Suspicious gift boxes

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

   On two occasions now, while shopping around fashion event locations, I've been given "gift" objects by VERY new accounts. The names of the accounts follow the convention of namenamegiftXXX.resident. I was immediately suspicious and, wanting to test one of these objects, I first gave it to a skint alt. Then I logged in the alt and took her to a sandbox that had scripts disabled.

   I rezzed the object on the ground. I had to highlight transparent objects because it was transparent. It sat there, on the ground, doing nothing. It contained a script which could not run in that sandbox.

   I picked up the object and went to a different sandbox, one that ran scripts normally. I still had highlight transparent enabled. As soon as I rezzed the object on the ground, it immediately asked for debit permissions, which I denied. These objects WILL take your money, and they are transparent to make deletion difficult.

 

   Please please please don't give debit permissions to any object if you didn't expect it, don't know what it is, or don't know who it's from. Don't become a victim.

[JUSTUS Palianta]

I would not of even accepted thus said object, only accept objects you are expecting.

[Clara Hollyberry]

That's a good warning.  I mean the warning itself is nicely done; it satisfies the curiosity of what's really in those things as well as serves the cautionary reminder that scams are out there.

[Resi Pfeffer]

1 hour ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said:

I've been given "gift" objects by VERY new accounts.

The present i got claimed to be a new and free catwa head.

[Zeta Vandyke]

Lot of these going around yeah. Catwa is a big one, but lot of well known brand got these scam imposters.

My strategy has always been to reject and block any package I am offered that I did not expect at that very moment. A (very) few times this made me block a legit supplier of an update, but mostly it are scammers.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Accept only with your own very new account with a balance of 0 L$, wear triple-layer polypropylene gloves and safety goggles and rez the 'gift' in a sandbox with no one else present, if you are really curious.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Cindy Evanier]

2 hours ago, Resi Pfeffer said:

The present i got claimed to be a new and free catwa head.

And someone recently,i heard via a friend, was so excited by a new head they clicked and lost 28K in L$  

[Resi Pfeffer]

48 minutes ago, Cindy Evanier said:

And someone recently,i heard via a friend, was so excited by a new head they clicked and lost 28K in L$  

Ouch. That hurts.
No way to get it back using an abuse report?

[Cindy Evanier]

11 minutes ago, Resi Pfeffer said:

Ouch. That hurts.
No way to get it back using an abuse report?

Not sure how they are handling it.  It was second hand information via a friend

[Maitimo]

4 hours ago, Resi Pfeffer said:

The present i got claimed to be a new and free catwa head.

Catwa Clip is aware of these scams, she posted warnings in the Catwa main group last week.

[Whirly Fizzle]

Make sure you file an abuse report against any avatar handing you one of those debit perms scam "gifts".

1 hour ago, Cindy Evanier said:

And someone recently,i heard via a friend, was so excited by a new head they clicked and lost 28K in L$  

They need to file a support ticket asap & explain what happened.  If it's possible for LL to recover the L$ following the L$ trail from the scam account, your friend will get their L$ back.

[Lindal Kidd]

6 hours ago, JUSTUS Palianta said:

I would not of even accepted thus said object, only accept objects you are expecting.

While this approach will ensure your safety, in my view it's overly paranoid.  You'll miss out on a lot of nice gifts and possibly meeting new friends.

I, and others I know, often pass out free gifts to newcomers.  In my case, it's usually a notecard full of landmarks and advice for newcomers.  I'll often drop it on complete strangers without even saying hello first.  I've had a few people refuse it.  A somewhat larger number will come back in IM with either "Thank you" or "What's this?"  The vast majority never say anything, either positive or negative.

In case you are wondering...

• Notecards are always safe, although their contents might not be.
• Landmarks are always safe, although what you find there might be offensive or even harmful.
• Sound files are always safe, although they might be offensive
• Animations are always safe, although they might be offensive
• Layer-type clothing is safe, although it may look bad
• Textures are PROBABLY safe, although it's possible for an image to contain a virus or malware in its metadata.  I've never heard of this happening in SL though.
• Gestures may not be safe.  A gesture can be rigged so as to deform your avatar.  The deformation can be removed by re-logging, but you'll get deformed again every time the gesture is triggered...and the trigger word may be something you use all the time.
• URLs may not be safe.  They may lead you to a phishing web site.  Always use caution with strange URLs
• Objects may not be safe.  They can contain all sorts of nasty tricks, like the debit permission script mentioned by several others in this thread.  However, a lot of helpful and generous people will offer you free stuff from their collections.  Be cautious like Ivanova, but don't let paranoia rule your SLife.

[Zeta Vandyke]

11 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

While this approach will ensure your safety, in my view it's overly paranoid.  You'll miss out on a lot of nice gifts and possibly meeting new friends.

Well to be honest, I prefer to be safe over being sorry. If someone wants to be friendly and send me a gift, they can also do this with a message up front so they do not need me to complicate my safety rules. It only takes a tiny slip of attention to accidently accept the wrong type of content. Just never accepting anything unknown or unexpected is a very clear rule set, exceptions only makes it less secure.

