How to loose 20000 USD with the help of Darwin Tomsen and Linden Lab

post deleted, didn;t know the rules.

First of all you need to take his name out of the post or the post will disappear, that's the rules.

If you've paid him for a service via paypal and he hasn't delivered it then you should look into going via Paypal to recoup your money, not Linden Lab.

~Ninja'd~

I am not quite clear why you gave your sims for free to Honest AND you pay the tier??

If you gave them away and they were eventually sold, why are you miffed? they are not yours anymore, are they?

I have read this twice and still cannot make out who owns what.

BTW you are not supposed to name names in this forum, but they are closing it in two days time anyway, so what the hell.

Rock

It is his SecondLife name ... is there a problem with this ?
Also, the money from paypal are not important, the tiers paid in advance are, paid in L$ , in Secondlife ! The SIMS sold without any notice, the SIMS that were not his.

ok, then in what forum I can name him ?

Also, if you GAVE the sims to Honest, AND you paid the tier, what problems was she having that she was forced to say that she couldn't keep them anymore?

It is sad if someone is given sims in SL, and someone else pays the tier on them, and you STILL cannot make it work!

Rock

It's really a personal problem of her, I cannot say it public

Better over at a non-Linden forum, such as SLU, that is where most people name names.

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/

But, as I said, LL are closing these forums on the 8th February anyway, but bear in mind that if they ban you from the forum you are banned from SL as well.

Rock

Any that is not hosted by LL. Avatar names do matter - people have reputations and business interests here.

So, edit your original post, take out the names and replace with XXXXs, then take it to the General SL Discusssion section of SLU.

Rock

PS I have some advice for you as I have been down this road before myself. Send me a PM in SLU.

He paid Honest, Honest paid LL. This arrangement can work out cheaper for those of us in Europe, I run a sim in a situation similar to this, only I didn't own it in the first place but it costs me less a month in tier than the sim I own does.

It's terrible that you got scammed (if you did we only have one side of the story) but at the same time, you were scamming your own Government out of the VAT they insist is paid by hiding your islands under someone elses name.

So in many ways I have no sympathy for you.

I don't know if there is anything you can do either, I assume you legally transfered the ownership to your friend, who then transfered them to the alleged scammer. As far as LL are concerned you no longer owned the island so the scammer had legal right to them, his (or hers) to do with as they wish.

I'm not saying you weren't ripped off, just that legally I'm not sure anything can be done.

Similar happened to me. First the VAT, then the big drop in Private Island pricing, devaluing my holdings overnight.

Rock

Many do it, I couldn't tell you how many of my renters rent from me because they don't have to pay VAT when they rent from me (and its legal).

I'd never expect any of them to give me the money to buy the island in the first place, there is far too much risk for them in doing that.

If I recall correctly, the price drop in Private Island pricing (setup charge) happened at the same time as the GF pricing, which means that your sims would of been on the $195 tier price? You know how much those babies are worth??

No it happened about a year after as I recall. I paid USD$1675 for my sim and pay USD$295 tier rate (before VAT, which again came after). The drop to USD$1000 came later.

GF sims only have until May 1st to realise their value.

I don't think that's fair - L$ are not technically real money until they're cashed out - at which point he'd pay VAT on the transaction. This is no different from anybody else who spends their inworld earnings inworld and pays no tax of any sort. He doesn't own the islands anymore, so he can't be hiding "his" islands under another's name.

Yes it's tax avoidance, not tax evasion, which is why I'm a bit bemused that you earlier called it scamming the government

No, not GF sims. I was paying $295 per month tier both before and after the price change.

In early April 2008 LL announced drastic price changes on the purchase of new private island sims, down from US$1675 to US$1000, and OpenSpace sims down from US$420 to US$250. They also announced the release of more Mainland, and promised to review prices again in the third quarter of 2008.

My story is on the Chapter & Metaverse blog,

http://rock-vacirca.blogspot.com/2008/04/standalone-sims-next-steps.html

Rock

Err no, havent you heard the news? Staying GF'd for all of 2010 at least, but any GF sim sold after may will lose it's GF status.

Ahh but you can't pay tier in L$, you pay it in real dollars, so it is really money....

Ah thankyou, that's the wording I was trying to remember.

Technically, he's renting, not paying tier, because he doesn't own the islands.

It is scamming the government What you and many of my renters do is tax avoidance, you rent from someone who does not have to pay VAT, what the OP did was tax evasion, trying to hide his ownership of the regions by having them held by someone else, but he maintained "ownership", hence the no cost transfer and him continuing to pay the monthly tier.