Unsolicited Group Invitations

I've been noticing a rise in the number of unsolicited group invitations I'm getting per day. Most of these go to my email while offline, and none of them seem to be from places I've ever visited or people I know.

At first, I seemed to be getting one a week, which I'd just delete & forget about. Now it seems to be a couple per day, and its becoming mildly irritating.

Question:

-Do you think its valid to file an abuse report for spamming when this happens?

-Do you think it would be appropriate for me to accept the group inivitation, then confront the group owner about the unsolicited spam in open group chat within their group? (Of course the group owner wont be happy about this, but that's the point )

-Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

1. Warn them the first time that you don't want any more of their junk.. then AR. Or if you wind up with three of the stupid things from two different people for the same group.. then you AR each one.

2. Umm.. no point. While entertaining, I've found that's probably better to MUTE the jerks involved than to join it. Many of the spam invites I get seem to have a fee attached, which is kinda like you're paying them for the honor of chewing them out.

3. Nope. That molehill is growing just fine on it's own. I've gotten them more often recently than I care to remember and I always decline. When will people learn that I don't join groups that I didn't look for in the first place?

I wish there was a way we could charge 'em for the honor of sending us an invite, which would then give at least truth to, "If I had a L$ for every invite I get, I'd be rich."

You're not alone. I'm more than "mildly" annoyed at these invites.

However, I try to use common sense on the ARs. Most times I will send an IM to the sender. Basically a "Who are you, and why are you sending me an invite?". A lot of times, these are newbies that just don't get that gunasked for roup invites are like junk mail.

However, I have ARed without sending an IM when sent an invite to a very nasty group type. If they want a group liek that, fine, but don't pester me with it.

LL does look into these because I had to mute one such person as I got a mess of nasty IMs "thanking" me for ARing them and "getting" them a 3-day ban *smirks*

As in all things in SL, the answer is in your court and with your concience ^.^

~Jessy

I haven't noticed group invites but I have got other things one was from WSE, another from indivuals sending Christmas objects that I do not know or remember.
Wonder how I could AR WSE for spamming me?

I'll try and catch the inviter online and simply copy/paste a longer version of "Read the CS, mass invites aren't allowed" and see what they respond back.

If it's an honest mistake you can instantly tell, if it's deliberate I'll generally annoy them some more until I feel they admitted to mass advertising and then I'll AR the invite with the conversation as submitted proof of breaking the "no mass spam" rule.

Whether LL acts on it is something else entirely .

I was wondering about this myself. Do they just pick random people to ask, or what?

I've considered joining and then spamming the group with advertisements for my store until they kick me out. Fair is fair....

Thanks for the responses, folks



They have to be. One of the accounts that seems to get these is an alt account of mine that's virutally never, ever logged in. It doesn't visit anywhere & wouldn't get picked up on sensor scans in-world. (This is why the invites go to my email).

Either they're randomly picking names from Search, or they're using a bot to mass-invite.

If someone sets up a group that costs money to join, then sends you an invite, does the cost get deducted from your account if you accept it?

Yes, I have noticed several group invites per day lately. I just refuse them, as I don't think it's worth my time to talk to them or AR them. Bsides, I'm maxed out on groups, even had to leave groups that I would like to be in.
Got the ones from WSE also.
Getting plenty of Christmas "gifts" also.

Yes, Archtx, your account gets deducted.

my RP alt has been gettin them as well. while i do not mind the ones that come from my shopping jaunts, the ones from sex clubs are a bit perturbing since i don't visit them.

i also got the WSE on both my alt and main account........wth was that about?

Some new group owners actually hire these guys togo around and increase their group numbers by any means necessary. They hit InfoHubs, nighclubs and welcome areas - also the randome spamming and the unsolicited teleport.

With open enrollment and increased awareness of SL we have a new type of resident in our midst - and they are quickly outnumbering the oldtimers. I do not think our current set of community rules and regulations address the new issues that we have to deal with these days. It would be nice for LL to establish a Community Protocoal group made up of concerned citizens in good standing, mentors and LL staff so these new issues can be arressed directly.

I absolutely hate unsolicited invites. Whenever I get one, I send the following message to whomever sent it:

"I am not interested in random, unsolicited group invitations, and I have ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SPAM! Please don NOT ever contact me again, for any reason. Thank you."

I had one guy try to argue for about an hour that it was not spam, but other than that, I've never heard from any of the offenders again. So I'd say the message works.

However, the problem will only get worse as SL gets larger and larger. Ultimately, some sort of technological solution will be necessary to block stuff like this. But what would be the most practical way to do that, I don't know.

what I got was some automatic system device WSE is the World Stock Exchange.
When Ginko transferred their money to WSE or whatever they did with the bank members information and funds they merged into WSE.
I really love to see those guys AR'ed and banned for good.
If they scammed Linden Labs they would but because they only did one to residents of SL we are basically on on our own for trusting them.
I still periodically get crap from them....I really wish I could do something about it too.
I have never consented to share any personal information with WSE.
I quit using Ginko in August.

I've been getting an increased amount of these invites as well. I get them on all my accounts, but more frequently on my main (this one).

I equate it very much to spam, but never join or bother to reply to the person. First of all, I don't have time, and second, much like complaining to email spammers, I know that my bitching to them won't do any good. They aren't sending out these invites because they wholeheartedly think that it is something I might be interested in, but rather, much like the email spammers, are sending out mass invites to achieve their own means.

I always hit decline when I get one and would do so out of principle even if my group list were not already full. I don't know that it is something worth ARing unless I were to get an invite over and over again from the same person, but then I would likely just mute that person.

I don't think you are; this drives me barmy! I don't AR, but I do immediately mute the person who sent the invite. May be it's time to propose a feature in which you can toggle off 'accepts group invites'

I get more invites sent to my alts, too.

Yes. I think this practice is bordering on criminal, but again, I just mute them.

This annoys me too. It's got bad enough that I have had no choice but to disable IM's to email.

Randomly throttle group invites with automatic flagging. Exceed the throttle value a few times and get a warning, next time suspended. It wouldn't need human supervision at all.

There's really never a reason to do mass group-invites, even a store owner that sends a flood of invites to everyone who purchased something yesterday is still spamming.

Or the quick fix would be to bounce group invites back to the inviter when the person being invited is in 25 groups already. If you don't want group invite spam, you'd simply join some filler groups to get to the maximum.

Absolutely easy to do.

Preferences>>Communication>>Recieve Group Invites

On by default, UNchecking this box would block any and all Group invites.

So simple to do, which means LL probably will never think of it, heh.

~Jessy

I do as well, it's bizarre. Perhaps they are picking newish accounts without payment info as most likely to join stupid groups (rather than, say, bitter cynical old so-and-sos such as myself).

Oh, and I AR if I have the time and inclination. It doesn't take much time for LL to look at an AR saying "group spam", it will go on the record, and if they get enough of them they will take action.

Replying is pointless as with any other spam, unless one is _really_ bored.

We like to call ourselves "experianced elders". *grins*

Quote: "Why is it called 'common sense' when it's so blasted rare?"

~Jessy

AR's are terribly overrated. While it's annoying to get invitations to groups and/or friends list from total strangers, simply decline and go on about your business.

Some people use AR's for just about any little thing. Don't they know by now it's just a waste of time. I know I do.