Alot of people have been begging for money on SL..

[Carl Thibodeaux]

And trying to make money off people.. Using the same story.. etc.

Is this allowed on SL or are you allowed to report them?

[Peggy Paperdoll]

You can report them but I seriously doubt anything will be done about it by LL.  It's not a ToS violation unless they commit fraud in the process.  Just asking for $L, though, is not a violation.  You have options.....ignore (my preferred method) or mute.

[Rhys Goode]

Sure you can report them, but this is one of the things the mute button is really good for.  

[Melita Magic]

I thought begging itself was mentioned in TOS, but I can't find that exact word. I did note that the TOS language often includes something like "not limited to" - which leaves room for interpretation. 

For instance, it is, in my opinion, fraud to use a bot to impersonate an actual user, with a made up story, to squeeze some money out of strangers. Especially running a scam with hundreds or even thousands, of strangers. 

Some of the bots are also using group chats to post false links online to gather passwords and clear out people's accounts.

So, we have potential fraud, misuse of bots, impersonation (which I believe is against TOS), and misuse of the SL service to impede other people's enjoyment of the service. Going to a shop only to be spammed by a bot asking for money is not enjoyable for most.

Here is one quote:

"(iv) Engage in malicious or disruptive conduct that impedes or interferes with other users' normal use of the Service;"

I have some of the other links in my "TOS" topic.

[Feldspar Millgrove]

I have seen beggers you are referring to.  They are BOTS, not humans.

 

You should report them, because maybe LL will block their IP addresses and we'll be rid of them.

 

[Nova Convair]

It's not illegal to ask for money and bot's are not illegal, it's not illegal to send IM's. So what exactly you want to AR? Didn't see that in the OP.

Since strangers who IM me in a shop have very low chances to get an answer I could see clearly that there was a bot. But if you give the expected answers you can "chat" with that bot for quite a while. Remembers me of the Turing test and Eliza. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test )

No real AI in both cases though. The question is: should chatbots that look like avatars be allowed or get a "bot" marker? At the present state I see no need for that but maybe one day you want to know who you're talking to.

 

[Alazarin Mondrian]

They're bots, aka Non-Player Characters. Orbit them. Turn the tables and have some fun with them. Push them around the sim until they bump into and attempt to beg from each other. We got *alot* of mileage out of the Movie Star bots last year. These new beggar bots sound as if they have a lot of potential to be subverted for entertainment purposes.

[Theresa Tennyson]

These particular bots have a human handler who monitors them and occasionally joins in the conversation. It takes a while but you can often get them to join in and they pretty quickly become abusive so you can report them for that. Follow your bliss and report them, Carl!

[Qie Niangao]

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Alazarin Mondrian wrote:

They're bots, aka Non-Player Characters. Orbit them. Turn the tables and have some fun with them. Push them around the sim until they bump into and attempt to beg from each other. We got *alot* of mileage out of the Movie Star bots last year. These new beggar bots sound as if they have a lot of potential to be subverted for entertainment purposes.

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Unfortunately, the new breed of beggarbot is sometimes (always?) in a different sim when it starts chatting you up so they're no fun. Doesn't seem sporting, somehow.

Recently, and presumably unrelated to the beggarbot infestation, I had a pair of persistent, static "visitors" that wouldn't respond to chat nor IM. These weren't moviestarbots; I'm not sure what exactly they were, but their avatars were... well, they were disintegrating. Made them look like zombies, with strange alpha layers that didn't match their attachments (one had no face, for example, but did have eyeballs and tongue, which was rather disturbing). Eventually, not thinking it through carefully, I ejected them from the parcel. Crap. They land next door on the SLRR.

After kicking myself for not using a script to teleport them home while they were still on my land, I switched to kicking them. I found that, being careful, I could kick them to my parcel again, where I could exercise that script. If it happens again, though, I think I'll kick them to a corner, build a Zombie Apocalypse shooting range, and charge admission.

[Pussycat Catnap]

I have one of these static people sitting on the corner outside of one of my lots.

Never thought to consider that it might be a begger bot. I'll have to see if I can do something to clean it out.

 

They bots engaged in fraud, using excessive resources to do so, spamming people, and potentially related to the wave of phishing attacks we've been seeing.

AR the heck out of them, and if they're not violating the TOS yet, we might be able to convince the lindens to change the TOS and knock them out.

 

[Melita Magic]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

If it happens again, though, I think I'll kick them to a corner, build a Zombie Apocalypse shooting range, and charge admission.

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LOL!

[Morgaine Christensen]

Guess i haven't experienced the "beggar bots" since I do not get out much these days.   Any stranger in local, IMs, or, groups that asks for money, for whatever reason/cause, is told no. If they persist, they are muted and life moves on.  If they are on my land and ask, they are muted and banned.

You can A/R them if you wish, but I am not sure that anything will be done about it unless there is a TOS violation, which I don't believe covers begging.  Begging has been going on since SL time began, it is just more sophisticated now.  For years, I never banned nor muted, my SL has become much better the last couple of years  using ban/mute. 

 

[Melita Magic]

Begging is against the rules within many groups in SL, and on many parcels, so it's an option as others have mentioned, to report the beggar to the land owner or to the group owner. It's very likely they are unaware of it and will be displeased with it.

I was surprised to learn it was in TOS. Does anyone know if it used to be? I had the impression begging was mentioned in TOS, at one point.