help i am being IM spammed

this has been going on for a couple weeks now but i get IM's in green text so it must be a scripted object, the IM's are infrequent, i may get 5 in one day, 1 the next or none for a few days and i think all is well again only to be hit with 7 the following day.

the IM's seem to be the conversations people have in local chat, so at first i was muting the people who were chatting and that sort of worked but new people keep coming in and chatting..

i used live chat to try and get some help, they said send in a ticket, did that, they said send in an AR.. did that and they emailed me back saying all is well we solved your issue...

but they didn't and they wont respond to my saying no you did not it is still going on.

so here i am wondering if there is some way to track down the offending object so i can mute it.

anything?

I dunno but it sounds as if you might have checked something in preferences about logging IMs. Go in there and change some of that having to do with chat text and see if that helps.

If you check the certain box it sends IMs to main chat, but I dunno about the other way around. Is it possible you are confusing which is green. Just some thoughts.

Wear a tool to intercept the key of the object that is spamming you, so you can scan for it (with a scanner) if it's in the same simulator, or get the owner key to mute him (muting the owner will mute all his objects). The second option is to forward the message to your email where you are *NOT* online, so if the object is spamming you when you are offline, u'll have the text plus the Region name and the coordinates to find where the object actually is and mute it (or mute it + the owner).

Have you joined a group such as one of those necessary to take part in role-playing on many sims?

I had to revoke my membership of a couple of groups for that reason: inane requests for a teleport or other assistance because group members were lost, lazy or in some cases lonely and in need of someone, anyone, to chat. If you are beleaguered by green text then it is probably whispered chat from some object connected with the group since green is the plain vanilla setting in the client for whispers.

some great tips there thank you, one question, this "tool to intercept the key of the object that is spamming" where can i get one?

Maihem.. here's another possiblity...

Someone might have written a store-chat-bug system (poorly written), which they're using to "listen in" on the general chat in their store, club, or whatever. llGetCreator() is poorly understood by the average SL user getting their first start in LSL. llGetCreator returns the uuid of the creator of the prim holding the script, not the creator of the script. But when you test it in a new script, in a new prim, it works fine.. move the script, and someone else gets the IMs.

llGetCreator is used when people are trying to keep such a system working properly, in the event it needs to be deeded to group, or what have you. (I used it on some dialogs when I had a security system that had to be deeded to work, llGetOwner became useless).

Is it possible that such a script has been placed into some prim that shows your name as creator? The person who placed the scripts in that object may have had nothing but good intentions, and simply made a mistake. (this happened to me, when someone used one ogf my huge prims as a welcome mat/visitor tracker).

Anyways here's the tactic for tracking it down.

1. The names you see in the green chat. IM them and politely (and brefly) explain to them that something in their current location is IMing you, and would they please tell you where they are? Try this a few times, and someone will nibble.

"Hello, I'm sorry I don't mean to intrude. I've been receiving instant messages from some scripted object for several weeks, and judging by the information it's sending me, I'm guessing it must be in your vicinity right now. I've been trying to track down the source of these IMs. Would you mind telling me where you are?"

2. Once you can get the location, it's a small matter to find an object or prim that shows your name as creator. (for huge prims like I made, it's most often the floor). Turn on the "Scripted Objects" beacons, and see if that helps narrow it down. whisper something as you walk around, and you can probably target it's position fairly quickly.

3. Contact the owner of the object, and explain to him the problem.

3a. alternatively, you can just preemptively mute the owner, AR him, etc.. but you could try being nice first.

4. if you can't locate the object, contact the landowner, or the owner of the majority of the prims, and see if they can help you track it down.

5. it might also be a "worn object" particularly if you sell things that might appeal to BDSM types like collars (or wedding rings).. the partner/dominant may have intended to be "listening in" to their partner's/sub's chat conversations, and due to a simple programming error, it could be IMing you instead.

some of those 'subscribe-o-matic' groups are like that too...the one's that you can still join when you've maxed out the 25 groups that you're allowed to have. you have to go back to the subscribe-o-matic machine that you joined from and, i believe, click it again to unsubscribe.

hope that helps!

Create a prim (a cube), create a new script and drop this into it:
-

default {
state_entry() {
llListen(0, "", NULL_KEY, ""; // listen to all public chat
}

listen(integer channel, string name, key id, string message) {
key ownerid;
string ownername;

if ( llGetAgentSize(id) != ZERO_VECTOR ) return; // sneaky trick: objects have no agent size, because they're no agents
// so we only continue if the chat is from an object

ownerid = llGetOwnerKey(id); // the the owner of the chatting objects
ownername = llKey2Name(ownerid); // get their name (if the owner is in the same sim)
// it'd be much better to get the name via llRequestAgentData instead, but i'm trying to keep this example short

llOwnerSay("The Object named: '" + name + "' with the key: '" + (string)id + "' have sent you the message: '" + message + "' and it's owned by >>> " + ownername + " <<<";
}
}

-
...then wear the cube.

Of course, that's only going to work if the object is speaking in local chat. Sadly, it's gonna be useless if the object is actually IMing.

Definitely a good thing to try first tho.. to make sure that it *IS* an instant message.

Damn i must haven't sleep enough these days.. ignore the previous script.
You can't intercept IM's in the classic way, if not via debug infos, or using a modded client... so the forwarding IM's to email would be the easiest option for you, so you know exactly where the object is and you may ignore/examine it. Notice that you may even mute an object by name, so it won't annoy you while ur online (View menu > Mute List > Mute object by name...).

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mute

You know that page doesn't address how to find the source of object IMs at all, right?

Feel free to add the appropriate section or link to the article that does; I wrote that wiki article on the assumption that you have completed the Orientation Island or University of Caledon Oxbridge orientation.

I offer one free at my shop in Dudintsev, and on SLX at http://uncensored.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=594777

Why would information on locating an object be added to a page on muting? They are different things. And muting is a really poor solution to message flooding because the viewer still has to process them and can still get bogged down.

found it
the email, script and the free product i bought all pointed to the same object near my house
thanks everyone!!