Account - No Payment Info Used

[DeepBlueJoy]

On 11/9/2022 at 11:22 AM, Safia Starchild said:

Very well said Scylla, thank you for your explanation of the situation.  And just to clear the air I don't avoid everyone who may be an Alt.  It was just a basic question that I had in which some people read way more into it than what my reason was for asking it :).

Thank you to everyone for your responses.

sorry if i was one of those jumpers on!

[Gabriele Graves]

On 11/9/2022 at 4:22 PM, Safia Starchild said:

And just to clear the air I don't avoid everyone who may be an Alt.  It was just a basic question that I had in which some people read way more into it than what my reason was for asking it :).

You did say this though which seems a bit of a contradiction:

On 11/9/2022 at 6:02 AM, Safia Starchild said:

Thanks Blaise, exactly what I was thinking.  My reason for asking was to help me weed out the people who have Alts, or at least give me a pretty good indication of the possibility.

I think people can be forgiven for reading exactly what was written and responding accordingly.

[Kathlen Onyx]

On 11/9/2022 at 12:16 AM, Safia Starchild said:

Yes, I understand completely where you are coming from, and agree.  But it gives me a good indication of their honesty when I pose the question to them if they admit it or not :).

But both our assumptions are still not really answering the question.  Is it possible to buy Lindens and still show NPIOF?

 

No one is obligated to you to be honest with you about if they are an alt or not.

On 11/9/2022 at 9:38 AM, Safia Starchild said:

Yeah right Alwin.  Tell that to the numerous females I have heard from in-game that were in Relationships and found their partners cheating on them with Alts.  

Linden Labs has turned SL into a glorified porn site with their promotion of the highly sexual culture.  And the amount of men who flock here because of it use those Alts for one purpose only, and that is to deceive others.

 

On 11/9/2022 at 10:22 AM, Safia Starchild said:

Very well said Scylla, thank you for your explanation of the situation.  And just to clear the air I don't avoid everyone who may be an Alt.  It was just a basic question that I had in which some people read way more into it than what my reason was for asking it :).

Thank you to everyone for your responses.

It obviously was not just a basic question. There was a reason why you asked, not just out of curiosity. Who isn't being honest now?

[BillFletcher]

On 11/9/2022 at 12:54 AM, Blaise Glendevon said:

Assume that an account that is NPIOF and has a fully kitted out avatar is an alt of an account that does buy lindens. 

or someone who has found a way to earn lindens in world, by making some product or offering some service

[Blaise Glendevon]

21 minutes ago, BillFletcher said:

or someone who has found a way to earn lindens in world, by making some product or offering some service

. . .eh. Maybe. The likelihood of that goes down the newer the avatar is, for sure.

[Switchblade Serenade]

I'm an alt with 'Payment info used'. Wild, I know.

I hold no secrets. But I do know all of Greg's secrets. Maybe I could blackmail him into buying me all the fatpacks from Contraption.

[Rowan Amore]

Assume EVERYONE is an alt and proceed accordingly.  Question them relentlessly.  Don't believe a word they say.  Spend your time trying to catch them in a lie.

Oh, and enjoy your SL.  🙄

[cunomar]

Assume EVERYONE is an alt and proceed accordingly.

Trust nobody .

[Randy Pole]

There are various types of payment info status....

No payment info on file - means no card/payment info for this account have ever been registered and no L$ have therefore been purchased by this account

Payment info on file - means a card/payment method has been registered for this account but it has not yet been used for any purchases (subscriptions or L$)

Payment info used - means a card/payment method has both been registered and used for this account (subscription or L$)

It is impossible for someone with the status of no payment info or file or payment info on file to have purchased L$ on that account and they will have obtained funds by other means (either from an alt or through employment within SL).

However, as many have stated payment info should only be used as a guide when interacting with others and never allow the fact someone has no payment info on file to convince you that they are up to no good as you may well be jumping to conclusions.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Randy Pole

[BillFletcher]

Another thing to consider is some people ar eparanoid abou thaving thier financial info stolen and will create an alt just for buying lindens so the account they interact with people with does not have any payment info attached to it.

