See? The Lindens do care.

So about 2 months ago more or less I opened my Mainstore but didn't want my SLX boxes on the same property. I decided to go hunt out a small lot that had more or less around 100 prims to start with. Found a lot that seamed decent, was $300 a week for 117 prims, nice deal.

So I go there and it was one of those scattered about Sims that had half builds everywhere, some adfarm stuff, you know the type, they look like a mess. So I decided eh it's quiet, traffic was really low so why not, won't have to worry about my boxes.

Before I get into the good part, normally I will ask around about Islands, land owners etc etc before I decide to purchase land, but had that anxious new business rush to me.

I proceeded to rent it for 3 weeks to start($900). Pay the box and the bos didn't change to "rented by so and so with 21 days left". Sort of made me a bit fishy. So I read the rental card after I did so and it said the owner of the plot will invite me to the group within 24 hours of notification and everything like that. Ok cool. So 1 day goes by, maybe he's busy. 2 days, maybe some RL issues came up. 3 days, I'm starting to smell poo. Eventually after about a week, nothing. So I investigated into the land group and also the owner of the group. Both aren't in the group search or in the people search. Ok I smell the scam now but unfortunately it was to late. Payed 3 weeks worth of rent already.

So I did a AR, took a picture of the fake rent boxes and sent it to LL. Gave them the Sim name, its locaation, the owner and the land group. Also I'll post the information below so no-one else falls into the scam. But anyway I went there today out of curiousity to see if they did anything. I mean even if you can't get me my money back, hey no big deal but shut the scam down anyway so no-one else falls victim. So guess what, allll the boxes are still there robbing whoever pays them. Great job Lindens. You always say in all your replies to everyone "Oh we do hear and understand you" or "Oh yes diddly doo we are working on it diddly fiddly right away"....my ass you are.

So anyway here's the Land name and group name and all that so no-one else falls victim because it's pretty obvious(and we all alreadt know this). The Lindens won't do nada, not a thing, zip, zippo, nothingggggg.

Effingham 63/125/83

Group name- Gambino Rentals and Sales (should of known by the name, lol)


hope no-one fell victim to these guys.

Im really sorry to hear about what happened to you. That really sucks! Some people I just wish you could virtually beat the shite out of. I know some of my customers probably think Ive dont just what this guy did to you!
I havent answered notecards in awhile because we have had nothing but severe weather lately! Constant tornadoes and flooding rains, so well even though I want to be on SL, I just havent been able to! Like right now..Im going to rush in and answer as many as I can, before the round today comes in. You never know, maybe some of these people live in my area..midwest has been hit pretty hard lately..lol

All right.

First, I'm sorry this happened to you.

Second, don't name names in the forum, it's a violation of the Forum guidelines. But you knew that.

Third, you never mention whether you IM'd the landowner. That's the first step in any dispute resolution. If he doesn't respond, try a notecard. If that doesn't work, try contacting other people in the group, especially group officers.

Fourth, how do you know the rental boxes are fake? Did you inspect them? Who's the creator? Hippo systems are pretty reliable and widely used, but changes to server code by LL and other things can sometimes make them malfunction.

Fifth: When you pay a box, it may or may not change size and shape, depending on how the owner has it set up. But it should give SOME indication that it has rented the parcel to you, in chat or by its floating text. Did it do that?

Sixth: If a situation looks funny, always IM the owner before renting and clear up any questions. And never pay more than one week's rent, at least at first.

Seventh: Why rent land at all? An XStreet box can go anywhere. Just put them in an attic room over your store or something.

All right.

First, I'm sorry this happened to you.

Second, don't name names in the forum, it's a violation of the Forum guidelines. But you knew that.

Third, you never mention whether you IM'd the landowner. That's the first step in any dispute resolution. If he doesn't respond, try a notecard. If that doesn't work, try contacting other people in the group, especially group officers.

Fourth, how do you know the rental boxes are fake? Did you inspect them? Who's the creator? Hippo systems are pretty reliable and widely used, but changes to server code by LL and other things can sometimes make them malfunction.

Fifth: When you pay a box, it may or may not change size and shape, depending on how the owner has it set up. But it should give SOME indication that it has rented the parcel to you, in chat or by its floating text. Did it do that?

Sixth: If a situation looks funny, always IM the owner before renting and clear up any questions. And never pay more than one week's rent, at least at first.

