Seasonal Scam?

I have just received a notice from one of my other groups: "If you receive a Santa Jar v2.5 DO NOT OPEN IT. This object is a script that will take all your cash."

I imagine any number of IMs and notices are flying around in-world right now. Anyone seen this particular version?

I've also been asked if this is just one of those urban myths..... any views one way or the other?

TIA

Inc

i got that notice from a group too..


and I do what i normally do: Don't risk it.. if I dont know what it is at all I dont mess with it

Perhaps a scripter can confirm, but I think an object can only take your money if you give it permission via a blue dialogue box asking for that permission.

I believe so - isn't it a yellow box now though? But newer residents may not realise what they're saying 'yes' to of course.

Inc

It's supposidly a chainletter hoax (given all the "Tell all your friends and all the groups you're on!!!!" versions I've seen and the fact that it doesn't point out that you have to give it permission to take your money in the first place, I'd agree).

Even if there is such an object, it's no different than all the other dozen objects that ask for debit permissions, you have to grant it permission before it can do anything.

I've seen this once already. You have to consider that, for most people, the exact import of granting debit permissions is lost on them. Just like land sales - 'anyone' apparently doesn't mean ANYONE. The warning is just:

WORDS

Ok Ignore

Yes it's now yellow, with a more lengthy bunch of words explaining what it does and why not to do it. But I'm sure some people will still grant

Quite; it is a huge horrible "ALERT! THIS THING IS ASKING TO BE ALLOWED TO TAKE YOUR MONEY! IT MIGHT TAKE ALL OF YOUR MONEY! ONLY CLICK 'OK' IF YOU ARE REALLY SURE EXACTLY WHAT IT DOES!" box, but, really, people will still click OK.

Actually, it looks very much like the "DANGER SOMETHING IS TRYING TO ACCESS THE INTERNET!" alert that the firewall on my PC provides, and people will be used to clicking OK on those quite regularly. Sometimes, too much exposure to "security" is worse than none as it casualises the whole process.

Is an option to revoke all of your debit permissions available yet?

/me bangs her head on the wall..

CAUTION, IF YOU REPLY TO THIS POST, THE FORUMS SOFTWARE WILL STEAL ALL YOU L$!!1!

Nope. See http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1750 , http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1365 and http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-232 . (Incidentally, I got these from Gigs' fabulous new search tool on http://sljirastats.com --*way* faster than jira itself.)

Wow thanks for that link Qie! Very cool.

This is obviously a hoax.
seen it and replied that its very likely a hoax. now, with this forum theread, its obvious.

Ollj

Given that many more people read the fora than post, perhaps you would care to say exactly *why* this is so obviously a hoax?

Thanks

Inc

The other day I received a "Falln Snowman" that I didn't order from an SLX box owned by "unknown user)." I was immediately suspicious and deleted the thing.

Then yesterday my friend asked me if I had gotten her snowman present. *forehead slap*

Objects can not take L$ from you, unless you give them permission to take L$ from you.

There's a big honkin' pop-up (/me looks for a picture but can't find one) that makes it pretty clear what's going on and you have to click Accept before the object can take anything.

If you don't tell SL that an object can take money from you, it can't take money from you.

OK, so the upshot of this is:

1. There may or may not be an item out there marked "Santa Jar v2.5" - no-one's reported seeing one (though absence of evidence is not evidence of absence)

2. Anything you rez which could take L$ from you will produce a yellow Permission screen. You must click on Accept for this to activate.

3. Do NOT click on Accept unless you are absolutelypositively195% SURE that you know what the object is

Inc

I consulted the new search, which as you know now pulls up items rezzed in world. Here is the result:

Your search - santa jar v2.5 - did not match anything we could find within Second Life.
Nothing was found in Second Life containing "santa jar v2.5".

Suggestions:

* Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
* Try different keywords.
* Try more general keywords.

That would only work if the object was set for sale and had been scanned by whatever tool is placing things into the search database.

as a side note this is how I know whom to prune from my friends list, if you don't have sense enough to check (and correct) such warnings, you probably take about as much care with your friends...