I lost a friend to her mistakes... again... and I need answers, please...

[madman626 Fall]

And just like I said I wont believe what any else believe just because you believe other wise don't make me wrong either .

[Phoenix Haight]

Just looking back, I wonder if I need to clarify:

Her first instaban without warning was due to her credit card dispute on her primary (premium and verified) account. As noted, fairly stupid of her and fairly justifiable for LL to react as such. So no, I don't 'need to ask her' what caused it. I know. Problem is, that was thought resolved by her dropping the dispute.

The full ban of her accounts that happened on August 5th was a tough one to figure out, she was so hysterical. Yes, hysterical. I had to walk her through everything... and also find out that she had panic-spammed the support ticket system and yelled at more than a few people in LL support. (I tend to suspect that her issue with being ignored by online support rather than disconnected... well, kind of rude, just dc her if you don't want to deal with her but I think she may have freaked out at them, as well.) So she got 'suspicious transfer of Lindens' in at least one response, though no one wanted to explain that clearer than that.

(I'd like to know how anyone knows it's counterfeit laundering. I've never seen anyone with a Linden account define that term as such, or even comment on it. 'Disputed Lindens' got me to a court case where LL got raked over the coals on parts of the TOS that were thereafter changed, but no joy on the crime definition anywhere, even on this forum and ... were they Xstreet yet? I doubt it. Those forums didn't have any info either.)

So, did she take large amounts of lindens from an account and transfer them to a NPIOF account? Yes, her own, actual money. Did she take payments from other accounts? Yes, she did. Though clearly not every account she took payments from got tarred with that brush, I paid her money for a gift that Valentine's Day, I think... So it seems to me that she ended up getting dirty money along the way or just looked like she was getting it, and acted suspiciously afterwards thus getting her no joy from support.

But they never explained it out or gave her a chance on the original problem. She wasn't the best customer but she was a customer. That's the problem... she can't get past that and move on and I have trouble blaming her for it.

So the big giant mess is this -- what was the original ban? They didn't ban her for the suspicious Lindens, they blocked her pending investigation. That investigation is either unconcluded or turned up a completely different outcome than they were investigating on (if that October message was the conclusion of the investigation rather than being unrelated to such; again, it's not clear. They cited paragraphs after saying the TOS was violated, and I don't recall seeing financial anything in those paragraphs). They did make the outright ban for attempting to skirt the block, and that message said nothing about appealing...

Oh, hell. I'll talk her through a letter to write. And then try to introduce her to the joys of Star Trek Online while it's going through the mail. It can't hurt at all, can it?

[Dillon Levenque]

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madman626 Fall wrote:

And just like I said I wont believe what any else believe just because you believe other wise don't make me wrong either .

---

I did not say you were wrong about your belief that premium accounts are above the law. I think you are as wrong as you can possibly be but I have no data or experience to dispute your claim; thus I will leave it alone. I said you were wrong in saying Lindal's post 'proved your point'.

[MoiselleErin Teardrop]

OK hang on time out.

So in her time in the grid she spent L$50,000 or was that what she had on her account before ban (thus losing it)?

But that is not what i came to ask about...

The disturbing part was when you said she is severely addicted to SL and cannot sleep cause she keeps dreaming of SL. Your friend doesn't need SL, she needs a REAL F'ing LIFE.

I understand, maybe she is house bound or bed ridden possibly but G.D. it, there are other things out there, even in cyberspace! I don't KNOW that she is handicapped, just a hypothetical statement but if she is healthy and able to leave the house at will - She needs to find something other than wasting time and energy trying to get back into something that amounts to nothing more than a 3D chat room.

Second Life is a pastime. It is something to kill time when nothing else is haoppening in real life. SL is not a priority, UNLESS someone depends on it for their real life income that is keeping a roof over their head (very few make this much in SL)

 

Someone suggested talking to an attorney about this? Give me a break.

[Phoenix Haight]

Okay, the L$50k was an estimate, but she was kind of a ridiculous perfectionist about SL. So many clothes, shapes, skins, looks, furniture...

As for the severe addiction... from what I could tell, based on when I friended her 'return' avatar to when she got booted, her usage was far down from as Mich and Val. This probably has everything to do with my telling her 'you need professional help' and her actually getting it for six months or so.

But let's be honest -- SL is about the best escape around. I'd bet a lot of people you know are at least a little obsessive about it, and ... I've had friendships from SL that, even with no RL interaction, I'd rate as top-five strongest friendships I've ever had. I can't blame the fact of her wanting to be here, just the level...

[j3nlov3]

wow! Liden lab is not easy to deal with, this also teach everyone a lesson, she can open a blog about her experience and her addiction, can help others on the same positions, and also realize that they can expense a lot of money they can lost in few seconds and the worst part stop enjoying bcuz getting ban, i realize that the worst of this game is that everything is getting more focuse on business and that where things are getting lost, this is only a game for me and a lot of people, the ones that say is business for them are lossing the focuse they need gamers so they end creating a enviroment of players than  run out of the game due all the rules and things u dont want when u play, that at the end u realize is more complicated than real life and less fun.