Ripped off - what now?

Paid a large sum in rent.

Next day the sim was sold.

New owner said, get money back from old owner.

Old owner is not replying to requests for either a refund or barter (they have a shop in SL).

Any advice on what to do? I have the transaction info copied/pasted. I just do not know how to proceed from here.

TIA.

File a ticket to LL? Or just the police like you would file any money theft or fraud.

I've seen this 'file a ticket' before in forums - but how do I do that? Thanks.

I doubt real life police would be interested, as I'm fairly certain the person lives in another state and it would fall under the limit imposed by small claims courts, etc. However, I hope LL will be. Hard to believe there was no advance knowledge but even if not, obviously I got nothing for the money paid.

I thought the offer of barter was more than fair, after all, no manufacturing costs in LL.

go to the help menu on your toolbar, scroll down to Abuse Report, and complete the report. If I were you, I would file it under 'fraud'.

Go to 'support' on your toolbar on the website, and choose 'submit a ticket' if you are a premium member. If you are not premium, I don't think that option is available tho.

ll will simply tell you that they dont involve themselves in user/user affairs.
go to a third-party forum and name and shame them. its about the only recourse you have.

Make an alt, and come back here and name them.

Also name those popular stores selling copy bot stolen items too.

Please do file the AR!
I have been ripped of recently myself, the old owner sold all sims to another estate and never told one of his 79 renters. Of course I did AR the guy, even though it might not be of much use. Doing nothing though, doesn't make LL aware of it either.

For the rest: lick your wounds and move on. In total it did cost me about 8k that I will never see back. Bummer but looking forward is the only recourse.

Could it have been P & K Enterprises? (see, no user names) I have heard they even were discussed in congierge chat, as they scammed their whole group of renters. Last time I checked there were 79 renters in that group! Please do file an AR though.

File an AR for land fraud.

yes, I believe this is one of the reasons that LL put in the new 'fraud' category on the abuse reports. There is a difference between resident disputes and out and out fraud. If someone took your money on Monday, and sold out on Tuesday, he probably did it with the intent of stealing your money. That's fraud.

LOL - I love this advice

Limonella, my husband and I went through the same thing this time last month. So I certainly empathize with you. In our case we received a "partial" refund. But we lost a the upfront money we paid and was there only for 3 months and now in the process of reopening our business. He bought us a sim so we won't ever have to deal with that issue unless LL reclaims it. Understandably, not everyone is in a financial position to do that. Hell, I couldn't if it wasn't for him. /big smooches to Will.

Anyway, yes file an AR report but very likely LL will tell you they will not become involved. That is the downside of things.

"Leasing" unfortunately is always a risk in sl. When leasing from an estate owner or someone that owns mainland and sells it there is a risk. Only way to minimize the risk is either purchase your own private island or buy mainland. With both, LL is the one you will directly deal with. There are advantages and disadvantages to private island and mainland ownership. For that look at different threads in the forum as there have been countless debates/discussion over this.

There are many honest land barons in sl, so please don't let this experience taint you.

I have a small 2048 parcel in Larsson if you need somewhere to bunk till you get yourself resettled. If interested im inworld and when I get home from work I will contact you.

I wish you luck!!!

No real advice to add but that stinks.

I guess I have been fortunate because, while my SIM has been sold twice since I bought land there, both times the new owners honored my pre-payments to the former owner(s). It's the right thing to do and, since there were no guarantees that they would, I appreciate their honesty.

edited to add: there are two plots currently available on my island...

And no matter what you choose to do, consider purchasing your own mainland parcel so you are not at the mercy of someone else.

or, if you insist on renting - go to someone with a good reputation. we have several in these forums alone.

sorry this happened. you probably won't find any resolution, refund or help from LL. so i hope you can move on from it soon. good luck.

Please file an AR for fraud. It will help us all.

I purchased a sim about a month ago. The previous owner of the sim informed me that all tenants were aware that the sim in the process of being sold and that they would probably have to move, since we had plans to redo the sim and parcel layouts.

Except... it turned out the renters had NOT been informed. A day before the sim was transferred, I fly over to chat with an existing tenant. She had NO idea the sim was being sold. It turned out to be quite a mess that I never would have willingly entered into.

So not only renter beware, sim-purchaser, beware.

I've had this happen to me twice before. Both times I logged in to what I thought would be my house and everything had simply been leveled flat. In one case, I was renting and had paid 4 weeks in advance. At least the old owner gave me my rent back plus a week for the hassle factor. In the other case, my friend, who had actually "purchased" the 1/8 sim we were on got nothing. She filed an AR but got nothing out of it -- but that was before LL had a "fraud" classification for tickets. So maybe things can be undone?

The ugly part of this is having all your stuff auto-returned as one big glob. It took me 1/2 a day on a friend's empty SIM to get the mess untangled.

There are so many horror stories from people who think they've "bought" land on Estates only to see their land poof when the sim gets sold.

There are many honorable Estate owners. There are many Estate owners who start out with the best intentions but end up borking their tenants when their RL or SL fortunes head south. There are also scum Estate owners who plan from the start to sdrew their tenants.

Mainland is safe but unzoned and often chaotic. Estates are buyer/renter beware but often orderly.

File that AR anyway -- I hope it works for you.

Although our individual mainland properties are small, it did serve as a backup till we got resettled. For that I am grateful that we kept our mainland properties.