Wonderful New Scam...Watch Out Designers..

I was informed by a few friends of mine about a current scam going on. People buying things from your yard sale or store, using the original box and selling their new items. Such as, taking a box that had a mischief outfit in it, selling it,...putting something else in or marking it a copiable and then selling it. So they don't yell at the SELLER, they yell at the creator of the original box! So, a close friend of mine who has a WONDERFUL store in SL is now banned from alot of the top named stores in SL b/c of this scam! So I went to said person's store, and low and behold, there are my freebies yet again marked at 100l!! When I asked her about it, imagine that, she poofs. But her "friend" tells me, she got them for free. I found several of my old freebies for sale and on copy's. Along with other high named items, that she marks as copy..but aren't really copiable? I'd be glad to share the name and put this person in their place.

As for my friend, her name is Ashlin Leandros. She own's a store called Mixers where she sells shoes, along with a re-sale shop of outfits, called New 2 You. She has NEVER sold a free outfit or over charged on an original ever. She is very careful and curtious to the original designers. But now someone has taken something she worked hard for, and ruining her good SL name. I'm so fired up, I just can't take these scammers anymore. How low can you get??? Please, contact me in game if you want to visit this persons "store" or other people's items!

-Addison White

P.S. I was finishing my convo with some friends at my store, and talking about the clothing being sold. This is how the scam is happening. They BUY the outfit from Ashlin's store, they use the original box, so it has her name as the creator. They then use a texture ripping program to rip the clothing texture, then sell the item. I have on a Blaze dress right now, and the skirt actuallly says it was made by Ryan Linden.... The top is made from an old glitch where it has "nobody" as the creator. So every designer in SL is vunarable to this scam. Why they targeted my friend, I'm not sure. If you want to know more..I'm in SL and will share the name and the store to make sure your not being ripped off as well.

Sadly this is actually a very old scam.

The old trick of using a top name designer's box filled with junk not related to the box itself or it's original content and selling it at yardsales has been around forever. It's just one of the hazards you risk when you buy at a yardsale.

Yet another reason all my clothes, skins and items are sold as No Transfer. I even set my boxes as No Transfer so they can't use a box with my name as creator to scam anyone.

Yes, the Texture Ripping thefts are a hot topic of discussion and anger among content creators. Sadly there is no current simple or reliable method to stop this type of theft of your work. This is the number one bane of all texture-based content creators in SL today.

I actually PREFER buying goods with no Transfer permission, as long as they let me make private copies. That way I can keep copies of items filed under outfits without having to hunt around for various extras in other folders. I offer my own customers the choice of C or T, but then I'm not in the texture-based business.

Please send me complete info on this incident -- [email]merlyn-bailly@hotmail.com[/email] -- I'll publish on my website.

Actually, it may be an old scam, but it appears as if the clothes are ACTUAL Mischief, Dazzle, Blaze items. And when you put them on, at first ya they do. But it's just a texture copy of the original. And ya it can't be fixed, but yesterday, my friend was confronted by 3 or 4 of the designers that are being ripped off, and they place the blame on her. It just amazes me. Someone can do this, and just use your name to put the blame on someone. How can people get to be this low? I mean ya, I've read all of the post's about the skin theft, and other things..but at least they claim them or say where they bought them. This person just let's Ashlin take all the blame..then magically vanishes? I'm gonna do anything and everything I can to help her. And if you know of this being done anywhere else, please let me know. I already offered up my help a while back to the yard sale black list people to put an end to "fake" yard sales, but now we have new things to deal with and I want to do all that I can.

-Addison

the simple solution is do not use boxes set to sell copies, either use sell contents, or use a full multi object vendor that just gives the person a folder of your choosing.

Any time you give someone a copy/mod/transfer object, they can do whatever they want with it, including setting it for sale with different contents. :/

not sure you can make things no transfer no copy at the same time anyways.. but then again.. I guess scripted objects can be set with weird rights o.O

Good tip.

coco

whats worse is the said person is using those boxes to build copies of someone else's furniture and using ripped textures from the original's and putting it on. We had the original creator come by and put her side by side. Almost EXACT copies. prim placements are a little off and the animations are different.

And since they used a prim made by Ashlin is shows her as the creator and not the real culprit.

Luckily we were able to clear Ashlin's name with the original creator of the furniture.
But after confrontation with the culprit, and continually asking her to take down all the furniture and all the boxes that said Ashlon made. But she wouldnt listen. And i checked today see if the took them down and she hasnt.

