Outrage!

This post is to express my dismay and anger about the “disabling” of an avatar, and to ask for information and advice.

The avatar of my Romanian friend was suddenly logged out when I was talking with her in SL on Dec. 12 at about 2 PM PDT. When she tried to log back in she was told that her account was disabled until after an hour or so. When she later tried to log in she got the message, “Login failed. We are unable to complete your request at this time. If you are unable to change your password please call (866-4769763)." SL did not give a reason why she should change her password, and no explanation.

She was able to access “My Account” and change her password, but when she subsequently tried to log in to SL using the new password she got the same message quoted above, and she has continued to get that message ever since.

She is in Romania and has a “basic” account. She cannot call the 866 number because she can't understand American spoken English. She filed a “ticket” with SL support and was refused any information. “Echo Linden” replied to her ticket: “Please add as an attachment you holding your identification card. As well scan a close up of your identification card. List any alts that you have and any account with payment information.”

When she protested against sending pictures of her face and “identification card” (a term we don't use in the U.S.), Echo Linden replied flatly that if she wanted to “release” her account she would have to send the pictures. He didn't respond to her plea for some explanation.

This is like something from a Kafka novel or Guantanamo Bay: “You are condemned!” “Why? What were the charges against me? What was the evidence?” “We won't tell you.”
The irrational secrecy and the demands made by Echo Linden are so bizarre that two SL friends have suggested that hackers must be involved. They say that the Lindens would never make such an outrageous demand.

My friend has lost her identify, her L$$, and all her possessions, as well as access to the house that she built on land I let her use. . . with absolutely no notice or explanation. She can no longer even access her account; she's shown a message that it is "disabled".

Why should there be any question of her identity? The Lindens have had her email address from the beginning. If they send an email there, who else would receive it? And why disable one of her main avatars and none of the others, who are still able to enter SL?

If you can offer any advice or information or comment, please do! Thank you. I think that this incident should be of great concern to the entire SL community.

I have a feeling the question is one of her age. The want to see the ID as proof of age.

just a guess

Probably a good guess. Somehow LL has reason to suspect her age. Perhaps someone reported her as being underage, and unfortunately LL is very heavy handed and insensitive in these matters. Nobody here can help you, and the only thing she can do is to find some way to supply proof of age to LL. A call is the best way to get answers, regardless of how difficult it may be for your friend to do.

Your reasoning is good, and you may be right about age being the issue, but she's 37 years old and has been in SL for about 2 years, I think. Why suddenly obliterate her without notice now . . . and leave her alts intact? And why not tell her that age is the issue, which might have encouraged her to show her face and ID to a stranger on the internet? Why keep even the issue secret from her?

Thank you!

We are, once again, only getting one side of the story........and it's second hand to boot. It certainly appears to be question of an underager on the adult grid. If your friend refuses to give the information requested by LL then I see no reason why LL should do anything but what they did...........close (or lock) the account. I doubt the action taken by Linden Lab is something they wanted to do but I can their stance on underager gaining access to the grid.........if they suspect it (or have been informed) then US law requires them to do something. This is their "something".

Give the information or give up the account.........about the only two options I see. Obviously, it's not the end of the world.........she can still log in with her alts.

When someone is reported of being underage, LL has a tendency to just shut the account down without asking questions, leaving the burden of proof on the individual accused. They never explain why an account is suspended, it's one of their major failings. Emails and tickets will not help in the matter. A call to LL is pretty much all she can do if she wants that account back.

I think you answered that one here:

The alts very likely won't remain intact if she lists them.

If this person is an innocent victim of a malicious or mistaken AR, it's terrible. Of course, we don't know for sure if that's the case or not.

Because people reported for being under-age seem to get instantly banned, even if the report is false, I think LL should expect the person who makes the AR to also verify their age before permanent action is taken.

Otherwise you could have the situation where a trouble-making 9 year-old kid could register for SL and immediately AR someone at random, falsely accusing them of being under-age.

if they are asking for accounts with payment info on...surely if she has payment info on any account that would get the ban lifted..to my knowledge no one under 18 can have a credit card? or did that change?

Yeah, there have been prepaid cards for kids for some years now, and they've started to become pretty common.

Children under the age of 18 can even get a bank issued credit card.......with parental concent but it's still a valid card for the minor.

this same thing happened to one of my SL kids, who in rl is 27. somoene reported him as underage, they closed his account, it took him a full three weeks to get back in. it upset us all very much.

lizzie

What languages does she speak?

Alternatively just do what should be done and verify everyone in the first place, underage players, griefing, massbotting and countless other exploits become near impossible or easy to track down and fix.
As long as you don't force people to identify themselves because they are under witness protection programs, live in a place that has no credit cards or use chickens for currency, underages are only kept out by a "tick this box if you are over 18" sign. It's about as effective as a "don't steal my stuff" sign on an unlocked car or house.
If a kid sneaks in and sees stuff that causes them "mental trauma", bad luck, but when they interfere with adults enjoyment and security they need their butts kicked out.

Yeah well, any parent signing the approval of such a card had better be taking responsibility for the card users actions with it.

I don't understand why she just doesn't give the info......seems simple enough to me.

I have this friend who is really talented artist, not very well known but makes beautiful dresses,etc. When we first met someone had AR'ed her for be underage she's over 50.
And she had to send a photo of her identification card and prove who she is in first life.
The process took a week, all was resolved.
Unfortunately anyone can say anything or file a AR when it comes to cases of whether or not someone is a minor the only recourse seems for LL is to block the persons account until they prove they are of age here regardless if AR was done intentionally, maliciously..

The biggest problem is: it can happen again and again, no matter that she already DID verifiy her age. LL has that on file, still if another underage AR against her comes in, all the drama will start again, her account will be suspended again, she will have to send her proof of age again and so on...

I don't see that. If LL have verified an individual by seeing the required information, then they should have the fact that's the person has already been verified on file.

That's how it SHOULD be - but not how it IS. No matter how your verification status is, if you get AR'd for being underage, you will be suspended. LL doesn't look at what they already have on file.

Then the people who deal with those ARs are assholes. But that's nothing new in LL's dealings with some things.

when I verified my age I never sent a photo ID.... You have many things you can use. I really didn't have a problem with it. But no I would not have wanted to send a copy of a photo ID....
If I recall right all they asked for was numbers on the verify page anyway....

Well, why not? If I got AR'd by someone who thinks I'm underage that just suddenly erases me when my rl bf and I are fully registered to SL on Paypal through our bank account? And you have to be over 18 or over to have a bank account, so that should be verification of age?

Paypal needs to accept more countries such as Romania. Right now I'm not exactly sure if Paypal does accept Romania or not, but I think not. Also, I think I read SL is going Paypal only. Not sure if that is true or not? And I wonder also if SL does that, is Paypal ready to accept all countries now because Paypal does not when I last used it about six months ago except all countries for transfer of monies.

I tried to verify myself but you have to say which US state you live in and as far as I know none of the listed US states is in Britain!!!

Almost true. As of January 1st, cashing out will be PayPal only unless you cash out US$10,000 or more, in which case they will send it by wire transfer if requested.