Account hacked and now SL has me on admin hold indefinitely?

[LilTartToo]

July 9th my SL account was compromised. I have no idea how, have never given out my password etc. Someone logged in as me, bought 100,000 linden and tried to sell it for rl$. I got the e-mails on my phone and managed to stop the transaction before the company had transferred the rl$. They were great to work with, gave me all the info they had on the person and I turned all of it in to LL with a full description of exactly what happened. I didn't feel real safe leaving all that linden in my account while LL decided what to do when it had just been compromised so a friend held it for me. I did inform LL of this, explained why and gave them the name of the friend. Takes a few days, but LL takes the linden back, reverses the transactions, all is well. Then on the 18th suddenly I can't log in.. my account is on an admin hold for investigation. I'm told this is for my protection because of the situation. Over a week later? after I've changed the password and deleted my payment info? Gee.. great protection. The next day they put a hold on my friends account that held the 100k for me. it's been a week since I submitted a ticket and per the phone line no one has even looked at it yet. my friend is still also on hold. Has anyone gone through this before? What was your experience? Everytime I call their timeline gets a few days longer..

[Griffin Ceawlin]

It is for your protection. I've heard tell of accounts being kept on hold for up to four weeks or longer. Investigations take time. You just need to be patient.

P.S. The only reason your friend's account was placed on hold was because you involved her.

[LilTartToo]

How exactly is this for my protection? I tracked the linden myself. I got them back myself. I chased down LL to get them back myself. I also handed LL this persons paypal adress that I got on my own too. I changed my password, a few times actually and I deleted my billing info. What exactly is LL protecting me from by having my account on hold? More importantly WHAT are they doing about this person hacking in and taking 100k from people, if you look on page 2 of the forums, I'm not the only one this has happened to.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Here's the problem.  SL has anonymous accounts.  Anyone can say they are anyone else and it's extremely difficult for LL (or law enforcement) to know who's who and who is the person they are talking to when they are trying to deal with the problem.  It's unfortunate when someone innocent gets caught up in it.  You did what you could to fix the problem (and it was the right thing, except maybe imposing upon your friend to hold the 100K).  As I'm sure you know 100,000 lindens is about $400 USD.  That's a substainal amount of money and it is a crime............a felony, in fact.  You're a victim but, just like real life victims, you are going to suffer some inconveniences.  In this case it's being blocked out of SL while an investigation is performed......you'll have to wait.  It's entifely possible real life law enforcement is envolved.  There's not much you can do but wait.  And, since you brought your friend into the mess, so well he.

 

Here's something to think about.  You may not have given your password to anyone.  But passwords are so easily guessed it's ridiculous.  Anyone you might have devulged little facts about your life that could make a password........that cute kitten you got for you birthday and you named her "Blue Silk" for her beautiful eyes.  Also that friend you exchanged emails with a few weeks ago.........it was just a throw away Gmail account so what's the harm?  Right?  That person could have since a nice little animation they made for your new kitten name "Blue Silk".  And how you have a keyboard logger installed on your computer.  It's easy to be tricked.........it happens to professionals.  Think that if your SL account was compromised, what else might have been compromised?  Your online banking account?  Your bill pay accounts?  You need to change every password you use for any Internet activity.  You need to run a good anti-virus scan (maybe a couple on line also).  Run some anti-adware scans too.  Some keyloggers are almost impossible to detect without professional help.  The Internet can be a nasty nasty place..........you need to treat it that way.  Watch what happens with any account you have online.........you could very well have more problems than just SL being compromised.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

Your account was compromised. LL procedure, as I understand it, is to place compromised accounts - all compromised accounts - on hold pending investigation.

If your account was not placed on hold, and you had suffered (further) damages, I'm sure you'd be screaming holy hell about it, wondering why, perhaps, it was not LL practice to lock such accounts.

[LilTartToo]

Actually I quite understand putting my account on hold to do an investigation and I don't have an issue with that. My issue is that they did it 9 days after the hacking took place and they have done NO investigating since putting it on hold. The first guy I talked to didn't even know why it was on hold. It just seems chronologically illogical to me.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

When you call someone about an account be placed on hold that person will very likely not know the way.  That's not incompetetance.  That's how criminal investigations are dealt with...........the go off into investigation and won't emerge until it's complete (unless more information is needed from you and they will contact you).  It's likely the 9 days delay was due to you not contacting the proper people immediately (did you call the billing information line as soon as you found out the attempted fraud?).

[Griffin Ceawlin]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't assume that the people picking up the phone know what they're talking about, or that they know what the security team has or hasn't done.

[LilTartToo]

Of course I did. I filed with LL, my bank and mastercard immediately. Also deleted billing info and changed password immediately. I wrote LL a novel with all the details so that everything was spelled out perfectly.

[LilTartToo]

The billing dept has it on hold, not any security dept.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I bet not...........there was an attempt to steal $400 USD from your account.  It's in a legal departement (possibly in real life law enforcement too).  LL does not take fraud lightly.  You don't know who put your account on hold actually.