 

[PheebyKatz]

1 hour ago, BillFletcher said:

Another thing to consider is some people ar eparanoid abou thaving thier financial info stolen and will create an alt just for buying lindens so the account they interact with people with does not have any payment info attached to it.

 

A lot of sim owners do this, just to avoid losing everything if their main gets "hacked" somehow. All of their financial stuff is on an alt that they only log in when they have to do money things. Sometimes they also keep an alt logged in while their main is offline, just as an added layer of sim supervision. Sometimes that dot up there in that skybox is really the sim owner, logged into their alt while at work, or whatever.

Addendum: I've actually had visitors assume (or at least get paranoid about it) that I was an alt of the owner of my home sim, or a bot run by them, and was only pretending to be an ordinary user.

I actually think it's great that people would be that paranoid. Less to have to worry about if they think the owner is always there watching over them.

My own form of this paranoia, which I know is a delusion and is therefore not a harmful one because I pretend it willingly for my own benefit, is my tendency to treat everyone I meet as if they might be an alt of one of my close friends, or one of my sim's higher-ups in the staff, or even the sim owner, who is one of my closest friends in SL.

Why do I like to pretend this could be true? And why is it beneficial?

Because it's the perfect excuse to treat everyone equally, and fairly. That person could be your boss, or your best friend, and they could be seeing if you behave towards others the same way you behave towards them.

Anyone you meet might be the "Secret Shopper", and it's kind of neat, because it's like the old saying that anyone you meet might be an angel in disguise, sent to test you, but even atheists can believe in it and make it work for them.

So, I treat everyone with the same degree of respect, to the best of my ability. Every time I meet someone it's a test of who I really am and how I really am. If I really want to be the person my best friends know me as, I have to be that person all the time, and not just with my best friends. It's a test of how genuine I am, and I know it's really me testing myself, so it's okay. They're not really out to get me. I hope, lol.

So, even when I'm alone, I sometimes like to pretend that my friends are watching me, testing me to prove I'm really their friend. It's kept me from making some really awful choices before, so I think it's a beneficial part of my daily make-believe.

Maybe the whole alt phenomenon is a blessing in disguise. And maybe it's not all about how honest others are.

Edited November 11, 2022 by PheebyKatz

[Lewis Luminos]

12 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

. . .eh. Maybe. The likelihood of that goes down the newer the avatar is, for sure.

There's always games; Linden Realms, trivia etc. One of my alts won L$200 just playing trivia games last week. That's just as easy for a brand new account as it is for an old one.

[PheebyKatz]

13 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

There's always games; Linden Realms, trivia etc. One of my alts won L$200 just playing trivia games last week. That's just as easy for a brand new account as it is for an old one.

My current main account got its start as my builder-alt-with-no-friends, which I made so I could log in and work on projects without a flood of IMs calling me to socialize instead. I hunted crystals in my spare time to make a few extra L$ so I could get my alt some stuff like a tool belt, hardhat, hammer, etc., so people would know I really was in building mode, and might let me build in peace.

So yeah, my main account got its start as an alt whose SL was paid for by playing games, fishing, etc. Heck, I even used camping chairs while busy off in Blender. It was crap pay, but then I wasn't exactly doing anything inworld on those occasions, anyway.

Edited November 12, 2022 by PheebyKatz

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 11/8/2022 at 9:52 PM, Safia Starchild said:

Hi, my apologies if this question has already been asked and answered.  I tried to search for the topic but nothing came up.

My question is this, when looking at another person's Profile is it possible for them to buy Lindens (to upgrade their Avi, for example) and still have it show as "No Payment Info on File"?

Thanks in advance for any responses :).

 

 

The only way is to have a second account that does have payment info on file, purchase the Ls with that account and then transfer the Ls to the account without PIOF.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Silent Mistwalker

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 11/8/2022 at 11:27 PM, SlammedSam said:

I could be wrong, but if all one's alts share the same e-mail address, then I believe "Payment info used" appears.