To many people are being scammed and lose real money (in and out of SL) by not being "paranoid".

[LittleMe Jewell]

I tend to take the approach that Iva did, handing items off to an alt with nothing but what we are born into this world with.  

If the items does indeed request debit permissions, then I AR the item and previous owner, on the off chance that the previous owner hasn't managed to get banned yet and is still handing out that wonderful "gift".

 

[Skell Dagger]

Unfortunately these scams pop up in waves, usually when the school holidays hit, or it's a public holiday somewhere in the world. (I think last Easter was the record; 10 different accounts over the long weekend.) Over the last weekend in the Catwa group we were inundated by reports; at least five or six separate accounts were "giving away" anything from "free Catwa Bento head updates" to "Catwa anniversary Bento head gifts". The scammers usually visit busy events (such as Uber), auto-spam everyone present, and then leave immediately.

I'm going to put here what we Catwa CSRs paste into the support group's chat during these episodes (we have auto-replace quick keys for these, as time is of the essence when the scammers are active), as some of you may not be aware of the following:

For your security Catwa doesn't send any updates out automatically. You have to manually update at one of the store's redelivery terminals. (You can bookmark the webpage to save you from having to visit the store each time.) Any gifts must be collected in person from the store. If in any doubt, always check the profile of the person who gave you the item. Chances are it's a one day-old throwaway account. CATWA CLIP is the owner of Catwa store.

[kiramanell]

11 hours ago, Cindy Evanier said:

And someone recently,i heard via a friend, was so excited by a new head they clicked and lost 28K in L$  

 

Don't you need to give debit permissions to such an object first?

[Kristin Linden]

Hey folks!

We are currently aware of some recent incidents involving "pickpocket" objects and have been working to handle these as they come up. As mentioned previously, it is always best practice to not accept objects from other Residents that you do not know, especially if they have sketchy looking account names, are offering "gift cards" from various popular merchants,  and are 1 day old. This is generally a sign that the account was created for not so generous means.

If you do happen to accept one of these objects, there is a notification that pops up that requests debit permissions and that it will take L$ from your account. We strongly recommend you click "No" if you are unsure of the source of the object. Clicking "Yes" with a pickpocket object will give it permission to pull L$ from your account and will eventually drain it completely. Which just makes everyone sad.

 

Please be sure to report these incidents by filing an Abuse Report to ensure that we can shut down any offending accounts to prevent more people from falling victim to these objects. If you or someone you know have had their L$ taken from these objects, we ask that you (or they..them?... wurdz r hurd) submit a Support Case so that we can look into recovering your L$ if possible. 

 

Stay safe!

 

[Lindal Kidd]

2 hours ago, kiramanell said:

 

Don't you need to give debit permissions to such an object first?

Yes, you do.

 

If you rez a gift item, and you see this message, just hit Deny, then delete the object.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Yes, you do.

 

If you rez a gift item, and you see this message, just hit Deny, then delete the object.

Click Deny, then Edit the object and AR the previous owner, then delete the object.

[Gregorian Chant]

Slam that Deny button. Deny, deny, deny like a crooked politician accused in a scandal.

As others have said, AR the avatar who gave you the object and also AR the creator of said object.

Delete and empty trash bin.

[kiramanell]

Still don't quite get it, LOL. Even if ppl didn't understand it was a scam, the moment the box asks for permission to take money out of your account, would that not be the perfect time to at least have it dawn on you that it's not really a 'gift' when you have to pay for it?! That alone would be reason enough for me to decline the offer.

[Cindy Evanier]

1 hour ago, kiramanell said:

Still don't quite get it, LOL. Even if ppl didn't understand it was a scam, the moment the box asks for permission to take money out of your account, would that not be the perfect time to at least have it dawn on you that it's not really a 'gift' when you have to pay for it?! That alone would be reason enough for me to decline the offer.

You would think so but there are people who have absolutely no awareness of this and are just excited to click anything.  More often then not they will target noobs who might show with payment info.  It obviously works for these scammers just like the false MP links and the  I need lindens to pay rent scammers because if it didn't work, they wouldn't keep doing it.  This is why we should spread the word not to accept anything or click any links until you know they are safe.  

[Lindal Kidd]

11 hours ago, kiramanell said:

Still don't quite get it, LOL. Even if ppl didn't understand it was a scam, the moment the box asks for permission to take money out of your account, would that not be the perfect time to at least have it dawn on you that it's not really a 'gift' when you have to pay for it?! That alone would be reason enough for me to decline the offer.

Peepul iz dum.  They can also be tricked.  One of these scam objects was named "Win Up to $L10,000 (wear and allow)".

Also, there are legitimate objects that request this permission.  Examples:  Rental boxes you use in your business; Product vendors; Game tables that permit you to award cash prizes; tip jars that share a portion of your tips with a club owner.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Lindal Kidd