All Merchants and Avatars beware
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Katheryne Helendale
(loading...)
Join date: 5 Jun 2008
Posts: 2,187
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10-07-2009 11:11
From: Treasure Ballinger Yeah. A long way. Hopefully they can start with not slapping their mock-up out in public where people can not only see it but join it. That would be a good start. Next time around they'll need to change their name no doubt. I don't think anybody blew it out of proportion, people are nervous right now with all the content theft. If virtualget had been more concientious, nobody would have ever seen their little experiment and none of this would have happened. Maybe next time they will be. I'm curious: Who discovered this site, and how was that discovery made? Was it advertised in any way? Or did someone just happen to stumble on it? |
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Argus Collingwood
Totally Tintable
Join date: 5 Dec 2005
Posts: 600
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10-07-2009 11:30
From: Katheryne Helendale I'm curious: Who discovered this site, and how was that discovery made? Was it advertised in any way? Or did someone just happen to stumble on it? The SL Merchant Commerce group had a Group IM going in-world. I went via the link provided, saw my stuff and shot off various cease and desist emails to the provider and the site.
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~*~ Please behave before I have to slap you naked and hide your clothes! ~*~ Argus-eyed = carefully observant or attentive; on the lookout for possible danger 
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Taylor Lubezki
Bratty - Neko
Join date: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 498
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10-07-2009 11:35
From what I gather.. Someone was searching their store name via google to see if they were blogged or anything and stumbled upon that site... So yea I can see why one would freak out.. Pink Linden has requested anyone that found their items there to submit a ticket to them with as much information as possible. I'm sure she already took care of her top 10 though.. 
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Ova Hauled "Ova Haul your Second Life" Ova Hauled
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Eli Schlegal
Registered User
Join date: 20 Nov 2007
Posts: 2,387
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10-07-2009 11:38
Who added the BS about credit card fraud to the story??? That definitely made it a more attractive rumor to spread.
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Taylor Lubezki
Bratty - Neko
Join date: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 498
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10-07-2009 11:41
That I'm not sure of where it started.. But what I heard was that someone tried to make a purchase using their CC account they signed up with and when it didn't deliver they were told to contact the merchant. I can't verify this is true or not.
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Ova Hauled "Ova Haul your Second Life" Ova Hauled
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Sin Toshi
Animated
Join date: 7 Oct 2007
Posts: 75
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10-07-2009 12:00
From: Argus Collingwood Fact is they were soliticing membership for a fee, had listing they lifted from Xstreet without permission and nowhere cited the place as anything but a real working shopping cart. THIS! Only after they are caught does it suddenly become "demo" site. Yeah, right |
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Eli Schlegal
Registered User
Join date: 20 Nov 2007
Posts: 2,387
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10-07-2009 12:02
/me rolls his eyes.
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Sin Toshi
Animated
Join date: 7 Oct 2007
Posts: 75
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10-07-2009 12:04
I'm rolling mine too
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Lord Sullivan
DTC at all times :)
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
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10-07-2009 12:13
From: Katheryne Helendale This.
But in the case of VirtualGet, I am inclined to believe it was an honest mistake in an ill-thought attempt to show proof-of-concept. Nothing more.
I'm not saying these guys are honest; nor am I saying they're dishonest. What I will say is that I don't know enough about them to render a judgment. If these guys come back later on with a fully-functional store, I'll watch them. If they show that they know what they're doing, have the proper credentials, have all their I's dotted and T's crossed, and can generate traffic, then I will likely list my products there. Lord knows XstreetSL is in desperate need of some competition, and if VirtualGet can bring it, then more power to them. Would love to see your products listed with us then on slapt.me as we have all the I's dotted and T's crossed, and can generate traffic
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Independent Shopping for Second Life residents from established and new merchants. http://slapt.me  slapt.me - In-World HQ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bastet/123/118/26
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Treasure Ballinger
Virtual Ability
Join date: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 2,745
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10-07-2009 12:19
From: Lord Sullivan Would love to see your products listed with us then on slapt.me as we have all the I's dotted and T's crossed, and can generate traffic /me squints; is that an ICQ icon??? Wow; haven't seen one of those in ages, I didn't realize ICQ was still around. |
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Lord Sullivan
DTC at all times :)
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
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10-07-2009 12:21
From: Treasure Ballinger /me squints; is that an ICQ icon??? Wow; haven't seen one of those in ages, I didn't realize ICQ was still around. LOL yes it is havent used it in ages though as people do not seem to use it anymore 
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Independent Shopping for Second Life residents from established and new merchants. http://slapt.me slapt.me - In-World HQ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bastet/123/118/26
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Katheryne Helendale
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Join date: 5 Jun 2008
Posts: 2,187
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10-07-2009 12:26
From: Lord Sullivan Would love to see your products listed with us then on slapt.me as we have all the I's dotted and T's crossed, and can generate traffic Let me know how! I'd love to do it! |
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Lord Sullivan
DTC at all times :)
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
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10-07-2009 12:34
From: Katheryne Helendale Let me know how! I'd love to do it! Here is the How to page: http://www.slapt.me/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=181and here are the FAQ's: http://www.slapt.me/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=74Look forward to seeing you there, I am sure you will know a lot of the names already on the site and frequenting the forums. We even had a community project on the site and we have our own Free of charge mascot "Slappy" the penguin the thread on the project is here http://www.slapt.me/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=725 we really have a good community spirit growing there now
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Independent Shopping for Second Life residents from established and new merchants. http://slapt.me slapt.me - In-World HQ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bastet/123/118/26
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Autumn Palen
Registered Lurker
Join date: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 111
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10-07-2009 12:42
From the sister discussion across the street, this was the membership plan this site was offering. Make of it what you will, but color me skeptical:
"Our monthly subscription-based program gives you access to our virtual download directory! You may browse around and see what is available, and if you decide that we have something you want, you can become a premium member and download it!