[berk Grantham]

i would assume, given her comments, that she was told by LL that the Billing Department put the hold on her account. So when she speaks to LL, and she is given erroneous information, or just lied to...this is a good thing? If the Legal Department had this under some company investigation, shouldnt LL have told her that?

If LL takes fraud so seriously, why oh why would it take 9 days to put the account on hold?

This post and others make me wonder how often this is happening in Second Life and how serious LL really is about stopping it.

 

 

 

 

[Griffin Ceawlin]

If LL wasn't taking it seriously, they probably wouldn't be putting compromised accounts on hold, would they?

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Perhaps because someone purchased L$100,000 ($400 USD) with a Mastercard credit card in the OP's name and then gets a call from someone claiming to be the owner of the Mastercharge credit card saying that the L$100,000 were not purchased by her.  Who called?  Who made the purchase?  Is it fraud?  Is it someone who changed their mind?  How is LL supposed to know if the purchase was made using the listed credit card information for the account that the purchase was not made by the owner of the credit card?  Sure they could just take someone's word for it........until that gets around that "someone used my credit card without my permission and take back the L$ purchased!" (and the L$ are gone from the account..........slick trick, huh?).  No one on a phone should discuss such information with anyone without knowing who is who and why that person needs the information..........in an anonymous world like SL, that's impossible.

 

Leaving an account open for further activity makes it difficult, or impossible, to track down what happened and who did what.  IP addresses are about the only tracking means.  Keep stirring that pot of IP's and it gets all screwed up.  It's locked for a reason.  The OP has to wait.  She can scream all she wants but it's going to remain locked until it's investigated by the proper people to investigate.  No one knows what happened..........we can only take the OP's word for it (and I'm not doubting her).  But LL cannot take even her word for it until it's investigated.  That's the way stuff is..........it puts people in unfair positions but it just as easily could be protecting the same people.

[LilTartToo]

Except that if you look (http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Recent-Scam-Takes-100-000-Linden-from-a-User-Account/td-p/988791) you'll see I'm not the only one this has happened to. I didn't dig that far to find that one, but I bet if I did dig I might find others. I wasn't even in town when this happened and I hadn't logged into SL for 3 days. The only reason I knew is because of the mails on my cell. And yes they can see from my ip that I was not at my home location at that time if they do track that, which by the way, ruins the SL is anonymous thing.. They also make me verify each time I call in. RL name, DOB, where I was born, mothers maiden name, etc etc.. So they know they're not talking to Joe Schmo.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I've called billing about 10 times in the almost 6 years I've been in SL...........and they never asked me anything except my account name, email address the account to tied to and my real name.   That's pretty easy for someone who could guess your password.  I'm starting to not believe you...sorry.  Are you sure your son or daughter didn't do this?  It's starting to sound fishy now.

[LilTartToo]

Maybe that could quite possibly be because you've never filed a fraud claim? I would expect that would put a flag on an account requiring more information. I've seen plenty of other posts in these forums about LL asking for the exact same type of information. That IS why they have you put it in when you sign up in the first place.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

And?  Isn't that my point?  This is fraud............a freaking crime for christ's sake. 

 

And you're bitching because your account is put on hold?  I mean your Second Life account..........how important is that?  Is it worth a little wait until they figure out that your account is safe to use?  Or would you rather them just let it go on while crap keep happening while you blistfully play in SL?

 

Hmmm............that 3 days laters from a different location (i.e. IP address) when you reported it.  That's enough to stir some doubts right there.  Just saying.

[LilTartToo]

Do you know how to read? I said I hadn't logged on 3 days.. I didn't say I reported it 3 days later.. actually I quite clearly stated earlier in this thread that I reported it immediately upon recieving the linden purchase e-mails. I'd love to say more, but I'll follow the golden rule, "If you can't say anything nice don't say it at all"

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Night night.............I'm not so much on your side as I was at the beginning.  :matte-motes-big-grin:

I can see why your account has been put on hold.  If it were me, I'd be tickled LL was looking after my money.  I look after my money and when any business also looks after my money too I appreciate it.  Like I said..........just saying.

[Dresden Ceriano]

Hey LilTart, the information that Peggy and Griffin have given you is pretty solid. I've had my account held before for something similar. The fraud department is who's handling it, billing will know nothing about it nor could they tell you if they did.

There are security measures that are set in place to protect both you and LL. LL will have to make sure what you are claiming to have happened is what actually happened and that you and your friend had absolutely nothing to do with it, this will take time. You are not the only case they have to deal with, I'm sure.

Please remember that we are residents here, just like you, and by supply you with information we are merely trying to help. No need to get bent out of shape with us if the information we give you is something you don't want to hear. I sincerely hope your situation is taken care of quickly and to your satisfaction.

Good Luck... Dres

 

[Venus Petrov]

Sweep your computer for malicious keyloggers.  I hope that your new password is a strong one (i.e., alpha and numeric and special characters).  Unfortunately, accounts do occasionally get hacked but there are ways of protecting yourself in future.