New Residents Being Scammed?

So that makes it ok of course ?
It's this lack of social morals amongst capitalists that really disgusts me.

"I just screwed you, I don't give a shit! That's business baby!"

This all seems to fit the bill, except that there is no way to recover damages.

Not really, what was the falsity?

The prim claimed to double your money and you WOULD have doubled your money. What was false about that?

Ugh - This just makes me feel even more strongly that first land should remain first land permanantly.

If first land could only be re-sold to other new residents, or Gov Linden, I doubt we'd see this kind of gaming taking place very often.

I think the 'spirit' behind first land is to offer new residents a way to aquire land at a discounted price before they've had a chance to establish themselves. I'm not certain it was intended to be a profit center, although that's what it seems to have turned into.

This should disgust anyone. Financial interests or not. Land interests or not.

I think this notecard and prim labeling gives the impression that the land is worth what you paid for it, and doubling your investment is a WONDERFUL thing. Have you stopped by the prim and read the notecard?

For the record, I am playing devils advocate.

I have no financial interest whatsoever in the alleged scamming of newbies that may or may not have occurred.

You should be fully informed. Stop by the land and see the prim. Also, would it violate the TOS to paste the notecard here, assuming that I edit the name?

Claiming the land is worth L$2 when eveyone else knows it's worth a load more seems to fit points a) b) and c) quite nicely.

Additionally, the transaction actually accuring fulfills d and e.

From the notecard:

To me the notecard does not imply that L$2/meter is the fair market value.

It seems to simply say, "We will buy your land for L$2/m".

Its just like when you take your used car into the dealer to trade.... is it fraud that they only offer you $4,000 when the Kelly Blue Book value of your car is $5,000?

I think not.

btw her notecard said to rate her so, I did

The 'book' value of a car would be what you would expect to pay from a dealer, therefore you'd expect less selling to a dealer..

This notecard implies they are doing you a great favour by offering you double what you paid, omitting to say what the 'book' price for land realy is.

The prim should give you a jar of Vasseline as well as the cigarette.

ROFL

Jamie, there is asymetric power here. The new user is naive and innocent to the ways of SL and so there is room for abuse.

It's like marketing cigarettes and porno to kids - they don't know any better.

Taking advantage of that power, in any setting, is always disgusting. It's why we have rules to protect minors, sexual harrasment laws, etc.

There needs to be a grace period for new users to settle in, get a lay of the land, and then they can be open season for free market capitalism.

I consider the giving of a cigarette ingenious.

Obviously the party in question has studied (or knows) consumer psychology.

Giving a gift is one of the best ways to instantly gain trust and establish goodwill.

Though I don't agree with the business practices, I give her kudos for understanding the consumer.

Yeah, the cigarette thing is cute.

I'm a noob and I don't see anything wrong with this legally. I also don't see any implications of fraud either. I guess its all how you read it. There is a sense of urgency in the words as well as words like "advantage" and "limited period" typically are usually associated with deals, but for you to assume that this is the best possible deal around just by this wording then your not only a noob in game but most likely the same in real life. You come across this in advertising all the time in real life so no excuse. I do not feel the wording is meant to misdirect at all and they are giving exactly what they say they are. I think its just smart business that is earning the owner good money and people are upset/jealous of the success.

Were not jealous of the success.

The rest of us are busting our butt creating loss leaders for new users so that they'll get hooked into SL and become bigtime spenders while this bad player is messing it all up for the rest of us by giving them a bad taste in their mouth before they get a chance to enjoy SL.

Let's wait until the new users have significantly invested themselves, both financially and mentally into SL, before we make our pitches.

This tactic is clearly taking advantage of naivity of newbies. Something I would never approve of. It is not a scam, but it is very bad business practise. Talking to the person doing this and asking her to stop that tactic might be good idea.

Since Paris Parks got banned from SL last August we have been *unusually* lucky in SL. I expect a lot more dishonest people try to make quick cash here soon. My experience in other games tell me that in SL we have been very very *very* lucky sofar! It won't hold. SL is at almost 40000 users and gets more and more press coverage. It may very soon appear on the radar of certain individuals and groups. Believe me, I *know* what I am talking about. You have seen nothing yet

I strongly encourage people in community get together to form some kinda organization that deals with scammers and liars in SL. I would support such initiative wherever I can.

This person is essentially stealing virtual real estate from residents who are too new to know any better. It is WAY under market, the new resident will NEVER acquire comparable land (or likely any land) for the same great value again, and will NEVER have this opportunity again.

The perpetrator knows this, as is clear from her sense of urgency. She is aware that she must complete the con by getting a new resident to BUY this PERTICULAR area of first land, AND sell it to her, before the new resident gets wise to the value.

This isn't success, it's a scam. Success is the product of hard work and ethics IMHO. No ethical person would ever do anything like this in SL, and would definately not be jealous of it. Speaking for myself, I'm frankly ashamed to see it happening.

So if I put an object for sale in a market and put a msg with a sense of urgency on it and overprice the item and someone buys it, it now becomes a scam? This only effect new players selling their land Naturally if you're selling something, especially for the first time, a normal person would shop around for offers to get a better idea of what the value is. Taking your first offer without any previous knowledge as to what is a fair price is dumb on the sellers part and is no way the fault of the buyer. What you see as taking advantage, I see as selling smart. Its knowing your market and your customers. The person buying is in no way preventing the noobs from researching on their own or the buyer providing any misinformation. If anything I would maybe have the person change the wording of the msg and that's all. Apparently some people are being confused by it.

After a week away I'm getting back in to the forums today...

I've just barely started reading and the first two threads are
about scamming newbies, and First Land....

I've said this before (and heard it)... I feel the best solution
is to have permanent parcels of land set aside to be First Land.
Where they get rotated out from newbie to newbie every
30-60 days or so.

When are we going to petition the Lindens to take this action?
WOULD there be (or can we show) an advantage to them
by making it happen? ... If they lose money somehow, I doubt
they'd make the change, but this one action could relieve a
LOT of hassles for newbies, mentors and LL staff !

SO, let's try to put a list together to present...

1) LL would not have to spend so many man-hours reading,
researching and trying to resolve "potential" scams with First Land.

2) LL could set up dedicated sims just for First Land, where parcels
are specifically plotted out in a way to make things easier for them.
Perhaps 1/5 of sim land would be for SL vets and mentors who
want to live around the newbies and help them get started. Specific
newbie friendly shops could be set up close by. If these "helpful"
parcels remain Linden Land which they rent out to mentors and
shop owners who are newbie friendly, then they might be able to
get away with charging more themselves.

3) Dates of approaching vancancies (time's up) could be posted so
if there is a waiting list, newbies can see where they are on that
list.... Once you sign up it's first come first serve. I don't know
how automated the First Land process is for newbies now, but
this could make it very simple. Newbies could even get on a
waiting list for a specific First Land parcel.



I'm sure I can think of more... but am interested in hearing
from others and getting to the other threads.

There are also TONS of advantages to newbies with this idea
also... I'm not sure just how much priority the Lindens give
to "good newbie experience" over "lets make more money".
Even though they do go hand in hand, so if we want this change,
then we might need to show LL the specific advantages to THEM!

Gabrielle