Warning - Rain Riel scamming newbies

Tonight myself and 3 others were scammed by R--- R---. Basically he said that if we paid him he would give us a discount on the merchandise. We paid him and went to a sandbox to try it out and when we got back he was long gone with our money. Being new to the game I didn't know that you should only buy from objects and not from people. I just hope other people who are new will read this and learn from our (costly) mistakes. We did report him and the shop owner was also contacted so hopefully some action will come of this.

I think the name of the culprit will soon dissappear from your post here. It is against TOS to name names. If you see this before a Linden does - I suggest you do a edit.

like I said I am new and was unaware that was against the rules. unfortunately the title will have to be altered by someone else as I tried and was quite unsuccessful in my attempt

Hi.

I've sent you an invitation to the New Citizens group. If you have any questions at all about anything about Second Life you can ask in that group's IM chat.

Also they hold classes, and contests, and have some free clothes and such, you might want to stop by.

There's no need for new folks to have trouble when help is so easily found.

got the invite and accepted. once again sorry for any problems this may have caused but 3 of us were taken on this one and if 3 of us fell for it then it's possible that there are many others that would as well. thank you once again

Thats a shame, I'm really sorry that was your welcome to SL. But Suezanne is right, there are good people around with good advice who like to help people get acclimated.
Good luck to you.

I'm sorry to hear this too. We actually caught the SAME individual doing this in our store and it seems several others have too.

I don't want to scare you, but even buying from vendors is not fool proof either. A rip off artist could easily place a fake vendor in a store. Behaviour like this is becoming a rapidly growing problem and it's up to LL to do something to secure their "platform" rather than making it even easier with things like the new signup procedure.

Ditto, I went on an alt to purchase said "goods" from ND designs that he was claiming to sell.

Posted a thread linking all other posts about this fucktard here

Of course. having the NAME I'm now able to pass it on to the new owner of ONE to put on the store security system - a benefit of making wrongoers names public that completely escapes LL...

... except now thanks to the "improved" signup process they can make another alt and be back in 5 minutes.

Lewis

*shrugs* So, just bend over and take it Lewis? Signs are OK, IF people read them.

If LL won't take action against criminals - and fraud IS a crime - only against the politicaly incorrect, what should we do?
Go with the flow?
All become scammers and ripoff artists but remember to be oh SO politically correct?

is it just me, or have the madmen taken over the assylum?

Well at least this thread hasn't been locked yet despite the offenders name being in the title. In this case, there is NO doubt, multiple victims have physical evidence, chat logs & eye witness accounts.

Personally I'd like to view the locking of this thread if/when it happens as tacit approval of the criminal element and a resounding message that they don't care about legitimate residents and businesses by LL, but I know that's my anger speaking for me.

I got scammed by this guy, then today he tp's me over to sell another skin as compenstation. I go there and it's place called S****. There were many people there and there I got diconnected and when I connected back there he was again and I could hear them talking about making alts to do this. Sadly they saw me and did something that put me back at my home.

The people there were A**** DaSilva and P**** Chowderhead. They were in a group called Mai Tais Security. So check all those names n add them to ban cuz they are all involved in this scam!

[edited out the names of people and palces, but it can be easily got if u look at his profile n follow his groups].

I think we need to keep a running list of these names, and I would suggest SLUniverse as the place to do it.

coco

Here ya go!


Done

If they rez you mean ... SL is awfully grey these days...

Back last year I tried to get a scammers and griefers list running Coco - it didn't come off, I think because the problem wasn't bad enough. However things are changing.

Now it's not just a good idea, it's going to be essential. Go for it.

Most definitely we shouldn't just "bend over and take it" - I'm doing what I can, and if people don't read two very clear signs and get scammed then it's really not my fault.

I am all for fighting back and getting rid of those who scam - unfortunately, any real effectiveness will only be achieved with the co-operation of Linden Labs by tightening up the sign-up process to add at least a level of hassle to repeat signup offenders. It's just a pity that they don't seem willing to recognise - and deal with - the problem that they have created in their "improved" signup.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - sign up numbers are completely irrelevant (which is what LL appear to be trying to inflate for reasons not made known to us), what matters is people in-world, and the quality of the experience that is provided for new people coming into the game.

If you had been here a week, spent your first $10 buying money on Lindex to get some clothes, only to find yourself scammed by someone - would you carry on playing and spend more money hoping you didn't get scammed again, or just say "screw it" and go find something else to play?

My money is on the latter.

Lewis

Wow, checking on the groups of the scammer and following the trail to other user profiles, it seems that this scammer appears to be a friend of the person who is an officer of the Azure Islands group. Huh, so much for my idea of renting there.

He wow, don't jump to conclusions there. Knowing someone doens't mean you know what they do or approve of it.
Azure Islands has a pretty good reputation, and many happy renters, including me.

Edited

Exactly that, Honey.

Kinda raises a big red warning flag in my head.

Quite. The actions of these people and LL laissez faire attitude is affecting an ever widening group of people. I would suggest it's also now in Azure Islands interests to act against them (kick them out and confiscate any land held) as well as lobbying LL for the sake of their own reputation too.

Hmm...what if all of you store owners just hired *real* employees to guard the stores, help customers and eject/AR scammers? It would create great job opportunities for "real" newbies.

Ah ok, i understand. When you rent land at a Island, the land has to be deeded to your group. So you have to invite a officer of Azure Island to your group, so they can deed the land to your group.
I understand it looks wrong, but sadly that is how the system works.

It's sad to see that innocent people are already being affected by this.