New Residents Being Scammed?

Hi all,

I'm standing in a new, mature first land sim right now, and I've seen something that I think requires discussion. I'm at Bhima (232, 207) on a parcel of first land owned by Governor Linden. On this parcel, the one adjacent to it, and probably also many other first land parcels around the grid is a large black prim.

It is labeled with text such as "INSTANT PAYOUT" and "L$" and "FAT SLAGS". Fat Slags seems to be the group which buys and sells this first land. Above the prim is a hover-text which reads "Double your money" and "Touch me for information".

When you touch the prim, it geneorously provides you with a cigarette, because BOY are you going to need one when you come back the next day and see your first land for sale for L$7/m2 or so. It then provides you with a notecard. The notecard explains in very simple terms, how to set your first land for sale to the owner of the prim for L$2/m2 (L$1,024). It then goes on to explain how to create a landmark to your first land, and how to give it to the owner of the prim so she can come pick it up, providing your instant payout.

So what do you think? New resident scam? Fair play in a free market economy? Somehwere in between? Let's discuss this because I expect that others will catch onto this way of providing new users with an "instant payout" and we'll be seeing a lot more of this soon. If you'd like to come see these prims in person, you should come quickly. I've let a Linden know about it to get their opinion, and who knows if they'll be here for long. I'm going to look around for others though.

I doubt there's anything against it, but I certainly do not agree with or support it.
My main account is a Mentor and one of the first things I do with new members is explain to them the great things they can do with their First Land. As a newb, I never even looked at first land, I should have. I will help new members scout out wonderful parcels that I think they will be able to resell at a good proffit. I explain to them about looking at the market and making sure they're not being snowblown by the many people looking to rip off the unknowning. I keep folders and notecards to help all those that I mentor as long as they should want my help. Now that I know about this, I will be specifically warning new members.... However, I fear what sort of bad taste it will leave in their mouths to have to be warned so early about scams?

It is not illegal, and not necessarily a scam, though it does mean that the newbie will be paid for far less than what the land seems to be worth, at the moment anyway.

If I were a newbie, I'd probably do it. Sue me, but the truth is that most newbies spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make more money. I don't think it's "right", and I wouldn't associate myself with any of these kinds of people who did this, but ...

These people have figured out how to make money off of others' inexperience, and it's not new, it's just ... more blatant, perhaps. I've heard stories like this before. Most do not last, but this seems to be putting the toe a bit too close to the edge.

I agree that people like this have probably been around since the beginning of SL. I also agree that it doesn't seem to be TECHNICALLY illegal, which is why I brought it up. I guess what bothers me most about their angle is it's automated nature.

I mean even if they were putting in the amount of work it would take to fly around and OFFER new residents such a rediculous price, that might lend the operation a touch of credibility. Even considering that the land is being purchased for way less than even it's wholesale value.

What they're doing though is just dropping prims on unsold first land plots offering to take them from the buyer at this rediculous price, immediately, hoping that the desire for a few L$ will outweigh the desire to see what their land is actually worth. To me, at least, it seems like a fine-tuned ripoff machine is being set in motion.

By the way, those prims were deleted. I have found at least four more in the same sim though, if anyone would like to get a first-hand look at this operation. They are at:

Bhima (240, 86)
Bhima (239, 71)
Bhima (239, 38)
Bhima (217, 74)

I'll have to look around other first land areas and see how many more of these I can find. I suspect that there are hundreds.

Try abuse reporting each of them, that's a way to get a quick judgement.

I just went to look out of curiosity. Glad to have found out for myself who is dropping these items of litter so I can avoid her!

I have, due to my personal opinion. I thought it would make a good discussion piece though as this seems like something with the potential to spread like a virus. Soon we might not be able to SEE the first land underneath of all the "CASH NOW" cubes heh.

I'm a newb and just bought land in Bhima. I got an email within 10 hours asking me to sell it for DOUBLE MY MONEY. It was the Fat Slags thing. I ignored it.

Then my neighbor was working his land earlier today, like he was going to build on it. Then later in the day sold it to 'a company'. And I talked to the comany employee who was quite nice, but said that he just stumbled on it and bought it as first land. The prev owner wasn't around any longer.

So my only worry was that I might do something incorrect and accidentlly have my land for sale or something. Then come back tomorrow and it has a house on it. I did un-check 'for sale' and put in a large price to attempt to keep that from happening.

Can a person buy first land more than once? I would think not. So how does a 'company' buy first land just to resell it?

What is the auto-return time on this land? Would the prims still be there by the time the parcels were sold?

Yes, the auto return is 0. They will remain until removed manually.

So you could in fact drop a prim of your own that is bigger and completely hide the 'scam' prim... maybe with floating text that says something like "Danger, scam in progress" and include a notecard explaining the "true" value of mature first land.

Thanks all for your input in this matter. We are investigating this now.

I would agree that if you feel that it is abuse or some form of spam, then filing a report on the objects is the recommended course of action.

If it is a scam, I wonder if they get a warning, a temporary ban, or a perma ban.

What say you, folks? Shaun?

I say perma ban at this early stage of SL, maybe later when it's not so wild west, we can give people another chance.

Kinda like getting the rope for being a horse thief. Frontier justice!

However Linden Lab decides to handle it will be fine with me. I only hope to make an example that this is NOT a good idea and is disgusting behavior.

What should really happen is that future First Land for Sale should automatically have an autoreturn of 1 (EDIT: alternatively, set No Build). And unused, but 'marked up for infrastructure' Linden land should be setup as autoreturn of 5 (at least on First Land sims anyway).

What others do with their land is (usually) their own business, but having this occur on the *unsold* plots is another.

I personally believe that any act intended to take advantage of a new person's lack of SL knowledge is a scam. It may not be "illegal", but it certainly is "unethical".

Its the free market, baby. As much as it sounds awful, thats capitalism.

It's not a free market when false claims are made about somethings value. That is called fraud.

IRL there is capitalism too. But there also is fraud, and prison. A prim that passes out free cigarettes (I can't even TYPE that without laughing at how silly it is lol ) to new residents, along with a notecard saying "buy this land, sell it to me and double your money", without also mentioning that they could INSTEAD buy this land and sell it for 7x their money on their own, is a fraud. It is praying on the ignorance of those who are too new to the world to know better, and it is a fraud. The end, IMHO.

Yep, and that's why SL is free to perma ban them as well.

Its NOT fraud. The person IS doubling their money. There is no misstatement in that representation.

Now, is a businessperson under an obligation to tell the newbie that the current market rate for land is actually much higher? Thats open to debate.

If nothing else, there is a moral obligation to do so.

Would you set out similar prims labeled "double your money", handing out these cigarettes and notecards on unsold first land parcels? If so, why? If not, why not?

I would tend to agree. But it cannot be labelled fraud.

Legal Definition of Fraud:

Fraud as a tort (i.e., a civil wrong exclusive of contract which entitles a plaintiff to recover damages) has recently been defined by the California Supreme Court as follows: (a) misrepresentation (false representation, concealment, or nondisclosure);

(b) knowledge of falsity (or "scienter";

(c) intent to defraud, i.e., to induce reliance;

(d) justifiable reliance; and

resulting damage.

Copyright 1998 by Hartley & Hartley