Gifts from a stranger, unknown creator, should I trust?

[Fusionbolt2000]

Well, I was working on my avatar when a non english person popped up and spoke to me, we spoke and she gave me gifts, asking if I should become a vampire, some of them are unknown creator, there are AO, shape, and eventuall skin and hair, but should I trust to wear them?

[Phil Deakins]

Delete them. Don't wear them.

[sirhc DeSantis]

Short answer - No =^^=

Would you in RL?

[Fusionbolt2000]

Ok, deleted them now, but was there any danger in accepting them? Like, just the fact that I had them in my inventory?

[Phil Deakins]

No danger in accepting them and no danger having them in your inventory.

They may have had some odd effects on you if you'd worn them, but others can tell you if any problems could have arisen.

They might have been stolen or they might have been harmless freebies. Whatever the case is, it is always best to reject gifts from strangers.

[Jonathan Sivocci]

I never accept anything from anybody except Notecards. Beware, 

[Rhys Goode]

I don't know of any way a shape or skin can really damage your avatar.  I did get a prank shape once called "britney spears" that turned my shape into a deformed gnome, but shapes can be changed easily.  I can imagine a skin that callis itself something else, but  turns you blue and tattooed, but again, these are easliy changed.

You have to be a little more circumspect about attachements, the hair and the AO.  

There *are* attachements out there that can take all your $L's, and people have been robbed this way.  *BUT*, before an attachement can take your money, it must pop up a window asking your specific permission to take money.  I would never, ever answer yes to such a popup, unless I was very familiar with the source.  

There might be other problems with AO/hair.  They can possibly contain code that lets a stranger track your location in SL.  And I've seen things labled something like "pretty hat", that turn into big green monsters doing things you would not want to see in a G sim.  But these are pranks, all you have to do is take off the attachment and they go away.

The fact that there is no listing for the creator is *not* a giveaway that something is evil, by the way, lots of legitimate ways that can happen.

So, yes, I will take candy from strangers, but I always nibble it carefully.  Most of it turns out to be second rate freebies, occasionaly an amusing prank, a few are malicious, but of no danger if you pay attention when you try it out. 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Even though such things as skin can't cause a problem for your avatar, without the creators name you can't check out if it is a legit freebie or stolen.  If you are going to take candy from strangers than you need to check that out before using it.

Generally if it turns out to be stolen and you were not aware of this, then it may simply disappear from your inventory one day without further consequences,if a DMCA is filed.  However it is not unknown for people's accounts to be put on hold while that is investigated.  Why risk it?

The only freebies I would ever accept are ones that are given to me directly from the creator, from a trusted friend, or from a legitimate source such as the Free Dove.

 

[Jenni Darkwatch]

Generally don't accept anything offered without solicitation. Or accept and trash it. If it's from friends, ask what it is. No object can permanently harm your avi, but objects can do some fairly nasty things. The more common mischief is to just spawn replications of itself or to flat out offer itself to others in the vicinity.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Jenni Darkwatch wrote:

The more common mischief is to just spawn replications of itself or to flat out offer itself to others in the vicinity.

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I learned this one the hard way.  When I was new to SL and did not yet have a home I found an empty house on one of the old Mainland sims.  Knowing nothing about SL, I thought if it was empty it was ok to enter.  It also had a tower attached to it, iirc, with a Japanese seating area (which should have tipped me off that "someone" lived there :matte-motes-bashful:).  I had a bunch of freebies I had collected (none had been given to me - all were from various freebie locations) so decided this was a good place to check them out.

Needless to say I was horrified when I rezzed an object called "Pandora's Box" - the name should have tipped me off, but again - brand new, didn't know about griefing, etc. - and big triangles came out of it and began replicating.  They covered the house and were replicating upwards toward the sky like Jacob's ladder.  I tried to delete them - that didn't work; I took the box back into inventory but the particles didn't go away.  I was beside myself and had no idea what to do and was sure I was going to be kicked out of SL. 

I contacted the person who had invited me to SL and was told how to turn on transparency (CTRL+ALT+T) and look for an invisible prim connected to the visible particles.  By this time half the neighborhood was covered in these particles from hell.  Thankfully I did find the invisible culprit prim thanks to my friend and was able to delete it and thus the prims.

Learned two things that day:

1.  Don't rez anythng that sounds suspicious

2.  Don't rez anything on land I don't own or rent

ETA: On #2 - I'm not talking about sandboxes - I meant not rezzing things on private property.  Now that I think about it, I wonder if the owner of the parcel had "return items" on or if the particles would have eventually covered the continent.

 

[Melita Magic]

Yes, you should wear it. If:

You wish to spam landmarks and note cards and gifts to everyone around you, without knowing it

or If:

You wish your avatar to look like an eight meters tall spider

or If: 

You wish to dance uncontrollably while mooing

or If:

You wish to be orbited while spamming pictures of men's private parts in your wake

or If:

You wish to wear stolen property

Any or all of the above sound fun to you? Then wear it...

[Czari Zenovka]

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Melita Magic wrote:

Yes, you should wear it. If:

You wish to dance uncontrollably while mooing

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Dangit, Melita!  You owe me a Pepsi.  :smileyvery-happy:

*Wipes off the monitor*

[Melita Magic]

:D

 

[Morgaine Christensen]

After so many scammers/griefers over the years, I  have made it a personal rule never to accept and/or rezz anything from anyone that I do not know or expect to receive.

[Suki Hirano]

There is no way to steal anything from you other than:

- Consenting to allowing control of your $L account (affiliate vendors and split profit scripts usually)

- Accidentally clicking "join" in group invite phishing scams (spam everyone with an invite to a group that costs X amount of $L to join then hope some sucker will click "join")

Accepting an object but not wearing it is perfectly harmless. You can then rez it on the ground to see what it is. You never know if it's just some person being nice.

[Reikokimyo]

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Suki Hirano wrote:

There is no way to steal anything from you other than:

- Consenting to allowing control of your $L account (affiliate vendors and split profit scripts usually)

- Accidentally clicking "join" in group invite phishing scams (spam everyone with an invite to a group that costs X amount of $L to join then hope some sucker will click "join")

Accepting an object but not wearing it is perfectly harmless. You can then rez it on the ground to see what it is. You never know if it's just some person being nice.

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If you do rez on ground to check it out, best to do in no script area.