Theft in SL

Not true. Not all sluts are escorts, nor are all escorts sluts.

We'll call you a Lapsed Escort, just as I am a Lapsed Catholic.

Wow 3 theft threads in 1 morning. perhaps this is a new fad since people cant gamble anymore?

Some just got to take the fun out of it for others, too many mean people in the world I guess that don't want to earn their own but take someone elses earnings...just plain stinks!

Don't do that, that tea I was drinking was HOT!

@Brenda: LOVE that B5 quote in your sig!!!!

Heh man your truly brave I couldn't bring myself lol

although the second parargraph I dont understand so looksl ike two topics in one?

... gives you an awful stiff neck...

imogen

Doesn't have to give a stiff neck. It's like football: using the right stance to start with can make ALL the difference. [Hhmm, come to think of it, it's not really like football at all, is it - but it is still all about the stance. Think different is all I can say in the forums without being broadly offensive.]

[Helpful Hint: It is blessed both to give and to receive.]

semper... anything will make you stiff...

er...perhaps i should rephrase that...

love imogen

All joking aside (geesh! 3500L for an escort!!), it seems like there is a need for a decent escrow service in SL to handle larger scale land or service transactions. I've got a lot of experience with this sort of business in RL, but I can't fathom how one could put up the necessary security to provide this sort of service commercially in SL. There has to be a way.

I'm going to give this a little thought and come up with a business model. This may be just the sort of project I was looking for, now that it's apparent that my biplane empire is not economically feasible.

If you were going to engage in a large transaction, how large would it have to be to be worth paying a fee to an escrow service? What kind of security would you want to see from the escrow service to make you feel comfortable that the service was legit and would process your transaction properly? How much, on a percentage of the transaction price basis, would you be willing to pay? What would you expect the escrow service to do?

Maybe this needs its own thread.

Hey Trout,

Forgive me for being a total ignoramous, but what IS escrow?

Trusted third party who ensures you get what you paid for and the person providing the goods gets their money.

You're not an ignoramus.

In RL, when people enter into large transactions, including almost all land deals, they use an escrow service. Basically, what an escrow does is collect the money and hold it in trust until the deal is complete, then distributes the money in accordance with instructions from the buyer and seller (and bank and secured parties, etc.)

In RL, an escrow company is usually a title company or law firm and may be involved in drafting the closing documents, paying off the mortgages or promissory notes, making sure secured interests are released, recording deeds, etc. In SL it would be much simpler. Basically, if a buyer and a seller enter into a deal to purchase a piece of land, the buyer would give the money to the escrow agent. The escrow agent IM's the seller and tells them the money is waiting. The seller then transfers the property. Once the property is transferred, the buyer confirms it has been transferred and the escrow agent releases the funds to the seller. This avoids the problem of a seller scamming a buyer by selling the same property to multiple people, it avoids the problem the OP had with paying for a service and having the service provider refuse to perform, and it adds a layer of security that is not there now. If the seller tries to rip off the buyer, the funds can be returned to the buyer and the seller knows that the funds are available and will be paid if he or she performs under the terms of the agreement.

The problem is - who polices the escrow agent and keeps them from just pocketing the money? I could be trusted with the money - I know how trustworthy I am, but nobody here knows me personally, so they don't know. There is no way for me to obtain E&O insurance or post a bond on SL. The big name land barons would probably not be interested in being associated with an escrow company because the profit would not be huge and their reputation would be at risk. I'd be willing to facilitate a couple transactions for an active land baron for free so they feel comfortable using me, but those first few transactions would take a lot of trust. After that, I think a fair fee would be in the 1%-2% of the transaction range, maybe on a sliding scale.

I'd like to give a business like this a go, but I can't figure out how to get over that initial hump of building enough trust to get someone to use the service.

The minute they start having Escrow for Escorts ...

Beezlebub will be Voice Chatting in Inuit.

The minute escorts start charging enough to warrant an escrow...

There are so many jokes. Let's start with that sliding scale for escrow services. Now, I expected to be paid in Lindens, but...

Isn't that what a pimp does? Or a maid if you're in a posh knocking shop....so I'm told!

hahaha

No

a Pimp keeps most of the money for himself without doing any of the work,

In exchange for "Protection", in most cases the person the Escort needs protected most from is the Pimp.

Thanks Trout!

Sounds fairly simple in SL terms at least... sort of like a holding tank for buyer and seller to both dump their assets into and the escrow company sorts out who gets what. I think this is a good idea! I know people buying and selling used islands that get really nervous about tranferring money and/or the property without assurance that they're not going to get cheated. You might start with island holders?

That would be the perfect place to start. Those are all large transactions, at least in SL terms. The problem is transferring my real life experience into SL terms and finding a way to demonstrate that I am legitimate and serious about the business. Second problem is one of marketing, I suppose. I can't just go around spam IM'ing Island owners.

I'm working on it. I won't move on something like this until I'm dead set and ready to make a legitimate go of it. I see running a business in SL as almost identical to running one in RL in terms of procedure and planning.

It is. Esp if you're serious about it. I balance my SL business books every day.

Well my first paragraph was to suggest the use of an organisation like the SLBB, the second was to explain the potential for using a deposit as opposed to asking/demanding the full amount up front. If all that fails, due to the flimsical way that business in SL for the most part is run, perhaps the only recourse of any 'injured' party would be, by using the SLBB style systems, they can at least see the offenders name up in lights on some blacklist, should they choose not to speak/converse/acknowledge/respond to any issue.

I can provide a "scarecrow" service ............

*lol*

I thought Escrow was something that Italians like to put in Soup....

That may explain why I felt sick after eating Italian soup some time ago....

Morwen.

A friend of mine has a really attractive avatar, and the other night she was approached by someone looking for an escort. The funny part was he was very round-about. She said his English wasn't very good, but he spent about a minute describing the (pretty extravagant) land and home he owned, and then offered her a couple of thousand L$ to go with him back there and have some fun.

At that point she was basically ignoring him, and after a long pause he offered to give her half up front. This discussion reminded me of that. All Vye really would have had to have done technically is TP to the guy's house, then act amazed that he thought she was that kind of girl.

I'm wondering if something like that isn't what happened here...

I would be trustworthy person too or at least to my friends but no one knows me. Also lot of people also though Ginko was trustworthy too for years. See how that worked out.
There was problem even with ebay users using escrow I heard from unreliable source so not sure if it was certain it happen. They thought the escrow company was safe but it wasn't legit lot of people lost money that way.
The problem is who and what to trust with that responsiblity.