To subscribe, simply select which membership plan you wish in the checkout (after signing up) and your account will be upgraded automatically, granting you access to this and more!
For a limited time we are offering a 3-day trial for those of you who want to see what there is with the option to opt-out. The cost is reduced to $4.86 and you will get full unlimited access to the items listed in this site."
Also, yesterday I alerted one of my flickr friends who makes poses that some of her products were listed on the site. She was a bit taken aback since she had never heard of the site nor gave permission to have her items listed. When she tried to log into the site to see the price on her poses, they were listed as free and then asked for her cc information.
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Lord Sullivan
DTC at all times :)
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 2,870
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10-07-2009 12:49
From: Autumn Palen From the sister discussion across the street, this was the membership plan this site was offering. Make of it what you will, but color me skeptical:
"Our monthly subscription-based program gives you access to our virtual download directory! You may browse around and see what is available, and if you decide that we have something you want, you can become a premium member and download it!
To subscribe, simply select which membership plan you wish in the checkout (after signing up) and your account will be upgraded automatically, granting you access to this and more!
For a limited time we are offering a 3-day trial for those of you who want to see what there is with the option to opt-out. The cost is reduced to $4.86 and you will get full unlimited access to the items listed in this site."
Also, yesterday I altered one of my flickr friends who makes poses that some of her products were listed on the site. She was a bit taken aback since she had never heard of the site nor gave permission to have her items listed. When she tried to log into the site to see the price on her poses, they were listed as free and then asked for her cc information. The website in question, when googled has a lot of the pages dates etc all cached in case anyone cares to take a look. Just check the google cached pages.
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Independent Shopping for Second Life residents from established and new merchants. http://slapt.me slapt.me - In-World HQ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bastet/123/118/26
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Lindal Kidd
Dances With Noobs
Join date: 26 Jun 2007
Posts: 8,371
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10-07-2009 14:07
From: Autumn Palen ...Also, yesterday I altered one of my flickr friends who makes poses that some of her products were listed on the site. She was a bit taken aback since she had never heard of the site nor gave permission to have her items listed. When she tried to log into the site to see the price on her poses, they were listed as free and then asked for her cc information. This is not the action of a prototype or trial site. This is the hallmark of a phishing expedition.
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It's still My World and My Imagination! So there.
Lindal Kidd
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Micheal Moonlight
Registered User
Join date: 4 Sep 2005
Posts: 197
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10-07-2009 15:26
From: Sin Toshi THIS!
Only after they are caught does it suddenly become "demo" site. Yeah, right I have a demo site of competition for SLX... I have some entries on it that are from SLX to test how it looks compared to SLX... I have the creators permission (one thing they should of done.. but mistakes happen). The site is indexed by google and actually has a higher page ranking then SLX.... I don't mark it as demo anywhere because I don't advertise it, and I know it's demo... if someone stumbled across it and got freaked the same way it happened to them I would of done the same thing. I blame google more then the site themselves for what happened  |
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LittleMe Jewell
...........
Join date: 8 Oct 2007
Posts: 11,319
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10-07-2009 15:37
A website that wants to charge to sign up and buy stuff? And their sign up page was asking for name, address and phone number. Sounds odd to me for a place that will supposedly sell virtual goods.
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♥♥♥
-Lil
Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?
~Mark Twain~
Optimism is denial, so face the facts and move on.
