Tricked by land sale - watch out for this!

I had just found 2 adjacent 32m plots for sale at 450LS each and I intended to amalgamate them into a 64m plot and sell stuff on them while waiting to sell the land on at a modest profit.

I bought one plot OK, but when I purchased the second I was horrified to find that I had paid 3500LS for it - someone (presumably hovering overhead) had rapidly bought the plot while I was there and re-marketed it at this high price.

I know land deals are final but I'm just warning people to always re-check the price of any land IMMEDIATELY BEFORE purchasing it as an unseen buyer could be watching you from above!

In fact I've a good mind to try this sneaky trick myself to try and recoup the lost money!

Don't do it yourself or you become part of the problem.

Think of it this way... 3500L = $14USD. Heck, it's annoying to pay that amount for a small bit of land but at least it won't bankrupt you.

Do you have any proof it was done maliciously to catch you out?

I'm sorry to hear that this happened to you, but at the same time I'm not sure how it was done as a trick?

When you buy land, aren't you given at least 2 or 3 opportunities to change your mind, where they display the cost of the land?

Or are you saying that the price of the land was raised after you started the purchasing process?

Just trying to understand what happened.

-Atashi

Actually the price should have raised before and you didn't notice that.
So you bought with the over-price. I don't think there is something you can do to this, or anything out there to help you but to just ask from the previous owner to pay you back and explain to him that this was done by mistake. If he is a nice person he would probably understand.

If not, then, just keep in mind to be carefull next time, but don't do the same things to others. Most likely it doesn't work all the time i suppose, since most people doublecheck what is written on the final price and it's not worth the time to jsut wait for others to fall in such trap.

Always double check the price in the purchasing transaction box after you click on buy land - it will confirm the seller and the true sale price before you buy the land. This box is always accurate. If someone buys the property before you, the transaction won't go through. I have had this experience where the sale was not completed after I confirmed in the transaction box because someone already bought from the original seller before I did.

Never trust the price that's in the about land tab because as you have seen it can change rapidly between the time you look at it and when you finish the steps to complete the transaction. Make sure you look closely at the info in the purchasing transaction box BEFORE you confirm the purchase. It would be nice if it was in larger print, though.

I really doubt that the person in question was trying to be malicious - how on earth would they know you wanted to buy that parcel too? Maybe they figured you just wanted one. Heck, when I buy land I don't care about whatever whoever else is standing around is doing, I care about buying the land. The other person probably TP'd in, landed on your head (as frequently happens when multiple people want to buy the same parcel), and flew up to get off your head, and then were pleasantly surprised to have resold the land they just bought at their ridiculous price.

Don't do it to someone else on purpose. That's disgusting and unethical.

If you are about to throw down a significant amount of money, document what you are doing.

I haven't attempted to purchase land yet, being in Second Life poverty.

However, your chat logs should contain any information a scripted sale vendor might have told you.

You could also take screen shots (maybe snapshots in Second Life - time stamped too?) displaying the pricing information.

The Second Life owners should have an interest in preventing this. They, however, cannot act without reliable proof. Put yourself in their situation, and think of what kind of proof you would want to have to make a decision on a complaint. Then make sure you collect that kind of information before your next purchase.

I can't be certain if I was tricked - even if I was I don't suppose the vendor was doing anything wrong as they owned the land, even if they had only done so for 30 seconds. Examining the situation further it might have been that there were several plots at 450 and one rogue one at 3500 and I hadn't noticed this as I was concentrating on not going over my tier and might have bought the wrong plot.

Anyway, it highlighted to me the possibility of land 'snipers' flipping a plot just before someone buys. It wouldn't always work for them. My situation has also opened my eyes to why you occasionally see these 16m plots for L$99999 - they might just catch out a land baron with a big Linden balance who is buying up surrounding plots.