Help Me!!! I have just been banned for NOTHING

Wow, this is the first I have every heard of this. One month ago, my RL sister using her SL AV gave her SL mother L$58,000 to buy an Opensim from her friend. If she had known about this, not sure she would have made the transaction. Again, this was about a month ago and neither of the three recieved any negitive word. My sister purchased the Lindens directly from LL using her credit card.

Amazing. Ban first, ask later... this is not good business.

Yes this is HIGHLY disturbing... I can personally think of hundreds of times that I've transferred funds exceeding this amount with no question or problem. Surely to goodness they aren't going to limit our transactions.

It's a complete shambles, isn't it. And the worst of it is, they appear not to give a damn.

I don't think the system limits the amount that can be transfered. I imagine it's more that it compares transfers with the av's history of transfers. I've received a couple of hundred k without any problems. Also, they'll follow bad money trails, which is where the 50L might have come into it.

If money was being drained from your account, would you still want them to wait?

I'd want them to investigate it and make sure they banned the right person.

As disgusting as this is, the reason the account has to be frozen is to prevent any quick movement of Lindens if something fraudulent is happening. However they should freeze the account not ban it.

I have, since joining SL, purchased L$10000 three times via Lindex with my Paypal account, costing me £21.99 each time - which in total is about £66 or US$110...The most that I have ever had in my account at any time has been L$10000...what I am thinking is that I "tip" a lot - say, L$50 or L$100 to a DJ etc - at least 4/5 times a week so maybe they've looked at that??

I'm not saying this has anything to do with the OP's issue, but it's something that might be considered.

The US FTC is enforcing a relatively new law. It requires "creditors" to implement procedures to identify and prevent fraud. The definition of creditor is very broad, and it's possible that SL may fall under this definition, or possibly dealing with the issue as a partner with their credit card processor.

To ensure compliance, one of the measures a company must take is to implement "Automated fraud detection software to recognize unusual card transactions and shut down cards immediately."

I doubt it. At my heaviest, I've made 10K Lindex buys 3 or 4 times a month, and i usually tip a minimum of 100L up to 1000L, and have never had any problems. This is why they need to stop with the automated form letters and explain why your account is being suspended, and give you the chance to tell your side if necessary.

This is the type of stuff people are supposed to be doing. This thing is a freakin' economy, isn't it? In fact, I can't think of any monetary transaction that due to its size, frequency, etc., should be considered somehow shady. I move 10s of 1000s of Lindens around all the time in big chunks between alts, or my business helper, for buying land, covering Zyngo parlor payouts, sending 350,000 L between alts to pay tier, whatever. I'm probably one of the shadiest-looking innocent people around, and so far I haven't been banned (knocks on wood-textured prims).

I wonder whether there's a human element to this, and you got pulled from a clunky drop-down list and your name was next to the bad guy. I don't know. But 10,000 L is about $36. Who is going to launder money in pissant $36 increments? It would cost far more in time than it's worth risking the crime.

--Avion

(P.S. This is a rant against the system, not you, Indiana -- I hope it's just a glitch and they'll get you back up and running soon)

I had something very similar happen to me, had build half a city that i worked REALLY hard on, only to log in oneday and get the dreaded little gray box of death.

what really takes the piss is if you are NOT in the US then it costs ALOT of money to call them, and they make sure you call them as they do not accept tickets in fraud cases.

never did get my account back, theys said they wanted US$300 off of me to get it back but they said i was welcome to make another account. so after spending £150 on calls to the US i got nothing except some winey american women (with the most annoying yappy voice u have EVER heard). LL even had the cheek to try and charge my bank US$300 AFTER! my account was banned, i was unable to remove my card details so my bank changed all my bank details for me

what an awsome company! (sarcizm) if they were operating in the UK they would be shit down immediatly.

i honestly thought that they had stopped all this by now, cus i heard on the grapevine that LL got in2 allot of trouble with one of the Europian banks for a similar case. then whats his name took over LL and i thought it had all changed

when you do call them up, be nice and polite (i allways am) but be firm and don't let em push you over, tell them how you think its a really unprofessional practice

Also for future advice, make 2 avatars, using seperate email addresses, and seperate first names, use the 2nd avatar as a backup, give it all your stuff and mod permissions, and pay it some L$ so u arn't completely skint if the worst does happen

Freudian typo lol

It must not be too bad Chaos, you keep coming back.

I have been reading alot on this subject and it happens all too often.

Link below is my experience of this happening to me.
/327/0a/285344/1.html

Oh Shifte, I have just read your thread - it sounds heaps worse than mine, at least I only had L$3800 in my account ..still no resolution to my appeal, my ticket is still "Work In Progress" so might have to give them a ring later

probably a new one to get into forums.... or online..

Why are these unexplained bans happening with such frequency lately?

Not saying it is the case here - but what if some have "ads" out and forgot about them and now the ad restrictions are in place? Stretch I know, but possible.

Hurray!

I got my account re-activated just 15 minutes ago!! I had to send over a copy of my driver's licence and my passport as they needed verification that I was who I said I was...Oh well, it took over a week, but it's all sorted

xx

That's good news but I'd want to know why it happened - why they wanted you to prove who you are.

1 User Agreed

I would too. If it was because of actual fraud, I'd like to know, so I'd know I'd need to hunt someone down.

sorry folks LL isn't a transparent company.

The Black Forest, at midnight, during a blizzrd, would be easier to see through.

As utterly, utterly, utterly infuriating as this must be, my guess is that a lawyer told them 'if you try to explain and even ONE word is out of place, they might be able to sue you. So stick to the generic form letters.'