Missing Girl Spam?

I am getting much conflicting information - and a lot of group postings about an alleged missing sl resident. And Linden Labs alleged involvement, where they have apparently confirmed this as a hoax - can anyone point me in the direction of LL official statemen, on this?

Thanks

If you are talking about Jenifer Martinek, the information that I have received on her comes from two pretty reliable sources, one of which is E-Amnesty International.

I have heard nothing about LL involvement, or that it is a hoax. Where have you heard this?

The only involvement I have heard is that she met someone in SL - which could be the same for anywhere on the internet. Need to watch the kids

Just because it is likely that more people will look at this thread than the one I posted, I am going to post the information about Jenifer again here:

This thread is regarding Jenifer Martinek, a young Brazilian woman in SL. She has apparently been missing from her home for 4 days. Her parents are particularly worried about this, as she told them that she was going to travel with a friend. They have apparently since discovered that she was going to meet someone from Second Life.

If you have any informations about her please send an email to her father at: [email]Klebber@terra.com.br[/email]

My apologies if this seems an inappropriate place to put this, but I thought it potentially important and serious enough to post here. Notices regarding Jenifer's disappearance are also circulating in-world.

I have her RL name too, but am not posting this here because of issues relating to disclosure.


I have no idea whether or not this is a "hoax." But I'd rather be mildly embarrassed by contributing to a hoax than miss the opportunity of potentially helping find someone who may be missing, and quite possibly walking into a dangerous situation.

Scylla

Just this very instant I got this IM inworld:

[14:15] _______: Jenifer Martinek is __________in rl ( brasilian )and she is missing from home for 4 days. Her parents are worried about her, as she told her parents that she was going to travel with a friend and now they found that she was going to meet someone from SL (Second Life).
If you have any informations about her please send an email to [email]______@terra.com.br[/email] ( father's e-mail ). Can you please pass this onto your major groups please thankyou


(I've removed the names of the sender and alleged victim, and the email account, because leaving them there might violate Forum rules.)

The above was posted in one of my groups. A lot of responses in just the past couple of minutes, one of which is this:

[14:15] __________ : __________ here is a msg about a supposed missing person going around that includes a personal email to someone claiming to be the father. If you find this please do not pass it along, plz do not post it in the group, etc. Something is badly wrong with this picture and it's being looked into and Lindens have been contacted. It's either a scam or sum1 trying to get personal information on an SL member. either way this msg doens't need to be forwarded anymore.



....Nothing more substantive than this, as far as Linden involvement is concerned.

Another groups postings said:

THIS HAS BEEN DETERMINED TO BE FALSE BY LINDEN LAB. The email listed in the message has been noted as a phishing email, ie collecting emails for purposes of spam in several locations.

=================

I am just trying to establish the source of the linden lab comment.

I got the same one, with some additions:

RELEASING RL PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT A SL AVI IS AGAINST LL TOS. We don't know that this Jenifer Martinek is really missing or if this is someone trying to release her RL name to a lot of people fast. Please don't get caught up in scams like this without proof. Please do not break TOS. THIS HAS BEEN DETERMINED TO BE FALSE BY LINDEN LAB. Warning: that email has been noted as a fishing email collecting emails for purposes of spam in several locations.


...The person who posted that DOES have membership in my group in their Profile, and apparently is not a Linden.

Well someone who doesn't like the notice could also simply post "this has been determined to be false by LL." Anyone could write that.

Until *Linden Labs* says it's a scam, I will think of it as reliable, since Scylla says it and since Scylla says Amnesty Int'l says it, especially.

Thanks Clarissa , although Amnesty is only as good as THEIR sources, I guess. But the postings I recieved came from the head of E-Amnesty (she is AI's RL coordinator for their online operations), so one hopes they have reason to believe this is legit.

This strikes me as quite sound.

One caveat: many people would be more likely to see this as legitimate if the email address given were, say, a legitimate AI one. (The fact that it's a private address doesn't mean the call is illegitimate, of course, since if the situation is a real one, those concerned might not be thinking in terms of nuances like email addresses.)

