Hello, I have a big problem with L$!

[MiaQuee]

Hello, I have a big problem with L$! I had 3600l$ on my account .. I decided to login SL today and was surprised .. because I have 0L$ on my account! just zero balance! I thought that the viewer lags, but there is 0L in the marketplace either! I want to claim them back because they weren't spent. Nobody knows my password! So I'm more than sure that a system error has occurred. Please help me! Thank you for your attention <3

[animats]

3 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

"3.1. "Linden Dollars" are virtual tokens that we license. Each Linden Dollar is a virtual token representing contractual permission from Linden Lab to access features of Second Life. Linden Dollars are available for Purchase or distribution at Linden Lab's discretion, and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab......

You acknowledge that Linden Dollars are not currency or any type of currency substitute or financial instrument, and are not redeemable for any sum of money from Linden Lab at any time."

The audience for that statement is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It should be read as "Linden Dollars are a utility token, not a security token, and thus don't have to be registered as a security offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission". It's LL trying to stay out of the kind of legal trouble that the cryptocurrency Initial Coin Offering people got into starting in 2019. A "utility token" is like the tokens you buy from the vending machine at the laundromat to operate the washing machines, and a "security token" is like buying a share of AT&T stock. Somewhere in between are Linden Dollars, SAND (used in Sandbox), and MANA (used in Decentraland). The last two are probably security tokens, and part of the Make Money Fast industry. Linden Lab wants to stay on the utility token side of the line. For more info, search for "SEC utility token" and "Howey Test".

This is not really relevant to the problem being discussed here, which seems to be an ordinary customer service problem.

[Paul Hexem]

Linden Lab: "If you get scammed, it's not real money, that's a resident dispute. If we get scammed, it's real money and we have to take it back."

[Wulfie Reanimator]

18 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

When a person steals money in RL and then uses it to purchase items in RL, the FBI doesn't come and take that money back from the people who sold goods to the robber, does it?

I don't know about cash, but when someone becomes the victim of credit card fraud, either the bank or the merchant has to refund the victim; who's responsible depends on many factors, but mostly complicated laws and credit card network agreements.

Online payments (card-not-present) are typically the merchant's responsibility.

Physical store payments (card-present) are typically the bank's responsibility.

There's also chargebacks or even chargeback-fraud, which is slightly different but the merchant can't typically do much about that either.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Rowan Amore]

11 hours ago, Paul Hexem said:

Linden Lab: "If you get scammed, it's not real money, that's a resident dispute. If we get scammed, it's real money and we have to take it back."

Exactly how it is in a nutshell.