As for the clothing being sold, they are made with ripped textures of the original outfit. And to cover their tracks they use full perm clothing from their inventory that has lost the name of the creator and shows it as (nobody).

Ever since the open registration happened there has been a massive influx of scammers.

Picked this one up as a Scam Alert on Caveat Emptor.. If you've got any more info on this, please let me know.

There's also a thread developing on this with what I gather is the real offendor's name in the PXP forums at www.pixelpinuponline.com

I am absolutely appalled by this. I have busted my ass in SL to make a name for myself , and to have someone do something like this, and drag my name through the mud, infuriates me. I confronted the person who is selling these items last night, and to no surprise she acted like she didnt know what was going on, NOR would she listen to reason or take the items down. All this stems from a full prim box that I made to resell an outfit it in at my store, the outfit was NO CPY/NO MOD, just as it is sold from the original designer. They have taken my box and put their ripped copies of these outfits in them and are reselling them. I was confronted by a top designer from SL, along with a couple others last night and they gave me a chance to explain myself ( thank god) but it wasnt until today that my name was finally cleared, due to this scam. This person claims to have bought the boxes/outfits from someone, naturally she wont give the name, and the person she bought them from told her she would make BIG MONEY from selling these.

These people must be stopped, this is an outrage! I refuse to go down like this because of someone else's stupidity and greed . I will not stop until I get to the bottom of this.

One of the 3 just sent me an IM-to-email msg telling me to take her name off my site or else.

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5667/knockoffnyteyu4.jpg

See for yourselves what the knock off's look like. She took them down, only to put them back up not even 20 mins ago and is still putting them up. This it the "nyte Easy outfit"..the top is completely blurry and the pants are a diff lighter shade...


-Paris

I know vanessa Richard (note caps, thats how she spells hers) and don't believe she'd do something like this.

A certain av who sales on the galaxy mall better be getting me the av or my 500 back, though...cause I didn't pay 500 for a picture.

<handbag>Oooooohhh!</handbag>

Oooh, that sucked.

I was having plans to create my own content and sell for L$ as well but mabie I should rethink the plan.

I can't log in or I would smack her with a handbag. 8-]

I love how one of those guilty has the following in her profile;

Jonas, you know better than to use NAMES in the forums. <spank!>

Oh, that's just TOO, TOO good! What a twit!

That's like the people who have "No Drama" in their profiles and they are drama whores...

I am concerned about the recent events this concerns as this does affect all creators. However, I will share what I've heard about things that can and have happened in the game due to people taking others' designs and creations.

First, and not to slam experienced creators, it is possible that the items created may have been set to where the patron of said items recieves a modifyable, copyable version of these wares. This can possibly be an oversight of the proprietor of the items, but, as I said before, exeperienced creators 99% of the time, do not make this mistake.

Second, there have been reports that some malicious players, experienced in scripting and programming make such programs in the game to "steal" others' work and designs with absolutely no cost to them and can recieve and original duplicate of the items and can manipulate this dupliacte as they see fit. Also other reposts of a similar nature are programs that can manipulate machines to drain the owner's account of all funding. And still more so, progrmas that can allow people to assume the identity of others with name tags and profiles and making abuse reports reflect the alias, and allow them to freely do as they please with the innocent party whose indentity was stolen. This sort of malicious intent affect us all!

Third, in the most recent patch installed on wednesday, July 19th, has given ANYONE the ability to get a sample of color AND/OR textures from any object they come across, and can make their own versions in an alomst exact duplicate of others' creations.

Now, i've known Vanessa Richard for quite some time and know that she is NOT one of these malicious people to steal others' designs or products, nor does she seek out to obtain special items that are intended to be non transferable in order to capitalize upon others' work.

I understand the tension arisen from this situation but the names mentioned that are supposedly the organizers of this scam are innocent parties that have recieved copyable or transferable version of said designs and merely clearing out inventories in order make room and get some lindens for their used items. The many in the game are here to enjoy the world and creations of others. There are just a few here to scam and rippoff others for personal gain and these names mentioned are not a portion of those few.

In closing, please do not make hasty judgement if you feel you have been inconvieneced in this way or others, find out all aspects of the situation and take in all info you can for the best judgement and resolve for the problem you have.

If we stick together in this effort, we can all have a much better gaming experience. I thank you for listeing to my thoughts and opinions.

Anotnio Kinght

If they're selling them in boxes that have other people's names on them, THAT IS A DAMN SCAM. It's FRAUD.