Need help! I'm being scammed!

I don't know if this is the right board to post this, and if not, please correct me, but I've just been frauded by someone who's "selling land". She made a parcel available for purchase for 1L, and after reading all the rules, I went a head and bought it. Then she immediately banned me from the parcel, along with the 50 other sims she claims to own, and refuses to listen to me. She muted me after calling me a dumb shit and saying ADD and stuff like that were just excuses parents make for not raising their kids right. I'm not new to SL, but I don't know everything. She said there were signs, but I didn't see them, and when I went to build my house, I was banned after paying the 1L that she set the land to. Then she says I was supposed to pay 25000L, and that I'm frauding her, but yet she's keeping the money I did pay, won't give it back and won't listen to me, and is threatening to report me. I can't report her from the profile, unless I'm missing something, so I have to post it somewhere. Can someone please help me?

She's keeping your one linden dollar?

I am not a fan of L$1 land sales, they're a tad misleading but generally there are signs up or on the oland description that you need to pay tier within an hour or so.

Midi, better take the name out of your post. It's against TOS to name names.

Short answer no, there is no recourse for resident-resident disputes, which is what this ultimately is. I'm sorry.

Also, you might consider removing her name from your post as the terms of this forum frown on that sort of naming of names.

Finally, from your story it sounds like you paid her 1L. From there I have to ask: why on earth do you care? Wash your hands of it and go on your merry way. There are countless other landlords to rent from and countless other sims to visit in SL.

Yeah, well now my money's been taken, and I've been wrongfully banned by someone who I personally think is a terrible business person considering the way she treats people who are trying to be her clients. If anything, will the people who read this at least take this as a warning to get to know someone before buying land from them. If they can't act professional about it, then they can't be trusted.

Hi edit your post and take out the person's name. You are not allowed to do that here.

You probably bought land for $1 on a private estate, but you still need to pay the rent. You were not scammed You just misunderstood the rules.

Hi Midi,

"Buying" land on an estate is never buying it really, it is always renting. The purchase price should be looked on as a deposit. There will always be a monthly charge on top, whether it is called rent or tier or whatever.

I can't make much sense of your story, but it looks like you have lost ... L$1? Unfortunate, but not the end of the world. It's against the rules to name names here, so best you remove the name from your post.

There is a category for in the abuse report for payments made for products not delivered. You can use this. Scamming people out of funds in not simply a resident to resident dispute. Report it.

You're right in a sense, achem, except that my guess is there is no scam here. Based on the facts as presented, there is (a) a new renter who was mistaken about the terms of a 1L land purchase, and (b) a landlord who wasn't gracious about the mistake when the new renter started building without paying what tier was due.

Even if the signs on the property or the covenant were misleading, I doubt there was any intent to scam here. While there *are* scams based upon reclaiming estate land after sale, anyone who tries to do that with 1L sales is not going to find it a very lucrative scam. So it seems very unlikely that the landlord was committing fraud. At most, rudeness - and that, I'm afraid, is not actionable.

One Linden dollar? Is that the amount you're down? I know it's an issue of prinicple, but in terms of money is it just the one Linden dollar?

Midi,

You "bought" land on a private estate. I put "bought" in quotes, because even if you pay an up-front "purchase" fee, sometimes a lot more than $1L, you are still renting that land. You must pay the owner a weekly or monthly rental to stay there.

You have not been defrauded. At worst, you have been treated discourteously.

Land in SL is a complex issue, and you should read up on it before buying or renting.

Meanwhile, if you feel so hard done by, I'll send you your $1L when I log on tonight. That's worth all of $.04.

I have a feeling Midi paid more than one linden dollar but has not given us the full story. If not, she or he is a bit heated up based on the principle and not the money they are out.

Once again, confusing and misleading Estate ads boggle another newcomer.

not all estate ads are misleading nor confusing Raymond-some of us take a lot of time and trouble to help those new to land sales & rentals and often talk people out of buying land when its clear they have not understood the implications or maybe would be better off renting an inexpensive home first to get to grips with prims etc, and once again not all landlords on private estates are scam artists.(not that you said they were in your post)..i DO hope this isnt going to be yet another bashing by all and sundry about renting on private estates.

~sigh~

Well hopefully we'll soon see a land rentals as well as land sales tab for estates and then L$1 land sales won't be in the wrong category.

yup...would be a great move forwards I agree

Hee hee slightly OT but yet another reminder why I choose to remain a tenant on someone else's land and not buy or rent land myself. I haven't got the patience or brain capacity for it currently with all the other things going on in my RL and SL.

I'm only bashing the misleading $1 ads. I love estates and their low lag beachy goodness.

"Help help! I'm being repressed!"
(Sorry, couldn't resist)

Land "sales" is not what it is, it's leasing at best. I am just happy for you that she ONLY took you for one Linden, and not $25,000.

We don't know that she "took" him for anything. This is an extremely one sided story. I'd be willing to bet he never even bothered to read the land covenants, which is ignorant, and that the land covenants clearly explain, as they usually do for estate parcel rentals that include admin rights to the land, that within a certain amount of time rent must be paid. To think one can buy estate land for one linden dollar and not pay rent is ignorant and naive as well. We don't know the other side of the story and it smells funny to me.

Here's my old feature suggestion thread related to this idea:

/13/37/167533/1.html

The idea did not go over very well.

Did the OP say they never intended to pay more than $1L? I must've missed that part. (Rereads it. Nope. It isn't in there.)

It seems a harmless enough story even if we do only have one side. $1L is missing. And if the person who they sought to rent from said the types of things they're accused of, there is no excuse for it. Totally unprofessional.

$25,000 seems a lot to pay in rent.

Whatever you do (renting,buying,leasing...call it what you want) there will always be monthly (or weekly) ongoing costs for as long as you reside on that land. You really could not have hoped in getting a large chunk of Land for just 1 Linden....with no further additional costs???? Surely not!

I suggest you read up General Land related info before you proceed with next land related transaction.


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In my opinion, the OP was just a bit early for the Friday threads.

What idiot believes that they can "buy" a huge parcel (or small for that matter) for a $1L, and no recurring expense? They have over a year in SL so no "I'm a poor dumb Newb excuse" for them. If they actually did waste the land lords time with this foolishness, it's just a dumb griefer trick, and the ban is deserved.

That said, the best way to handle the "buy" estate land (which is a useful tool to transfer near complete rights to an individual or group tenant) is to "sell" for the price of the first week or two of rental cost. That stops the griefers who tie up land by paying the dollar, then never paying the tier box.

Sorry that I am not more sympathetic, but if you plan on buying or renting land, get a little educated. I will be logging on now to send this fool a $1L so that they won't have to cry about their devastating loss any longer.

Agreed.