Lying in a profile, for business purposes

Following on from Phil's trademark query, I came across a case of someone who set themselves up in business in SL, and to aid that business filled their profile, particularly the 1st Life section, with a totally made-up background to show they had vast experience in their field in order to get business.

I won't name the name of course, nor the business, to prevent people guessing.

So, as an example, if I created an alt, and set myself up in SL as an architect, with years of RL professional experience and professional qualifications in my profile (when in fact I had only done the first year of a correspondence course on the subject), and charged premium rates for commissions, would that be against the TOS, and if it isn't, should it be?

In RL that would be fraud.

Rock

I can't see LL ever making that sort of deception an item in the TOS, because of the astronomical cost LL would incur by guaranteeing (by default) that no false statements are ever made in Profiles. They are not going to take on the cost of verifying Profile claims and they are not going to take on the cost of defending lawsuits by those who've been defrauded by false Profile claims.

I kind of hate to see any big outcry for LL to police Profiles, because they're all too likely to use such an outcry as an excuse for moving to a 'no selling except by Registered Merchants' system. Personally, I like making things and I like selling them. I make no deceptive claims in my Profile (or anywhere else). But I know that I should be as careful about the claims I see in other people's Profiles as I am about any human claims in virtual or non-virtual life. People are prone to looking out for their own advantage, and can rationalize just about any type of deception.

All that said: I agree that conduct such as you describe is contemptible.

But for someone to pay a premium price because of something claimed in a Profile is just not common sense.

How do you know they don't have the experience they claim? How would LL know if someone challenged it?

I really wouldn't go by someone's statements in their profile when deciding if I was going to purchase goods or services from them in SL. The cost of content creation being nonexistant to minimal in SL, I would just expect to see an example of their work in SL.

Other looking at a content creator's profile to get a LM to their store if I like something they created, I really don't pay much attention to what's in their profile.

That any different to someone saying they are the other sex to what they are and posting a pic claiming it is them. You take a profile for what it is

Agreed. I've seen profile RL pics that *have* to be genuine because no-one would display fake pics that look like them And I've seen profile pics that I simply didn't believe because they looked too good. But most of the pics look genuine enough and none of the pics can be completely relied upon.

I seen one that the person said was of them my gut feeling was its a rl man. A friend looked at the RL pic then in a few mins sent me a link to an adult site showing this "women" ok maybe she was a porn actress BUT her profile was clear she was only into women trouble the web site showed she was also friendly with men

Now there's a thought. There are probably some hunky men in porn sites - I could use one of their pics in my profile - the face!

But I do wonder how your friend was able to find the real person in an adult site so quickly

Why would any statement about your FL be at all relevant to your SL?

Yes, they could use the same design tools, but it does not take long to learn the tools. Knowledge of a field in RL is helpful to SL, but there are so many things in RL that do not apply to SL and SL twists that you need to get used to that. Knowing one does not mean knowing the other. For example, how do gravity being optional and default camera distances affect the design? Knowing how to design a house to protect from the elements is pretty much not needed in SL except as an affectation.

When I buy something in SL I could care less about RL creds. I want to know what they have done in SL.

How is that any different than someone lying at a job interview?

Some questions or a simple request to see some of their previous work should be enough to verify on your own. If someone claims to be an architect and wants to charge you a bundle, ask them to let you see the houses they've already built. If they don't have any... well.... then they're noobs and should really go play with prims awhile so they have stuff to show people.

Seems simple to me...

If you are contracting with someone to do serious work for a lot of real money you are going to be checking them out in real life anyway so it doesn't really matter what sort of text is in an SL profile.

For instance I'm glad I never bought a certain shoe sculpt from one of the so-called expert sculpters in SL: http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-max-mode-caovilla-boots/471070

You simply never know until you do some checking.

People can lie all they want in their profile about their First Life - LL stays out of that territory.

However, if someone cares to make such claims about their RL experience to support their getting work in SL, then I would rightfully ask for references, resume, and phone numbers that aren't to a private cell or individual (who can lie for them), but a business.

If they want to make it all professional and legitimate, you can as well when dealing with them by calling them out and having them support the information in their profile with real life data since that is how they roll.

SLBA (Second Life Bar Association) gives you the choice of an rl verification, or not, that you are an actual attorney. If you care to verify, you can then be listed as 'verified' within the group. Otherwise, it's all just RP. There are many, many attorneys in SL that choose not to 'out' themselves, as rl attorneys. I do believe we have a few here in the RA forum........ But that's a guess, personally, I know several that aren't out in the open and use SL for R&R, not work related, not trolling for RL business.

How about Ron Jeremy?

Creating a deceptive FL profile for fraudulent purposes is one of many things that is not against the ToS but is clearly unethical.

You're right about that.

A pretty well known Creator/Merchant had her account permabanned (mid-Dec), land reclaimed, shop deleted and 200k L taken....for using a full perm sculpty boot that ended up being stolen from somewhere (purchased on XStreet). It's quite possible it might have been the one shown in your URL.

That's FAR in excess of the requirements of the DMCA, or of any reasonable interpretation of the ToS.

Were the texture nazis involved?

Claiming to be a licensed professional (such as an architect) when you are not, and taking money for it is just plain real life fraud. That the fraud may have been committed via the internet and Second Life does not change the fact you made an intentional deception for personal gain.

Given that lots of people write outright fantasies in their profiles as part of a roleplay, you should of course check out any claims if it's important.

Well, yes (that's kind of implied by 'fraudulent purposes'), but is it against the ToS? If fraud is against the ToS, there's a good many people falsely advertising and selling completely useless products in SL who should have been permabanned for it long since.

It is very excessive imo. It was for purchasing full-perm sculpty boots to use in her own creations......which she did! She made a pair adding in her own textures and additional prims like a buckle. Now i'm not aware of the part of the story that leads up to her being reported and who the creators of these Sculpties were. (It could be related to Ann's url....i'm not 100% sure)

The problem is that she lives in Sweden....although her English is ok, it might not be sound enough when making that call to LL offices in SF. I've told her she really needs to ring and explain the circumstances. What also doesn't help her, is that she deleted all XStreet email notifications (i.e both her Sales & Purchases).....otherwise she could forward that to a LL. I'm sure there must be records somewhere in LL's database records, as they receive 5% commissions from each sale.

She now wants to get a English speaking RL friend to help make that call to SF....i'm not sure LL will deal with any 3rd party other than the complainant. Basically the situation is a mess!

Yes, TOS section 4.1 says

"In addition to abiding at all times by the Community Standards, you agree that you shall not:...(ii) impersonate any person or entity without their consent, including, but not limited to, a Linden Lab employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; (iii) take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content that violates any law or regulation;"

* Claiming to be a licensed professional when you are not misrepresents your affiliation with the relevant licensing body (usually a state board)

* Commiting fraud is an action that violates a law

Basically, doing anything illegal in RL using Second Life as the medium, is also against the TOS.

I have the exact reverse problem. When I tell people what I really do, they don't believe me. Is that defamation?

So, how about that false advertising then?

Which is, in the UK, at least, potentially a criminal offence, that of attempting dishonestly to obtain for oneself a pecuniary advantage, namely to be given the opportunity to earn remuneration or greater remuneration in employment , by deception, namely by falsely representing one's qualifications. Contrary to Section 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981.

I thought the same thing as it was not some big named porn star