 

No, it does not.

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 11/10/2022 at 7:11 PM, CatfishChef said:

I'm an alt with 'Payment info used'. Wild, I know.

I hold no secrets. But I do know all of Greg's secrets. Maybe I could blackmail him into buying me all the fatpacks from Contraption.

If he ever stops chanting... RUN! 🤭

[Bree Giffen]

Most of my alts have payment info. I think it was from something a while ago where accounts without payment info would get deleted and having payment info was supposed to protect it. I do make nearly all of the money in SL and I spend it in SL through myself or an alt.

Alts don’t cheat on people. People cheat on people.

Edited November 13, 2022 by Bree Giffen

[Quenata]

On 11/9/2022 at 7:52 AM, Safia Starchild said:

Hi, my apologies if this question has already been asked and answered.  I tried to search for the topic but nothing came up.

My question is this, when looking at another person's Profile is it possible for them to buy Lindens (to upgrade their Avi, for example) and still have it show as "No Payment Info on File"?

Thanks in advance for any responses :).

 

 

to make your avi look good without investing real money, without payment information in the file (there was a grid - the best body, head, clothes, rented a house, there were lindens) you earn lindens in the sl in various events and games and this is quite real. and this does not mean that you are an alt and you have a different avi with payment information. in addition, there are friends who give you these things. but it cannot be ruled out that a person has a different avatar with payment information

 

[PheebyKatz]

On 11/10/2022 at 2:51 PM, Paulsian said:

Interesting topic. I have a 9 year old account I consider my alt. He does not have a soul he's just a dance doll. This account here i'm using is my primary almost 4 year old. I have another I created for my business but decided to use my primary cause toggling back and forth was waste of time.

I hardly care to look at anyone's profile anymore. If I meet someone and have a conversation worth remembering and run into that person again and again I'll form my opinion of that during those interactions and build trust that way. Some people i've known for a long time I enjoy their profile feeds, the photos they take in world. 

When I was newer I would constantly look at profiles and be leary of ones without any information filled in and no payment info on file, I assumed they were looking for "donations" usually if someone asks me for a few lindens happy to gift them. When I was new before I was confortable enough adding my payment information a very nice native american avatar gave me 100L to spend at a nice area for new people. 

The longer we are engaged here in SL the kindness out weighs the cruelness.

There's so much to learn here, adult activities are fun at first but they are not a sustainable form of entertainment to most users. It's pretty cool being virtual and as realistic as technology allows. We can be as wild or as mild as we wish. I think it's safe to say we all eventually virtually mature into our best selves. 

I am quoting this in full because it's (no offense intended, please believe me) the most coherent and well-thought-out and meaningful post I have seen you make so far. And I agree with it wholeheartedly.

Yeah, some people end up all old and bitter in SL, but I also like to think that more of us evolve into people who are younger inside, more kind, and more genuine as people. And profiles can be full of lies and bulldooky, too. It's not always a sure indication that a person is friendworthy just because they have a well-filled-out profile.

The only way to know anyone at all is to interact with them, and see how they behave, and on more than one occasion. Even then you could still be dealing with someone who's just really good at faking it, but if they're that seamlessly good at faking it, they're practically the real thing, you know? As long as they don't blow their perfect cover, who cares?

And yeah, don't be afraid to be kind. Kindness is only weakness if you're stupid. And then it isn't the kindness that's the problem, anyway. It's okay to be nice, and take risks like talking to people who don't have "proof" of their elite, better-than-some-broke-n00b status.

Some of the nastiest people I've ever met had payment info used. It means nothing except that you've had a credit card or bank card attached to your account, and have used it. And that has nothing to do with your quality as a potential friend, or as a person. Any kid can sneak a bank card out of Mom's purse and spend twenty bucks and hope she doesn't notice for fifteen years or so.

But not just anyone can form and maintain a genuine friendship on an online platform. That takes more than money. It takes effort. And maybe even a little courage at first.

Edited November 18, 2022 by PheebyKatz