My friend was hacked while logged in

[IgnatiusCrumwald]

Until now there was no real reason to ever put your gil on your retainer... it's not like it should be possible for anyone to steal it. Hell there's no reason why the retainer would be more secure either... if they can hack your character they can probably hack your retainer.

What I don't get is why RMT would want to do this... stealing gil directly from players actually harms their own business. Why would anyone buy from them if RMT could just steal it back again?

That's a good question. It was a bit too flashy for a class that likes to remain under the radar. A lot of what RMT does makes little sense. If I had to speculate I'd say that this may not have been RMT but just a run of the mill hack job. They may have even found the exploit, warned SE about it, and nothing was done or it wasn't handled fast enough for their tastes so they decided to make a statement.