Account closed because of alts?

Hi!

I just heard from a friend that his main account was closed down by Linden Labs because he had some alts. According to him, the Linden employee he was talking out that said something with violation of the TOS. Further, his alts (or one of them) should have been the cause of this. He didn't tell exactly but said something about he didn't pay for creating the alts. But according to the Knowledge Base and as stated her several times, a few alts should be free (https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417). He also said this happened to some of his friends and LL is enforcing this(?) since July.

Does anyone know or heard something about this?

something had to have happened for a Abuse Report to against this person.
This normally doesn't happen out of the blue. You are allowed alts. You do not have to pay for them either. That is up to you if you choose to make them premium.

Appeals are always a possibility and that works quiet often, also there is the ability to pay a $75 fee to reinstate your account, from what I understand.

Enforced since July? Isn't that when traffic gaming was outlawed? It's possible that this friend of yours had a *lot* of alts and was using them to game traffic at some location.

Well, you sure don't have a lot of facts there, so it's hard to say.

Linden Lab has not been charging for the creation of alts for over two years now, that I know of...although some of their published material still refers to a $10 fee. I can't believe that simply creating an alt and not paying for it would be cause for suspension.

If your friend made, say, a couple of hundred alts to use as traffic bots, it could be another story altogether. Using bots to inflate traffic figures is now a policy violation and might lead to a suspension of one's main account.

Or if your friend was suspended or banned on one account, and he used another to get back into SL and get around the ban, it would be occasion for disciplinary action.

Yep..


Well... Maybe.

That is what I also thought so far and I haven't heard or read anything else until my friend told me. But the real strange thing is that the same is said to have happened to some of his friends too...

Er.. Were these "friends" alts of his? Those don't count, you know..

wow never read that one... I guess with there wording they can apply that were they see fit.
You would think if so that there is some warning. Good clause to have for the ones that abuse it and over inflate with there alt games, and they know who they are.

Good to know Sindy

Ok, just asked him for details and he said they were not gaming traffic. They actually were doing nothing except for being used to backup inventory stuff...

The most common reason for an account to be shut down due to alternate accounts is when the person uses false information during the registration process. Fake name, throwaway gmail acount etc. There's another thread here somewhere with an example of what that letter looks like

Best bet is to contact LL via email or support ticket and ask for an explanation. have your friend give them all the details about the situation that he has, including all of his alt account names, and hope they get back to him sometime in a few weeks.

LL did the action; it has to be up to LL to explain it. Not much we can suggest, since we don't have all the facts.

Yes, you can definitely get banned for having too many alts, but you have to be screwing up big-time in order for this to happen.

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/21769-too-many-alts-permaban-second.html

The real problem is that there is NOWHERE where you can go to pay for having an alt...

- So if you did have to pay to have them, they would need a place where you can go and pay now wouldn't they?

This!!!

I am amazed at the number of people that come here asking why LL might have done something. If you want to know why LL did something, ask them. And if they did it, only they can undo it, therefore a support ticket or phone call is the only action available that has a chance in hell of accomplishing anything.

And it always seems to be some friend who has the problem. That really puts anyone who might have a suggestion at a big disadvantage........simply no way to get any first hand information. Everything is based on speculation........and that seldom resolves the issues.

My suggestion. Get in touch with your friend and tell him/her to contact Linden Lab. Email, support ticket, phone call, snail mail or walk in the door of their headquarters. Asking here on the forums will never solve the problem. Your friend is wasting time (both his and yours). Instead of enlisting you to whine for him he should fix the problem himself.

Would be good of LL to have clear and concise guidelines on this. I mean.. What do they consider an "army" for instance? (in reference to the quote posted by Sindy Tsure)

Of course that would be nice. But they don't. So we choose to live with it or move on.

I don't think LL is going to change the way they do things...........they've been doing the exact same thing for over years that I know of. However, the vague statement about an "army of alts" tells me that they don't want to specify an exact number. They are willing to accept many alts as long as it does not impact their bottom line too much. That impact can be attributed to many things...........say someone has 50 alts who regularly shop and purchase stuff is not too many in the eyes of LL. But, someone who has 25 alts who gather in one place (not necessarily a shop wanting higher traffic numbers) and lags the sim to the point of almost a standstill is way too many.

I can see their reasoning........but I don't agree with it. But I don't have any say so except to many take my three selves elsewhere.