SL Security

Dear All,

I think the concept of SL is great and I feel that it s the next big thing on the Internet. However, I feel that there are certain things within SL that I personally find horrifying. The reason is for this is people spend thousands of USDs on SL and I feel that SL provides very little insurance or security against fraud.

Firstly, once I am logged in to SL or I save my password, my computer becomes an ATM machine. Within about 8 clicks, somebody could basically come on my computer, pay themselves US$2000 plus any linden I already have in my account, put all my SL land and inventory in their name, and basically take tens of thousands of US dollars from me in seconds. I feel that password prompts are necessary for all deposits and payments over L$1000, and when setting up objects (ie. games) that payout.

Secondly, there are no ‘boundaries’ in the options within SL. If I want to place an object at X:245.34m and I accidentally place it at X:24.534, that object is 4 parcels away. Unless I can find the object and access that parcel or the owner returns it, that object is lost. I feel that all objects placed in a parcel should remain within that parcel unless the owner takes back the object and re-rezzes it in the other parcel

Thirdly, another thing with no boundaries is public land sales. Last week, I unintentionally sold a 4096m for L$5 in a public sale. The land obviously sold before I could complete the form. The next time I sold land, I noticed a tiny message pop up with the buttons ‘Continue’ and ‘Cancel’. I did want to continue with the form so I clicked continue. The land then sold 5 seconds later. I feel that all sales should have a confirmation box with clear, tablised information with a “agree” tickbox and a “Sell Item/Land” button. Also, land should not be sellable in a public sale for less than L$3/sq.m.

Fourthly, if I purchase an item, lets say a L$25k mega-bar, what insurance do I have that (a) the item will be delivered to me and (b) your system will remember the item? On Wednesday, 19 July 2006, a new grid update was installed and I understand it was later uninstalled because it was faulty. This led me to lose SL Exchange purchase Sale ID 327326, which I rezzed between the updates. You refused to take responsibility for this.

And finally, say I have just paid L$2000 for entering a parcel or to perform an event lasting about an hour. Then, I get a message saying “Region restarting in 2 minutes, please log out”. I have effectively lost the L$2000, which is not on. Also, I feel I cannot plan events because you go down often for maintenance. I feel that regions should be reset at the same time(s) every week and this information should be published under “About Land”. I also feel that SL should have a weekly time to be down like 7:00am-12noon every Wednesday when SL is not available.

Generally, I feel that these aspects of SL are far too informal. I feel that Linden believe SL is a game, L$ is monopoly money, and it’s not at all serious. However, it has nearly 400,000 members and US$100,000s traded everyday.

I look forward to your reply in this matter.

Yours Sincerely,
Iwana Fouquet

I predict [someone] will be in here any minute now telling the OP that when selling land she aught to read the pop-ups instead of just clicking through.

Personally, I think there's should be more safeguards for land sales. This is happening so often there is obviously something wrong other than the people.

-Ghoti