Cheats in SL...

How do we stop people like this from cheating others? please read the attached thread...
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Just my own two cents on the issue...

If its a new resident under 30 days old - they need a firm (but kind) hand slap the first time around. A lot of folks new to Second Life just don't know better. There are a TON of unwritten rules here that a lot of us just take for granted.

If its an older, more experienced resident - ok, the gloves are off.

I NEVER buy furniture that doesnt have a display model.

Err...

I haven't been on SL much more than a month, and it doesn't take long residence on SL to know that you're pulling a bait-and-switch scam. What "Loco Lewis" did was crooked whether it was in 1st Life or 2nd Life.

ctrl+alt+g is my favorite exploit.

THANKS WU!



Thatss like the 10th time i've seen that and just HAD to do it to see if I get banned.

Capitalism.

...and why we are protected from such capitalism in the RL by consumer fraud laws

I sometimes go by feelin' out what friends have already bought and enjoyed. I ask to see it on their av, or in their homes, or the like.

Second Life is so full of fastpaced change. Someone dishonorably acting will only injure the rest of their Second Life to come. The longterm view wins things out, and anyone who wants to develop a reputation for quality over the next few months, years must be golden, if not platinum.

Good attracts good, there are magnetic forces in this universe. Inversely, bad word does get around.

Not that it excuses what he did, but...

I can't believe anyone thought that was the real picture of the furniture. That's funny.

I have a lovely bridge in the Bay Area to sell if anyone is in the market for one, and that chick you just cybered really is a supermodel!

??WHuT AbOuT DiS??

This

This
This

MiStAkES ToO?

You may want to clean out your keyboard. It seems as if you are having issues with your caps lock and/or shift keys.

After reading all that in the linked posts.. I'm worried. About something I made.
I built a ship and took in-game shots of it with my graphics maxed out. (as much as possible)
I added them to this image listed below.
I DID used photoshop to make a display and cut out the background. It was just a giant white prim behind it so I could cut it out easy with a magic wand tool in photoshop.
And then added text obviously.
But I still used the actual pics. With a small edit on the lights to show it has some. Because I couldn't snap a shot and capture the partical "bling" lights for the life of me.

The thing is, it won't sell.
And my post in the cassifieds has returned a mostly negative vote on the design at the time I am posting this message.
I only sold 2 the first day and then nothin up until now.
It could just be a junky design to people or I'm in the wrong market or something.
But could it be people are thinking im trying to fool them or something?
I sure hope not.
I can see how that would be misleading with the couch situation. Thats certainly not what I want to do to people.

What is even worse are the more subtle bait and switch scams perpetrated by some clothing designers who feel it is perfectly fine to airbrush away the flaws on their clothing in the marketing image. I have spent far more than $2500 on falsely advertised clothing that ultimately looks markedly worse than the ideal Photoshop-altered picture would indicate.

Remember these?



If they don't appear as shown, turn on lighting and/or you need a new video card

YAY Brine Shrimp!!

There's actually a grey area here, because clothing on a moving avatar can actually look better than any static picture could show, because aliasing and artifacting that jumps out at you in a photo may not be noticable in the real thing. Then on the other hand selective photography even without the help of photoshoppery can hide gaping flaws. I have a couple of AVs I bought that I can't stand to use because they just don't look good at any position but the one the creator took the photo from.

Now that's a pretty narrow "gray area", and there's people who step WAY over the line, but even then THAT can be considered an honest mistake, overenthusiastic marketing. Taking a photo of a completely different object and presenting it as an in-world object is outright fraud, and being a "newbie" is no excuse.

I saw that vehicle, and I can tell you why it didn't sell to me. It didn't sell because it just doesn't look attractive, or interesting... I can't tell if it's a bad model or bland photos but there's no "I gotta get me some of that".

Have a look at Cubey Terra's aircraft and photos, or Huns Valen's, or Chage McCoy's, and tell me why I'd want to buy your cruiser instead of Cubey's Ornithopter, Chage's Mehve or Huns Valen's Cygnus G-1 Autogyro? Show us why you think it's cool, even if you have to get someone to drive it past you over an interesting area, take a hundred pictures, and pick the best one.

