Is an exploit driving up classifieds prices?

On another forum I made some observations regarding a L$500,001 classified I saw last night for a furniture store (which, if paid every week, would cost the advertiser nearly $100,000 USD a year). Well a couple people in that thread mentioned that there is a known exploit with Classifieds where you can basically get an infinitely-renewing classified by only paying for it one time. Apparently several people have replicated this issue, and there is now a JIRA for it.

I wonder how long this has been going on? And how many of the L$200K+ classifieds currently running are actually being paid for?

Here's the Jira for this issue. Seems like one worth voting for:
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-2641

Please note that while I question whether the aforementioned furniture business is making enough to justify that ad, I am not accusing them of using the exploit... this is just how I learned about the problem.

Would you risk running such an expensive ad with a known exploit? I could see it if it were L$50 and someone would pretend they didn't notice, but at that price? Surely you're risking everything.

Well if you read how the exploit works, there's really not much to lose.

I have no clue if they are or not personally but I always wonder even after search had changed why people were paying so much and how could they possibly afford that.
If it is exploit one would think Linden Lab's would do something about it because they be losing money in long run because of it, unless they have use for it.

It says the linden dollar balance was in the red, unless the person running the classified isn't the person running the store then it would cause a problem and surely Linden Lab would eventually match up the accounts.

I haven't noticed this issue myself, so it's not a consistent bug.

If it's an unverified alt running the classified (and you posted the ad from your local Starbucks), and the one-time classified fee money came from an external source, such as SLX or an eBay seller, LL would have no way to associate the avatar with the business.

Also, I reckon that most balance-related account freezing is scripted/automatic, so it might never even be investigated by a human being until someone inquired about it.

In the past, you didn't auto-renew if you didn't have the money. I'm not sure when that got broken.

Ahh, another great use for infinate numbers of anonymous unverified alt accounts.
Lindens know of it and are working on it apparently.
Last time I brought this up the thread got deleted, as I guess everyone and their dog would start using it if it became common knowledge.

The guy running the particular ad that has been mentioned though, is very much part of the store the ad is being run for and has items for sale in there.

Yes, that's why I added to my post that I'm not at all accusing that particular store of the exploit. This is just how I learned about it.

Actualy if the reporter of that jira issue had tested this for just a bit longer he would have found his alt's account suspended.

You don't have to get your L balance that far into the negative before you get an automated account suspension.

I have seen people have it happen to them just from group liabilities putting them in the red.

Should it happen at all, though? I mean, unverified alts are expendable. Why doesn't SL just... not publish the classified if you don't have the L$ for it?

It used to be that way. When it broke is questionable.

Well look at it this way. If the classified is for a small amount they may get a few weeks out of the account.

But for large pay classifieds It won't be able to renew without killing the account, so they are still going to be paying as much as if they were not trying to cheat the system.

I've always wondered how some people can afford to run such expensive Classifieds. Thanks for that Wildfire ... explains a thing or two.

The RL people behind that particular classified would have that kind of money to burn, but yeah, it is a little strange how many there are at those kinds of rates.

I think the experiment in the Jira might not be giving an accurate answer, since it was for a 50L ad, and the account only went 150L negative. There are very likely time limits in conjunction with amount limits for suspending accounts that the public doesn't know about, and shouldn't know about.

Has anybody actually tried purchasing a classified for more Linden dollars than what you have in your account, and also with the $US source cut off?

What I found odd and unexplainable a few weeks ago (unless I was reading the results wrong) was in a search of all classifieds, with no search terms, there was a 500,000 L ad, and the next one was a 250,000 L ad. So, the 500,000 L ad was no more prominent or useful than if it had cost 250,001 L. So why would someone utterly waste 249,999 L? Any theories?

I realize that ads get paid for and expire at all different times, so maybe there are occasional snapshots-in-time that produce bizarre results like that.

Well, I don't think complete strangers take out 500,000L ads for people they don't know, so I think it would be safe to assume the 'unknown alt' belonged to the person in the ad.

However like many have said, they won't get away with this for long.

What I think many people dont' realize is, just how much money some creators make in SL. And many do it to win, not to make money. I suspect some people are paying most or all of their earnings from their business into classifieds. Sounds crazy, unless you just think of SL like a game, and aren't worried about making money. (and I suppose that sounds crazy too)

I'll tell you this, there are some creators in SL who are making 6 figure and possibly 7 figure yearly sales (US Dollar) from SL. And you can take that to the bank.

Assuming it's a legitimate classified, I'm guessing that many of the people with classifieds over 200K/week are wealthy outside of SL and are just pricing their ads to prevent any competition. They're rich enough in RL for the money they spend on classifieds to just be part of the game. While there may be some people in SL making that kind of money- where you can afford 100K USD in advertising with no RL funding- it's got to be low double-digits, if that.

Yep, I have the same theory there. And I do know some people are doing incredibly well in SL... but I also know there is a limit.

Classifieds is crazy. No one makes that kind of money from Furniture. I tell ya.

I find it weird that I make like what 5000 lindens a week and then turn around and have to spent 2K of it on classifieds.

At some point I used to advertise on classifieds for 15,000lindens but I gave up on that when I could no longer afford it.

And now this news about an exploit sucks ass.

Ok folks..

I have just confirmed that there IS an exploit.

Using it you can place an L$99999999 ad for L$50.

Yes, I did it and I saw it right there: an ad placed at the very top of Browse for L$50. See here: http://www.bijodesign.com/classifiedexploit.png (ignore Devil's Moon - that just happens to be where my alt was). Of course I've deleted it now.

I have submitted this to the security section of JIRA.

That is amazing. Thanks, Yumi.

Also, are you saying there's a new JIRA for this? If so, have the link?

It's SEC-118, but as it's a security exploit it's not viewable nor votable.