Use Caution in Dealing with Third Party L$ Sites

The blog post
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/01/02/use-caution-in-dealing-with-third-party-l-sites/
by jplinden with the title listed above says in part of it"

"-If you are being spammed in-world or anywhere else regarding the purchase of L$, you’re probably being spammed by a fraud seller.

-If you’ve been the victim of fraud, contact our fraud hotline at 800 860 6990. Then, talk about it. Post your experience to forums, blogs and chat. Tell others about who it was and how it happened."

So...

Question 1: Does anyone believe they can trust jplinden and post that kind of information here, naming names?

Question 2: Its alright for me to post here in the forum a copy of the group invite that I received this morning, naming names of the person who sent it and the person named in it as the contact for trading lindens?

Here is the text from it that I received via IM to Email, with names xxxxed out to protect the guilty.

" Ixxxxx Txxxxxxxx has invited you to join a group in Second Life.

Ixxxxx Txxxxxxxx has invited you to join a group.
There is no cost to join this group.
Group:
$$ Linden Currency Exchange $$: Buy and sell $L direct from other SL users. Get the best exchange rate offers here!

My Current Exchange Rates
BUY 1000 $L = $3.96 USD
SELL 1000 $L = $3.60 USD

I can act as intermediatory for currency transactions. For this I charge a fee of 5% and personally guarantee the completion of the transaction to both parties.

All personal member exchanges are at your own risk. I will not be held accountable for any loses.

IM Exxxx Exxxxxxx for further informaton.""

The sell rate in either case is far better then I can get from the Lindex so according to jplinden, this is probably a risky exchange to participate in.

I notice that Ixxxxx sent out the group invite, but it says to contact Exxxx for further information. I can't help but wonder if Ixxxxx is a sacrificial alt, used to protect Exxxx from being banned for the AR's this spam will generate.

hmmm, L$20000 would cost me $75.49 according to Lindex, the same money would only get me about L$18250 from this group, taking into account the 5% fee.

Not only sounds risky, but unprofitable too?

Once again, LL is asking us to police the Grid for them. Looks like it's ok to name names in this case. Then again, it appears to be ok to do anything you want on this particular forum these days.

My understanding is that it's against LL's rules to use the word "Linden" in your name, your group name, or your business name. "Linden Currency Exchange" is obviously trying to masquerade as the Lindex, the official currency exchange.

I only trust one third party exchange: SL Exchange.
I've been told ACS is trustworthy, too, but I haven't tried them.

I would view all others as highly suspect until proven otherwise.