Seventh: Why rent land at all? An XStreet box can go anywhere. Just put them in an attic room over your store or something.

[Edit to add: Also, profiles have been having problems the last few days. Sometimes I've had to click on someone several times before the profile will come up.]

LL named a region 'Effingham'.............well eff me....will it soon be hard to find and filtered? )

Well this sucks. I thought the Fraud category of AR was specifically intended for blatant, extreme cases such as this.

(An incidental observation: L$300/wk for 117 prims of unexceptional Mainland is really not such a great deal. To achieve what you want, though, you could easily just rent a few prims for *much* less, joining a landowner group just long enough to rez the server boxes so they won't get auto-returned.)

yes when i got suspicious i imed the name of the guy and never got a reply, this was about two months ago. also i'm not saying pay boxes arent well made but i'm sure theres ways to tweak them, especially if your a grade A scripter looking to damage things. not saying thats the case here, but its a possibility. Nothing is 100% secure and safe and eventually ways are found around things. I believe I messaged him twice, and also messaged a owner of a sign that was placed on a small 16m lot, the sign was about not renting the small spot, it being a adfarm or whatever. 2 months youd figure something would of happened by now, so thats what leads me to believe it was a scam. I've heard of it before but unfortunately due to my lack of patience at that particular time, i fell victim. again the $900, i could care less, its the principal with me. Keep the money, but beat it loser. thats how I feel. And if by chance it isnt a rip off or whatever (which has yet to be proved to me) I highly suggest not buying or renting from these guys seeing as how theres no such thing as customer service or professionalism. And I will delete the guys name, As much as I love coming here to bitch and be blunt or outright wrong...I still enjoy it here

Lindal, he did try to find them

If he's not in search maybe he quit the game already.

If you paid the box and it didn't change state then probably it didn't properly record the payment and never notified the owner. That's pretty common.

I have the transaction history of it, but if so...where would the money go?

Why would anyone want to go through all the annoyance of setting up an honest business in Second Life, when money scams are so easy and profitable?

I don't know whether this particular case is an intentional scam or negligence. But geez, isn't this a blueprint for anyone who wants to scam money? Take someone's money, there is no recourse, Linden Lab doesn't care, and there is no good way to warn anyone else.

If you're in SL you may as well get used to this type of thing. Linden does not care. in all my years here is a cross section...

I owned a qaurter sim of mainland back in the day when you had to be premium to own land at all. A big land baron decided they wanted my land at half market value. I said no thanks. Then one of thier officers came along and told me I had best take thier offer. I said no, a bit more strongly. Next thing I know there was an SL mafia shooting customers off my land. Linden of course did nothing. Finally one guest shot back, and within minutes a linden was there accusing me of shooting even though the person who did so said in open chat that they had done it. I ended up with a false AR against me posted BY the Liason. Ultimnately I sold the land to realtors who hated the land baron ( notice no names) and would never sell to her.

Four years ago I found a permissions bug. I reported it. No reply other than the form letter. Finally I found Linden's bug hunter in world..duplicated the issue in front of him, then HE duplicated the same issue himself. His reply even though he had duplicated it himself....it had to be my PC even though the perms were shifting to full while I was offline then he left. This permissions bug still exists today, 4 YEARS LATER UNADDRESSED!

Recently some items of mine were stolen. Again nothing was done. The ultimate result is I had to let my sim go at a total loss to myself due to a total lack of support on the part of Linden.

again 4 years agowhen sitpends were still around, mine was not paid. I IM'ed multiple Lindens and all responded by saying e-mail suport or submit a ticket. By then I knew tickets were ignored unless they cost Linden or the big land barons money. Ultimately I got in touch with the boss man. He took care of it personally from his own account and assigned someone to look into it finding out it was a widespread issue. SO far he is one of about THREE lindens I have ever gotten to listen or do a D*MNED thing.

As I said Linden does not regulate or protect us, our money or our porperty whether intellectual or real. So get used to it.

And for Linden, you get an A for concieving an idea that had a lot of potential. Unfortunately your support and upgrades get an F- for a total lack of effort on your part unless the rezzie is rich. If other grids were up to snuff and scripts were working fully I'd be gone already. Unfortunately most of them seem to be going your way of no support and no regulation of theft or scams.