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Lil's Yard Sale / Inventory Cleanout: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Triggerfish/52/27/22
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/littleme_jewell
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Micheal Moonlight
Registered User
Join date: 4 Sep 2005
Posts: 197
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10-07-2009 15:44
From: LittleMe Jewell A website that wants to charge to sign up and buy stuff? And their sign up page was asking for name, address and phone number. Sounds odd to me for a place that will supposedly sell virtual goods. Depends on there business model, and what they eventually planned on doing with it... the site was just a basic themed OScommerce site without very much done with it, the information requested is all steps in the default sign up stage for OScommerce, nothing at all to do with anything they coded. Myself I envisioned they were charging a monthly fee for access to products that are there from the creators... imagine charging 14.95 a month for unlimited 'products' then you pay the creator of whatever got downloaded 10 cents for each download.... for some creators they might make more this way then they do selling for linden on SLX.... without knowing the whole story or seeing the finished site, we have no idea. |
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Alazarin Mondrian
Teh Trippy Hippie Dragon
Join date: 4 Apr 2005
Posts: 1,549
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10-07-2009 16:10
I just attempted to connect to VirtualGet and my anti-virus program (Kaspersky... It's horrible but I get it for free from my bank) blocked the site and had it marked as a phishing site  right from the get-go. I'll have to take a look at it using a different computer. I think that answers the question as to whether it's a genuine business or not.
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My stuff on Meta-Life: http://tinyurl.com/ykq7nzt
http://www.myspace.com/alazarinmobius
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Crescent/72/98/116
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Argus Collingwood
Totally Tintable
Join date: 5 Dec 2005
Posts: 600
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10-07-2009 16:11
From: Autumn Palen From the sister discussion across the street, this was the membership plan this site was offering. Make of it what you will, but color me skeptical:
"Our monthly subscription-based program gives you access to our virtual download directory! You may browse around and see what is available, and if you decide that we have something you want, you can become a premium member and download it!
To subscribe, simply select which membership plan you wish in the checkout (after signing up) and your account will be upgraded automatically, granting you access to this and more!
For a limited time we are offering a 3-day trial for those of you who want to see what there is with the option to opt-out. The cost is reduced to $4.86 and you will get full unlimited access to the items listed in this site."
Also, yesterday I alerted one of my flickr friends who makes poses that some of her products were listed on the site. She was a bit taken aback since she had never heard of the site nor gave permission to have her items listed. When she tried to log into the site to see the price on her poses, they were listed as free and then asked for her cc information. Download or deliver in world? hmmmmmmmmm I tell ya with all the Copybot stuff, it's no wonder folks were concerned.
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~*~ Please behave before I have to slap you naked and hide your clothes! ~*~ Argus-eyed = carefully observant or attentive; on the lookout for possible danger
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Sin Toshi
Animated
Join date: 7 Oct 2007
Posts: 75
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10-07-2009 16:16
From: Micheal Moonlight I have a demo site of competition for SLX... I have some entries on it that are from SLX to test how it looks compared to SLX... I have the creators permission (one thing they should of done.. but mistakes happen). The site is indexed by google and actually has a higher page ranking then SLX.... I don't mark it as demo anywhere because I don't advertise it, and I know it's demo... if someone stumbled across it and got freaked the same way it happened to them I would of done the same thing. I blame google more then the site themselves for what happened A quick search on "blocking google" turns up a number of useful webpages including: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93708I would think anyone serious about ecommerce would educate themselves about the basics of search engines. That said, I don't buy the "we didn't know how stuff works" excuse. Too many red flags on this one. |
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Taylor Heron
Registered User
Join date: 1 Feb 2007
Posts: 57
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10-07-2009 18:40
This is not an innocent mistake, or automatic mistake as the site now claims. It was not a prototype. It's been running for months now. It's a phishing site for CC numbers. Plain and simple. The content theft is only part of the scam these criminals were running, funny they should get caught that way. There are lots of discussions about this site on various blogs... not all started yesterday either.
Content creators are not over reacting here. To do nothing is to surrender your IP rights.
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Alazarin Mondrian
Teh Trippy Hippie Dragon
Join date: 4 Apr 2005
Posts: 1,549
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10-08-2009 00:47
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My stuff on Meta-Life: http://tinyurl.com/ykq7nzt
http://www.myspace.com/alazarinmobius
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Crescent/72/98/116
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Amity Slade
Registered User
Join date: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 2,183
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10-08-2009 01:08
From: Micheal Moonlight I have a demo site of competition for SLX... I have some entries on it that are from SLX to test how it looks compared to SLX... I have the creators permission (one thing they should of done.. but mistakes happen). The site is indexed by google and actually has a higher page ranking then SLX.... I don't mark it as demo anywhere because I don't advertise it, and I know it's demo... if someone stumbled across it and got freaked the same way it happened to them I would of done the same thing. I blame google more then the site themselves for what happened Out-ranking one's competitor in Google searches is not the result of an amateur mistake. |
