Where are my Linden$?

ok. This thread can be closed!

@Wilhelm: Perhaps we should continue our discussion in SL. Maybe u can invite me for a drink, i'm burned down at the moment, lol!!!

Cheers
Barbara

Not to add insult to injury, but eBay has a policy about not acting on disputes regarding virtual goods. Chances are they will tell you "tough luck".

Theres been quite a few threads like this in resident answers lately. It's good that Linden Labs is investigating and acting upon credit card fraud and illegally gotten L$. However these hapless saps that purchase the fraudulently gained currency seem as much a victim as the person who got stolen from in the first place. So does anyone know or care to guess what LL are doing to the people who are selling the L$ on ebay. Are LL just fining the buyers or are they banning/prosecuting the thieves.

There's probably not a whole lot they can do about the sellers other than to close their accounts.

Making the buyer an accomplice by default keeps anyone from just laundering the L$, while at the same time discouraging buyers from taking the risk and thereby reducing the demand for the scammers.

They could make it more obvious somehow though that the risk exists. A "If you buy L$ from places such as eBay LL may reposses the L$. More information at..." 'message of the day' would go a long way about towards making people aware of the policy.

(I'm not even really sure why they have to sell on eBay in the first place. I could think of a few ways to get L$ from avie A to avie B without leaving any trace and then B can just sell on the LindeX. Doesn't make much sense)

I agree with this. Right now, it's either waaayy buried in the blog or in the ToS? Not much to tell you about it at all..

Since this can cost a person USD and a banning, one would think it would be plastered everywhere.

Do they have the other approved sites posted anywhere? That'd be helpful too.

As far as I can tell, they don't. That is a real problem.

Yeah, I looked around the site and didn't see a listing either. On one hand, I can kind of understand that, because they'd probably prefer to keep the majority of real money going through the Lindex and listing the other sites could more or less be construed as advertising for them. On the other hand, if they ARE going to allow us to make external purchases, we need to know which ones are safe to use....especially given all the billing issues lately, which have made using the Lindex somewhat hit-or-miss.

Barbara, how did you pay for those lindens?

If you paid with a credit card you might have a chance to get the money back.

Ironically enough, I was almost driven to this "Linden-laundering" scheme myself, to get US$ into my main account to pay tier, funded by an alt whose payment option is working. Was dissuaded, though, by the 3.5% service charge. Eventually I was able to replace the main account's payment option. Turns out that, just because it accepts a payment option doesn't meant that it can successfully charge against it. How that got b0rked is anyone's guess, but as far as I can tell, at the moment PayPal is the *only* option that the payment system can successfully charge. So a hint for those with accepted credit cards and persistent negative US$ balances on their accounts: set up a PayPal account, fund it with that credit card, and feed it to the Lindens as your payment option.

This is so brain-damaged.

I have a BofA Visa credit card, and it works just fine. In fact I just charged it last night getting a premium membership for a new alt, and the payment went through with no problem at all.

PayPal, however, was having all sorts of problems last week. The blog claims they've been resolved except for a few residents.

Sadly, there just is no neat answer that fits everyone. Things that work for one person won't work for another, and vice versa. The only answer is to try the options available to you until you find one that works. And don't be afraid to call your bank and ask them to allow charges from LL -- it takes all of five minutes, and can resolve billing problems for a lot of people.

Yup, after a week of PayPal failing to work, I had to switch to a credit card, which works just fine.

Even if the money was stolen (by the seller), it's a very dubious practice to charge the buyer with 150% of the amount. I have my doubts that this practice is legal.

I agree, penalizing the buyer by charging up to 150% of the amount doesn't seem right.

coco

Scammer creates account A and uses it to scam people out of their L$.
Scammer creates account B and transfers A's funds into it.
LL comes along and takes back B's money and closes A's account.
B complains to LL "But I bought those L$ from A on eBay fair and square, why should I get punished?"
LL says "oh well, in that case...." and returns B's funds.

LL can't verify whether any transaction really occurred outside of SL or the LindeX so holding both the buyer and the seller accountable is the only way I'd think.

Only if they can be sure that buyer and seller account belong to the same person, or somehow work together.
I agree that LL has the right to take back their money in any case, but the additional 50% fee is out of proportion. If a merchant accidently accepts counterfeit money in RL, it can be confiscated of course, but he isn't charged with a fine.