the group warnings about so-and-so need to stop

Over the last several days, I've seen in multiple groups warnings about not accepting friendship requests from named avatars, as they are purportedly "copybot" and by accepting them as friends you will risk your inventories.

These are absurd rumors without any foundation or merit. If you have been involved in spreading them, you need to stop. Now.

The message I received today mentioned two people. I checked both their profiles (one has been in SL for years!) and both are clearly devastated by these nonsensical rumors.

The people who spread such 'warnings' aree well-meaning, I'm sure.... but there is no mechanism in SL whereby merely having someone on your friend list will allow them to somehow copy your inventory. It is so absurd, one wonders how such rumors could persist.

I'm posting here in the hope that when you see such nonsense in your own groups, you can help set the record straight.

Hear hear. If for no other reason than the system resources that are wasted on this cr@p.

It's been like this since I've been in Second Life.

It will continue to happen because Linden Lab does not communicate with residents. Not only does Linden Lab rarely try, it also conceals true reports of problems to protect reptation.

So when one hears a rumor in Second Life, there is no reliable source of information available to find the truth behind the rumor. And since the rumors are about catastrophic consequences, it makes perfect sense for one to be safe than sorry.

If there were a reliable source to check for information, rumors wouldn't be able to thrive quite as well.

Even if there were such a source, people would continue to spread the rumors. You can find thread after thread here in these Forums, yet only a minuscule percentage of SL residents have even visited once, let alone read them regularly. Any other source is likely to be treated the same way.

.

What Robby said.

I still get emails full of dire warnings, heartfelt pleas and promises of free cell phones, laptops, whathaveyou from well-meaning friends and relatives, even though sites like snopes have been around for years and years to combat the rumours.

I write it off to naivete and unfamiliarity with the evils of the world. And some people never outgrow that...

On one of the fashionista groups I belong to for the free stuff, the ladies were all in a twitter to find that the guy who just spammed the group with a 10-line ad was really just some poor new noob who didn't know any better. They patted him on the head and warned him to be careful. lol

!quit !quit !quit !quit

If you want to edumacate the public a little about copybot - go leave your comment here:

https://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/UncensoredDisclaimer.php?name=Marketplace&file=report_item&ItemID=1520833

It is a device that purports (falsely) to stop copybot, it is the next version of the infamous one that worked on the !quit, !quit, !quit principle.

Go tell him what you think of his product and just maybe the buying public will read it and gain an awareness of what copy can and cannot do and uselessness of any product that claims to protect you against it.

Funny I have had emails from friends forwarding emails from friends saying dont add so and so cause they are a hacker. Seems chain junk mail has hit SL

It is a common social-engineering "virus" that griefer types love to start. Basically, someone starts up a hoax somewhere with the tagline "please spread this message as far and wide as possible to stop X!" It has been happening since BBS days. In some cases, the intent is to stress the communications system to the breaking point, banking on the gullibility of the ignorant masses to mass-propagate messages to the detriment of all.

It is really easy to fix with the tiniest amount of education and effort, too.

Unless you have first-hand experience/evidence of the content of such a message, AND have enough experience in the subject matter to KNOW whether it is possible/true/real, DO NOT propagate it! If you administer/moderate a communication medium where such messages are posted, IMMEDIATELY challenge them and instruct everyone present not to propagate them by educating them on the concept.

If you catch the original posters in the act, AR them, ban them, do anything you can to make it highly un-lulzy for them to do such idiotic things in the first place.

Remember, stupid should hurt, otherwise there is no incentive to not be stupid.

But it's true! I friended Philip Linden, and now all my inventory is missing, I'm a ruth, and I can't teleport! And Group messages won't load either! It's all true! ;P

This sounds uncannily like all those "Dont accept this object x being passed about it will steal all your lindens it happened to a good friend of mine now she has lost everything pass this on to all the people you care about". They run through all the group chats like wildfire, and it's annoying to see the same message popping up over and over in all of them. (This poor unfortunate has a lot of good friends.) I think the message IS the virus, not the supposed object, which probably never existed.

The absolute solution to stop copybots!! Delete all you have inworld, them detach everything you wear and them delete your inventory. Do not forget to empty trash!! Now close Second Live and remove it from your computer. Do NOT forget to clear all traces in temp folders and your registry. Now in to your second live account page and delete your account. Now cancel your internet, get rid of your computer and take a new identity and move to a desolated part of the world.

NOW YOU ARE SAVE!!!



Probably

I have created copybot 7. Not only will it copy your AV, it steals your prim bits and e-mails pics of you using them to your grandmother. It also adds un-deletable bling scripts to all your items, then It will then track you down in real life and change you name to Reggie.

This is where knowledge of what is possible and what isn't possible is needed by a moderator of those chats.

Because money stealing objects can and do exist and are very easy to script.
However you will get a big yellow dialog asking you to give debit permissions to the object (which you should never allow)

One change to the client I would like to see is:
Since most people will NEVER need to give debit permissions, there should be a checkbox in edit preferences to even allow debit permission requests to be made to you.
If its unchecked (the default), all debit requests would be automatically refused.
This would help protect newbies etc.

O you utter bastard

Cortex (I don't know how to do double quotey thingos)--Yes, I agree that the extra checkbox is a good idea. I have a few objects which have debit perms, but ordinarily wouldn't want the confusion of any windows popping up asking..we all know how easy it is to click the wrong thing when we have 5 squillion notices up there in that top corner.

This cracked me up!