Marketplace is for Scammers/copybotters these days

[TakashiKubota]

I bought an object that was listed as full perm; in the description it listed all items that were to come with it which included dae and PSD files. The problem is that once purchased I found that it does not contain either of the files as advertised.  I contacted the seller directly to which he replied that I would get the files after he “creates” them. 

Upon further investigation of the object, the creator is not the same person as the seller which started to raise some alarms a bit.  The origin of the object in question at this time was now in my mind.  I gave the seller 3 days to send the files before I made any kind of posting in the review section.  After the three days was up, I made a negative review; respectful but negative review indicating that what was purchased is not what was advertised.  I then found a few hours later that the seller removed the listing, only to relist again so that the negative review cannot be seen. 

It is practices like this that make me stay away from the Marketplace as much as possible. The marketplace is a paradise for scammers and copybotters these days.  Think I am kidding, look up skin or hair and watch how many so called merchants are selling a well known skin from a company that does not have reselling.  I have lists of this mess that I have been tracking.

We can’t report any of this because we are not the owners of the property rights, and the way the flagging system is made it does nothing but protect the scammers/copybotters. I am very disappointed in the Marketplace as a whole due to things as I said above, because it makes things harder for legitimate merchants like myself and the many other great creators and designers out there.

 I am most likely wasting my time writing here, or will get some response from someone telling me that I am in violation of something or another for posting this, yet these scammers can blatantly sell their ill-gotten merchandise and no one bats an eyelid.   Disgraceful.  

[Monti Messmer]

Hi, you didn´t name anyone and kept your language straight but not harmful so i doubt the post violates any of the TOS.

You wondered about the creator isn´t the same as the merchant. Think about the thousands of people in SL who would never know about. It´s a big market selling stolen goods. 

Relisting however is against the TOS and can be reported but very often these people use throw-away avatars and after a ban they just keep on with a new.

This isn´t only a SL problem it´s an internet problem. Funny part, Lindens earn money from good or bad and they (like any other internet company) won´t give back. Just saying ...

Monti

[TakashiKubota]

I could not agree with you more on that one Monti. 

 

 

[sunshine Juneberry]

 If you suspect the seller could be a scammer, look at sellers profile.

If they're only few weeks old then there might be a chance they created new account to sell stolen items.

I'm not saying all new accounts ARE scammers. I'm just saying buyer needs to be really aware.

Some guy asked me to rig some mesh for him the other day. He swore he made it in blender. This mesh was really well textured and made,but this guy was COMPLETELY clueless about anything in blender. It was obvious he ripped it from the video game.

I looked at his MP store and it was all similar mesh, all full perm, all cheap. Even if i hadn't met the guy before i would have suspected something fishy, but yeah.....he was only few months old and i suspect he made the account just for selling the ripped mesh.

 

[LillyBeth Filth]

I would be fuming!

Some people! Anything but actually learn a skill and EARN their sales.  

I had thought with the recent TAX form and RL ID forms requirement before you can cash out,  would have reduced this kind of crap. But I guess the vast majority of merchants are just selling to make L$ to spend in SL. 

I don't know how often this happens but it must leave insecurities for consumers.

I sent some textures to a customer who had lost the box when she rezzed it and her response was almost disbelief that I had bothered to send them to her. 

This is not a new thing. I have noticed over the last two years customers are displaying signs of doubt and desperation when they contact me for undelivered items or lost items etc its almost as if they expect to be ignored.

Very sad. 

[Medhue Simoni]

That's terrible! I feel for you. That said, everyone gets scammed once in SL. Once you do, you know what to look for, and know to check the merchant out first.

1 point that is important for anyone buying full perm and getting dae files or psd files, is that these are not files that are distributed inside of SL. This means the seller must have a website or some service that delivers these items. They can't deliver it without you supplying an email address to deliver the link to download the product from. Possibly, they could deliver the link to your SL account in an IM to you. Services that deliver these links for people to download from are not free. So, if it's a new merchant, and they don't display a website, you would do well to ask them directly how you are going to receive these files. If they do have a website, you should be able to buy that product directly from the website. This could be a better option because you could cancel the charge on your credit card or Paypal account, if you do not get the product.

I don't sell these types of files for SL products, but I do sell 3D content for other platforms. When someone purchases a product from my site, they recieve an email with a download link. They click the link and goto a page setup to specifically deliver the item to them. The link will only work a set number of times, and for a set number of days. I can also renew links for customers who need to download again because of a problem with their computers. If the seller of these external files doesn't use some kind of similar service, then you should think twice about buying from them.