Royally Ripped Off On the SL Marketplace...

[mirbaz]

Sorry you got conned, incredibaly there are avatars costinting 10,000 and over, I though 5000 was the highest it went. I tend to trust MP even though I dont spend the amount you did there, but will be careful now, thanks for letting us know, and ignore the smartie comments, there were some that came across as such.

[Aethelwine]

Are these the same avatars? I didn't see the originals and I can't see the deviant art image to know. Just curious.

Also with fitted mesh wouldn't avatars of this quality be possible in world now, even if these particular ones are game rips or just pictures?

To be honest I don't know how people on the forum can be so sure of themselves. Not everyone plays all these games the rips come from to recognise them.

[Syo Emerald]

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Aethelwine wrote:

Are

these the same avatars?

I didn't see the originals and I can't see the deviant art image to know. Just curious.

 

Also with fitted mesh wouldn't avatars of this quality be possible in world now, even if these particular ones are game rips or just pictures?

 

To be honest I don't know how people on the forum can be so sure of themselves. Not everyone plays all these games the rips come from to recognise them.

---

This one is not the same as the one the OP got ripped off (hers was the picture of a red haired elf), but yours looks like its the same kind of scam. Look at how flawless the picture is, the non-typical angle, the high price...but the most suspicious facts are, that its the only product in this store and that there is no demo available.

This one is again just a picture and even with mesh, this kind of quality is out of reach currently. Also, even if possible, a person with such skills wouldn't just appear out of nowhere with one product and nothing else.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

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Syo Emerald wrote:

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Aethelwine wrote:

Are

these the same avatars?

I didn't see the originals and I can't see the deviant art image to know. Just curious.

 

Also with fitted mesh wouldn't avatars of this quality be possible in world now, even if these particular ones are game rips or just pictures?

 

To be honest I don't know how people on the forum can be so sure of themselves. Not everyone plays all these games the rips come from to recognise them.

---

This one is not the same as the one the OP got ripped off (hers was the picture of a red haired elf), but yours looks like its the same kind of scam. Look at how flawless the picture is, the non-typical angle, the high price...but the most suspicious facts are, that its the only product in this store and that there is no demo available.

This one is again just a picture and even with mesh, this kind of quality is out of reach currently. Also, even if possible, a person with such skills wouldn't just appear out of nowhere with one product and nothing else.

---

That is the same merchant though.

ETA.. one of them has a review.. the purchaser is a week old with a blank profile. If i bought an av like that i would have a few pics of myself on my profile at least.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Aethelwine wrote:

Are

these the same avatars?

[scam link cut] I didn't see the originals and I can't see the deviant art image to know. Just curious.

To be honest I don't know how people on the forum can be so sure of themselves. Not everyone plays all these games the rips come from to recognise them.

---

I don't play any of those other games but I do play this one. And you can't make that in SL. Anyone who's ever logged in knows that.

Fitted mesh just means mesh can look even worse now by conforming itself to the avatar shape - which begins and ends at crudely horrid.

There's also an old rule: If they sell you the Brooklyn bridge... make sure to get a demo.

- Why do you think people reflexively get test drives of cars, and try outfits on in the fitting room, when shopping in real life. As noted above, why leave your 'sense' at the door when coming here?

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Aethelwine wrote:

Are

these the same avatars?

I didn't see the originals and I can't see the deviant art image to know. Just curious.

 

Also with fitted mesh wouldn't avatars of this quality be possible in world now, even if these particular ones are game rips or just pictures?

 

To be honest I don't know how people on the forum can be so sure of themselves. Not everyone plays all these games the rips come from to recognise them.

---

I believe I found the original source(s) for the current images using GIS.

VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK:   Link and Link.

[Aethelwine]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

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Aethelwine wrote:

Are

these the same avatars?

[scam link cut] I didn't see the originals and I can't see the deviant art image to know. Just curious.

To be honest I don't know how people on the forum can be so sure of themselves. Not everyone plays all these games the rips come from to recognise them.

---

I don't play any of those other games but I do play this one. And you can't make that in SL. Anyone who's ever logged in knows that.

Fitted mesh just means mesh can look even worse now by conforming itself to the avatar shape - which begins and ends at crudely horrid.

There's also an old rule: If they sell you the Brooklyn bridge... make sure to get a demo.

