Getting rid of annoying illegal pyramid scams - any thoughts?

I am rather sick and tired of these stupid pyramid scheme/herb plant/dollar sign items that keep popping up all over the place (and which are illegal in the US and against TOS - if you don't believe me do a search on past discussions in the forum). Since the Lindens are overwhelmed with abuse reports, they are very slow on taking any action on these.

I've come to my last straw on these after visiting the Linden-owned Bazaar in Stillman, where I have a freebie box out for the newbs. The parcel is completely full now, and there are a number of these items on it that the Lindens have not taken care of in over a week despite my requests for clean-up.

It's pointless to contact the owners of these items because at best they ignore me, at worst they say unpleasant things to me and threaten me. I don't like to judge, but the type of people who put these things out seem not to be very bright or rational.

I have heard of the solution of putting a box over the top of these items, and I've done it at the Bazaar because it's frustrating to me that the Lindens won't clean these things up off their own land. But I see these things everywhere, and I don't like to use up people's prim count or litter on their land.

Land owners other than the Lindens who have these things littering their land have generally been nice and cleaned them up (I only IM them if it belongs to someone else), but there are plenty of absentee owners out there too. And I don't have enough hours in the day to contact everyone who has these on their land.

Some of you may wonder why I care. Well, we have enough blight in SL without these eyesores adding to the problem. And they take advantage of newbies and that pisses me off too.

I have discovered that in the pyramids at least, I can slip a notecard into the contents that tells anyone who looks there that the pyramid schemes are illegal and against TOS. I was encouraged and hoped that I could slip a 'die' script in them too, but alas, that didn't work.

Does anyone else have any ideas for getting these things out of our world since the Lindens can't clean them up fast enough?

What about a big floating sign that moves itself above every one of these. It could explain that it's a scam and illegal and also ask the owner of the land to turn on auto return. You could make it scan for other pyramid objects and self replicate if it finds them.

Maybe not a big floating sign but a box that covers the pyramid and just has a polite request for auto return?

I wonder if you could so some fancy alpha stuff to make the whole thing invisible.

I dunno, really you're doomed. One of the fundamental principles of SL is that you can't mess with someone elses objects.

I was afraid I was pretty much doomed. But at least I can do some public awareness. I do put floating text above the boxes when I put them over stuff. But more advanced stuff is beyond me.

I don't worry about messing up their illegal objects if they left them open to modification - what are they gonna do, abuse report me? If I can't get a response to my valid TOS violation abuse reports, I doubt the violators are going to get the sympathy from LL.

I've been frustrated by such also -- especially when they're placed near land owned by friends of mine or people that have bought land from me in the past. I hate thinking that my selling them land contributed to them getting scammed since some scammer figured they could make a quick buck off of SL newbies...

If I saw one of those things on mainland I would get in a Help Request session and ask for a Linden to be sent to my location. If it's against the TOS and illegal, one would think they would be obligated to do so if they are not terribly busy. If it's on a private sim, I would have to contact the owner of the property because the Lindens will not interfere in any way no matter what someone has put on private sims.




P.S. How about augmenting the existing code to stop replicators and using it to turn these objects into unusable Linden rocks.

Thing is, the Lindens are terribly busy! Perhaps I shall make myself a pyramid hat to wear around to inform the world of its ills.

I like the idea of turning those things into rocks! I can hear the confused scammers now: "I bought a pyramid scheme, and all I got was a rock!" Perhaps I will suggest it in my next abuse report.

Sorry to bring back a thread from the dead on my own little personal crusade... but I found a little thingamajig from the original creator of the pyramid scheme that takes advantage of a programming flaw to automatically cover up pyramids within range of the device. You can get a copy here to put on your land: http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=160062. It's free. I put one of these up at my store too free to copy.

Thanks Annabelle!