who have managed to remove the gates of any villages they visit. This has left gamers trapped offline if they have saved after the hack has taken place.
Fortunately, any changes the hackers implement can be rectified with use of an Action Replay cartridge, but this hacking demonstrates how cautious DS users should be with their friends list.