Maxy Zerbino

I know that some people have had problems with PayPal, as described here in this thread and elsewhere, but I've never had a problem... I've had to request a few refunds in the past, and they were always taken care of in a fair if not timely manner. LL and PayPal handled this situation very well, I'm thankful.

Another update--another happy one--PayPal refunded all my money! And the scammer got PayPal-banned. So all is right in the universe, and I'm wiser for it. Shouldn't have done it in the first place, of course, but what a story! Thanks everyone for the supportive posts and advice.

UPDATE: I got my accounts restored, so I'm happy! This goes to show there are cases where the Lindens act fast if all the facts are in order. (I provided them with a scan of my passport plus tons of documentation, chatlogs, etc) And as for my RL money, PayPal has the scammer's funds on hold--It seems likely that I'll get the refund back within two weeks or so (but it's not for certain, this depends on the results of PP's investigation. The facts are in my favor, but you never know!) Thanks everyone for listening and for the supportive messages. Never again!

LOL Touché..... It's tempting to blame LL for this one, but the fault for my sitch lies with me as I've admitted repeatedly throughout my posts. We don't have the full facts about this scam so I probably should have been more skeptical about the "password" rumor. My story's pathetic, I know, but I've told it in hopes that it will help someone somewhere.

I've acknowledged from the start that I was stupid and I brought it upon myself. I probably shouldn't have been so quick to blame LL as well, without having all the facts confirmed. All in all from my perspective they handled it well. I got just what I deserved, I can only hope I get my accounts back soon and pray that Paypal will work with me I recover my money.

This explains why the scammer was using a respectable SL account with old rezzday, real profile and all: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/forums/replypage/board-id/GeneralDiscussionForum/message-id/54631 Smooth move, LL!

I was victimized on the other side of this scam. See all the juicy details at http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/I-got-swindled-big-time-Linden-scam/td-p/1424763 The person who scammed me was using Italian PayPal addresses and goes by the names of Mario Morcellini and Marini Dino.http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/I-got-swindled-big-time-Linden-scam/td-p/1424763 Now, I rightfully feel stupid for allowing myself to be scammed like this. But how appalling is it to find out that LL set us up for this with this feckless, childish security practice? I'm flabbergasted. I don't even have words...

Haha, yeah, that's the thing... it started out with me KNOWING it was a scam for a fact. It makes a good story, even though I'm the butt of the joke. My friends have been very supportive, and I'm not sure I deserve even that lol... but the worst is over.

I feel so stupid. I fell for a Linden$ scam inworld, losing myself $500 USD and access to my main avatar accounts! I'm not here to sob or whine about it. I know that even though this scammer was despicable, I have no one to blame for this situation but myself. I'm writing about it here for two reasons: 1) this scammer used a very interesting technique that I hadn't heard of before, and maybe if I tell my story word will get out to avoid this scam (although most people probably know better anyway as I should have), and 2) I guess I just need to get it off my chest. So here's what went down. I saw a group notice advertising CHEAP LINDEN$!!!, and right away, I assumed it was scam/spam. So from the beginning, I should have known better. I IMed the person just to mess with her and waste some of her time, and also to see what she was up to. I told her I needed lindens, quick! Haha. (Joke ended up being on me) She offered me L$100,000 for $200 USD. Great deal! I KNEW it was too good to be true. Then, she gave me her PayPal address. I told her to send me half first (assuming she wouldn't do it) just to see what she would do. She promptly paid me L$100,000. Just like that. I talked to her for a while she was decently nice and seemed legit. Her profile "checked out" as well, it was over 2 years old, with groups, picks, and all, nothing suspicious. But the bottom line to me was that money talks, there was the L$100,000, right there in my account. So what did my dumb ass do? I paid her $200 US by PayPal. The next day, she was still online, and everything was normal. I talked to her for a bit and still, she seemed legit. I assumed that she was merely naive, and somehow earned a bunch of money in SL and didn't know her options for exchanging and withdrawing (and also that she didn't apparently know the true value of the L$). She also had a marketplace store. Not an impressive one (at all), but it appeared that she was engaging in legitimate SL commerce. (You're probably laughing at me right now, and I know, I deserve it! It's amazing how fast money played tricks with my mind... Oh well, I fell for it) So what did my dumb ass do? I bought another L$150,000 from her for $300 USD. Sent the RL cash straight to her on PayPal. I transferred the L$ to two of my alts that I use for commerce and exchange. I actually did cash out L$100,000 (but not the second batch of L$150,000). So at the moment I'm down about $135 US. If I'm held responsible for the L$100,000 which I had cashed out, I'm out $500 US. Within minutes, the three alts in question (one of them was my main) were disabled with this message at login on the SL website: We have placed your account on an Administrative hold. Before you are able to login again, we would like to talk with you about some unusual activity on your account. Accounts are held as a safety precaution when we have reason to believe they have been misused or compromised. Please provide relevant information that you believe would explain or clarify any incidents that you may have been involved in. You can do this by submitting a case which will notify us that you are available to communicate with. I called LL before submitting the ticket. I just wanted to talk to someone and explain what happened. For once, I can say, the Lindens I talked to were actually very helpful and forthcoming in assisting me. They explained to me exactly what was up without mincing words: the Lindens I bought were "probably" stolen. They told me exactly what information they would need from me in order to get this resolved, and I promptly wrote up the ticket and gave them all the info they requested. It's obvious that the Lindens were doing the right thing in this case. I made a mistake. And in this particular case, the Lindens did detect and put an end to fraudulent activity (but not before I and others were victimized). I did submit a dispute with PayPal, but I'm not holding my breath. The money is most likely gone. But I know I brought this on myself with my impulsiveness. I can only hope that I get my avatar accounts back. I know that it will take a few days at best, probably longer, and I'm even prepared for the possibility that for whatever reason, I won't get them back... that would suck, but I'll deal. I know I should have been smarter in this situation. Anyway, blah, blah, blah. I can only hope that by writing this I've saved at least one person from being as gullible as I was in this situation. For those of you who are laughing at me, I totally deserve it, and I hope it makes you feel better about yourself. Thanks for listening!

I tried this and it's amazing. If you can scale this up and get full functionality into the browser, SL's population will explode exponentially. From a marketing and useability standpoint, this could be the biggest breakthrough in SL history. Here's why: anyone can use this. My mom, my sister, my best friend. SL's appeal up to now has been limited because it's been impossible to use for the average person. Now you've simplified everything for "REAL PEOPLE" to actually use SL. Kudos.