- Why do you think people reflexively get test drives of cars, and try outfits on in the fitting room, when shopping in real life. As noted above, why leave your 'sense' at the door when coming here?

 

---

The original poster did not know that, and so "everyone" seems a little strong.

Mesh avatars have been around for some time now with the avatar 2.0 and others and some of them are very nice and improving all the time. The latest ones I have seen are characterised by ugly faces and huge boobs (welcome2future) but they exist and there is no real need i can see for them too be grotesques. There are stunning mesh faces available, and I don't know the make but a friend has been using a very nice female mesh avatar for 6 months at least.

Also the quality of blog posted pictures of peoples avatars far exceeds what most people see in world too, because they are taken on high graphics settings with fancy graphics cards and yet they are in world and people can see them even if a lot can't. And we have materials now too.

So I don't see why the quality of avatars shown in the pictures is an impossibility, even if they aren't around now. It is also far from obvious to me that they couldn't just be nicely textured skins, in a nicely textured build, well lighted with windlight settings photographed on ultra on a high end graphics card. I don't have a high end graphics card so I would never see that quality in world. But from the quality of some blog posted pictures it doesn't seem too incredulous. Infact looking again, I would say I have seen more realistic looking blog posted pictures from within secondlife than those avatars, they look kinda rubbery skin textures to me.

When shopping on the internet in real life, at least in my country there is an expectation that they can return the item for a refund. I just checked and ASDA (Wallmart in the Uk offers a 100 day money back guarantee) I believe it is covered by the consumer protection act. People do learn secondlife is not like real world shopping, but some find out harder than others and it does raise the issue of whether that is avoidable or not.

I wouldn't splash out 13kl$ on an avatar I couldn't see in world first, but I have spent that kind of money on very nice buildings and things off marketplace I have never actually found a use for, or have subsequently found a problem with. It may seem a lof for an impulse buy, but people spend that kind of money all the time.

This isn't personal, you were late on to the thread and the last to respond.

I made my post because I just find the holier than thou response from a lot of posters on issues like this pointless and damaging to the forum just as the incessant spambots are. People come here having been griefed, ripped off, account hijacked and they don't get much if any sympathy, they tend to just get their faces rubbed in it, by self righteous "it wouldn't have happened to me" type posts. Anyone reading the forum will take away from that basically not to come here and use it for support and it misses an important issue of lack of consumer protection on the marketplace, and in world. Whether that would be a good thing or bad thing would be a much more interesting discussion. As would some information on the frequency of these sorts of scams, the sort of ways you can protect yourself from them and what recourse you have.

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Aethelwine wrote:

I made my post because I just find the holier than thou response from a lot of posters on issues like this pointless and damaging to the forum just as the incessant spambots are. People come here having been griefed, ripped off, account hijacked and they don't get much if any sympathy, they tend to just get their faces rubbed in it, by self righteous "it wouldn't have happened to me" type posts. Anyone reading the forum will take away from that basically not to come here and use it for support and it misses an important issue of lack of consumer protection on the marketplace, and in world. Whether that would be a good thing or bad thing would be a much more interesting discussion. As would some information on the frequency of these sorts of scams, the sort of ways you can protect yourself from them and what recourse you have.

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You suggest that people should provide information as to how to protect themselves from scams and yet refer to those who do try to provide such information as holier-than-thou or somehow lacking sympathy, even though you've no way of knowing how sympathetic or not they actually are.  Perhaps those that come here set on reading evil intent into every post are the ones who are actually doing the most damage.

...Dres

[Pamela Galli]

Agree.

People can and do provide the information necessary to protect oneself from fraud, as a public service, without necessarily expressing or feeling particularly sorry for the victim.

 

The most money I lost in SL was $700 when land prices plummeted overnight, before I could sell my old land but after I had already bought new. I should have known better, but the price of a 4096 at the time was around $25,000L. It was some kind of cartel price. Insane.  

 

I also have had most of my store copied.

Plenty of others have gotten burned one way or another.

So if I sometimes don't seem very heartbroken that someone is out a hundred or so dollars, or more likely $1000L, and wants to sue, it's because I have a different perspective.  It is almost a rite of passage, getting burned in SL. And good to keep things in perspective. Often the outrage is way out of proportion to the injury.