The real question here is that I see she used RL pictures on the thread, but did she stick this furniture in a vendor with the RL pictures as the product picture?

Because I mean, you can look at that thread and say, wow that looks suspiciously good. And then go over to the place and see the real thing sitting out there and go "ooooh okay then, it's a chair overstuffed with lies and down." And if you spend the 2.5K then it's your own damn fault.

But if it's on the vendor and there's no way to see the actual item unless you or someone else buys it, then yes that's pretty low.

I saw this Kingdom Hearts clothing vendor in the Forest, and I really wanted to buy some of that, except...every vendor picture was concept art from the game except a few of them, and it cost like 400L$ for each. So I ended up not buying any of it.

So I think this would fall under the realm of "false advertising" in the second case, but not the first.

Yeah more obvious texturing would probably be a good start I guess.
I do modeling and graphic arts in real life and I sell pretty well with renders that way. But aparently I can't seem to adapt it into SL just yet. And I guess the metalic-machine look just doesn't go over well with people in SL too much.

However while building it I would constantly have random people come up asking how much for it. So it just confused me. Still does actually. lol
Ah well.
It sucks. Everyones first few builds in here does I guess.

Well, I looked at that thread . . . and looked at this one.

I didn't see said items in said store, and have to assume they were probably not out in the store, but in boxes with the pictures from the real-life items on the boxes.

All in all, looks to me like this: Quite a number was done on two players who joined SL last month, excitedly presented their wares, then realized that they had make a mistake in the presentation.

But . . . no worries. They have gone back to play There.

coco

Coco,

You make it sound like the innocent young resident was maligned and we lost him to *There*, but from reading his posts on that thread, the pictures he posted of his *creation* and the pictures posted by the angry customer of what she actually bought indicate that that is not the case.

Granted, the first pics are obvious RL pics, BUT he never makes mention of that. He goes as far as talking about the lighting and how the pieces have this superior leather look to them, when the real thing doesn't come anywhere near what he's advertising. Don't you think the right thing to do was give his very dissatisfied customer her money back to begin with? It would've saved him the thread.

And after the thread was started, don't you think he would've been better off apologizing, returning the money and doing the right thing, in general? Instead, he acts like he's being victimized for no reason, still doesn't return the money and says that well, he just went and spent money at the angry customer's store, so that should square things out.

It's all wrong if you ask me.

Leilany

I don't know cocoa. I'd put forth that you are confusing age of avatar with age of person. I'd give a 13 year old a lot of leeway for making this mistake, but we are supposed to be adults here, right? heheh is that a stretch?

Truth-in-advertising is not that foreign a concept. If you do something foolish like this, you'll get a bad reaction. So take your medicine, fix the problem thus showing everyone that it was a mistake, and move on. So will everyone else.

Mistake or no, the poster worded the marketing verbage very carefully, and got defensive/deflective rather than fixing his post. So I don't think the overall reaction was surprising or that unfounded (a few exceptions of course). These kind of problems only make people more worried about fraud and increase the difficulty with which other new players can sell their own goods.


Regarding the space ship on the white background, I don't think that's a big deal. Lots of people cut out images and put them on other backgrounds. But the image of the product itself should be taken from SL, not photoshopped. (Argent, I think you were a little hard on the guy)

Word of mouth and reptuation for integrity - thats all you got to go on in SL - that quick 2500 aint worth flushing those.

That being said - I've been on and off working on a new bed for about a month now (I can only spend sooo much time in poser before it starts pissing me off)...

I was gonna sell it (with its 36+ animations/poses) for 600 bucks..

Damn I'm glad I looked at that first!!! Looks like the price is goin up...

.... knowing me though and my love for the thirfty buyer -- more than likely for 700

Sea monkeys are teh cool.

Well, I personally can't tell whether they actually meant this to be a scam or not..

I'm pretty suprised people couldn't tell it was a RL pic, especially the bed..

I agree with Travis, a slap on the hand and a request to refund peoples money. Theres not a lot that can be done to "prevent" such things..