Sveva Pennell

I could follow Sveva in two lands, because my alt had the possibility to see her on map. She went first in a land with nothing, and then directly to the shop where she spent all the money. As I called her, the hacker discovered I was following her, and deleted the possibility for me to follow her on map. About the prove of the theft, Linden Lab can't discover it?? I had opened immediately a ticket, and I thought they knew exactly what happened to my avatar, or not? And another question: can't Linden Lab delete items from our inventory? In that case they could delete no transfer items, not to leave goods to whom who hasn't really bought them. Anyway, your comments have made me think about all the story. I have been on SL since 2007, and I really have not many enemies, but surely I have met some strange guys... maybe they were hackers? The other possibility is that the hacker simply wanted to waste my money for a silly game. O_o After this experience I think both merchants and customers should be more protected in their affairs, it would be important for both, because if people know they can easily lose all the money without any hope to retieve it, they would buy less linden, and less goods, and so on.

Phil, Eileen, I understand your point of view, about merchant's scepticism. That's why I complain that on SL we are not protected at all, and are left to merchant's willing. Off course I would never claim or even hope that a rule obliges merchant to give your money back just because you tell him they have stolen your avatar, but if you can prove what you are saying, if you have reported it immediately to Linden Lab, if they have verified they have really changed your password and connected with another IP from another part of the planet, I think we should be more tutelate, and have the possibility to ask to rescind the contract. I dont know USA rules: in Italy if you prove that there has been a substituion in your person, or that your agreement has been extorted with violence, and so on, you can rescind the contract and have back what you have paid. Obviously if is it possible you have to give back what you have bought, if not you should simply compensate the real loss of the adverse party. On SL everything is more complicated, because you don't buy real goods. In fact, when you buy a dress, or a skin, the merchant give you simply a copy of it, and he doesn't lose it, so he has no real economical loss at all. Moreover, if he decides to sell no-transfer items, he knows he will never have his copy back. In a case as mine, I will be obviously happy to give those skins back, but it is impossible. Maybe LL can definitively delete them from my inventory, I don't know, and I will be disposed to that. Honestly I don't feel enough protected, if anyone can force my password, use my avatar and spend all my money and I can't even try to demonstrate it was a fraud. About merchants, I can easily imagine how many people try to cheat. However, if I were a seller, and if I see that somone who had never been in my shop or bought my products, come in the shop and, without even trying a demo, in 3 minutes spend 8450 linden to buy 6 identical skins, from pale to dark tan, I would find it quite strange... The fact that commerce in SL is made without any rules, is potentially dangerous: knowing that, a sharp hacker could open a shop just to recycle dirty money, selling no transfer items to stolen avatars,and keeping their money. That's why I think Linden Lab should deal with this problem, and offer some chaches to retrieve the booty, to put this insidious method off. To reply to the one who asked me about crime, yes, receiving money coming from a theft (even if you have not concurred in it) is a crime (I can translate it as money-laundery) if you know the money has been stolen. If the merchant is in good faith, and someone goes in a shop pretending to be me, and buys something, I have a civil action to rescind the contract. Anyway after this experience I feel really unsafe. Apart from money, if it is so easy to steal a password inside SL maybe they could steal other important data, and use them improperly. :matte-motes-frown:

Hello, I have been a victim of phishing too, on 15 th March 2012. I clicked on the same link to marketplace, and inserted my username and password, but in my case htey have changed my password so I couldn't log in anymore. I logged with an alt, and I saw my avatar going around... I immediately wrote to LL and they disabled my account: I have had it back after a week. I had 8450 linden, and I found zero. From the transaction History I discovered that all my money had been spent in 3 minutes in a shop, to buy 6 identical skins, just in different tones, and a shape, all no transfer. I immediately called the merchant to ask my money back: if she were in good faith, she would had understood it was not me, who had bought so many skins in 3 minutes, but her behaviour has left me really suspicious: even if it was absolutely clear she was keeping stolen money, and without asking me more details, or to prove what I was saying, she has refused to give my money back . I have met lots of sellers on SL during these years, and it’s the first time I receive a response like “it’s not my problem if someone stole your avatar and gave me all your money”. It may be she is only money-hungry (in my country keeping money coming from stealing is a crime… what about SL?), but if she receives money from all the avatar victim of phishing as mine, she may be involved with the hacker. It could be a artful system, to simulate a regular sale, to share the booty. In fact, it is what she says not to pay me: “the avatar has bought no transfer skins, so I keep the money!”. A hacker could be easily discovered if he sends the money directly to his account, but if he uses this method and shares with the merchant he appears “clean”. I think these robberies shouldn’t happen on SL, because make people afraid to buy lindens, and I really think Linden Lab should create a system to rescind purchases that haven’t been made by the legal owner of the account. A honest seller would have recognized the strangeness of that hasty purchase, but it’s evident that not every merchant is honest, and residents are subject to merchant’s loyalty. If this merchant is not a confederate with the hacker, anyway she has decided to take an advantage from my bad story keeping all my stolen money, and I can’t do anything to retrieve it. If every hacker who steal an account goes and spent all the money in that shop, they will both obtain easy and illegal gain. When a crime is done, the first question to answer is “who gains?”. The paradox is that, perfectly conscious of the truth, and with my money in her hands, this seller has accused me to be a liar, to bother her, to have tried to “extort” her MY money. It would be funny, if it was not illegal! I am not sure if i can put the name of the shop here, but if anyone wants to know, I will tell him in world. Be careful, because we are not protected at all from these accidents.