Proper channels would be for Brazilian law enforcement to ask USA law enforcement to ask Linden Labs for her account info and chat logs, or whatever other info they might have.

Thinking for a moment, if she is over 18, she's probably old enough to make such decisions as leaving home for herself. It's nice that her parents worry about her, but it's not like she is the first person to leave home.

If she is *under* 18, she should not have been here in the first place, and first blame goes to her parents for letting her.

Thank you. *NOT* for LL to be obtaining information and then posting it on blogs for it's residents to read, question, kick around, etc.

The story doesn't say she's not from the Teen Grid.

(On the other hand, the fact that the call was sent out in the main grid argues against her being from the Teen Grid.)

Who said anything about that? I think you are misinterpreting and overreacting to my actual suggestion.

Which would be merely to, in cases like "refuse the body shop AO it will steal your Lindens" or "so and so is missing" to act as a sort of www.snopes.com and say if that is even the case or not.

Residents are ALREADY reading and kicking these reports around. It would just be nice to be able to know if they are 'scams' or not.

And I assume that Brazilian law enforcement has contacted LL if this is a real missing persons case that happened via SL. In which case, LL would also not NEED to go 'nosing around' so no need to worry that LL is going to go looking into your virtual meet ups, Treasure.

I agree with that. But if they HAVE determined that the email has been used for phishing in the past, then it would certainly be kind of LL to let us know, so we could put this to bed.

For reasons I mentioned in the other thread, I don't think they will post that information even if they've confirmed it, as nice a thing to do as that would be.

Millie I wish you could combine all these threads. To have something one proposes in ONE thread be attacked in three or four is overkill and exhausting.

(This next bit is more to Treasure - you were simply replying to her thought, which means, it's gaining ground. But it's based on something I never said.)

I do not see a thing wrong with LL posting if something is phishing or a scam. It is NOT going to result in LL looking over the hotel records of everyone who meets up with their honey in RL.

If however the AUTHORITIES have determined someone has been kidnapped and the last known person who saw them was someone they were meeting up with, from SL...that's different. As I said from the beginning - I leave it up to authorities to determine who is a missing person. Not sure why this straw man of LL looking into people's private biz is even being debated.

That's a big assumption as we know nothing of the kind. I'm not misinterpreting or overreacting, I am just trying to say let the proper authorities do their job, and LL isn't one of those authorities unless requested to supply information, and, not to us, but to law enforcement.

It's not being debated, good Lord, I threw it in as a facetious aside. Everybody knows I don't have a SL lover, lol. The point that I"m trying so desperately to make is, that LL has no business providing any information to 'us'. Any information they have should be provided on request to the proper authorities. That's all.......

I said IF it is a real missing person case - you agreed when someone else said the same thing I just said, Treasure.

And you are sure arguing vehemently if you meant your example facetiously.

I also NEVER said "provide information to us." But they could simply say whether something IS a phishing scam and to beware of it. What is wrong with that? I did not only mention this case but the body shop AO and the other 'alerts' that have been going around SL.

I would bet its BS.

It would be nice to know, either way.

I do not assume it to be untrue though. Women and children go missing at incredible rates. It's just a wonder it doesn't happen via online resources MORE often; comparatively it's rare.

But in my time online I have known of 2 or 3 other times when it has happened and HAS been real, unfortunately.

And each time, the group, or online host, has stood aside and went, "Not me" and "lalalalala."

From their point of view, they are better off refraining from any and all mentions of scams of any kind.

Posting anything about a scam offers news outlets the chance to publish quotes from Linden Lab in support of a potential story on how "SL Is Riddled With Scams."

It's not, of course. But ANY mention of scams from official LL sources could be used to try to give the impression that it is. (A story like that would sell. Journalists like to sell stories. LL isn't about to help them do so.)

That is a good point, Ponsonby.

I wish it weren't. I'm sure we'd all like to be able to just close this book (and of course if it is a scam we'd all like to see the scammers exposed and expelled, too!)