FBI called over land bot FRAUD

0h, well.... i DO like guns in RL. love 'em. but in SL, i'm haven't really gotten in to weapons on any level. i do have a nice shiny colt 45, but i have never used it. it's mostly so i look cool. LOL mostly tho, i don't know anyone that plays like that, who could 'show me the ropes' so to speak. sounds fun tho.

most of my time is spent shopping for furniture and houses, and changing my land up. right now, i am trailer trash.

just watched. she's bad ass. when i grow up, i wanna be just like her. LOL

Ah, yes... I believe that person called the FBI's special "Will You Come to My House and Manipulate My Mouse for Me" branch.

There was no fraud. The seller of the parcel made a simple-to-avoid mistake (failed to read the warning dialogues) while pricing his land and another resident (or bot) purchased the land.

In the future, if the resident in question trips over a stone while not paying attention will he need to get the US Geological Survey involved?

FBI agent #1: Sir, we’ve just received word about a scripted item in Second Life that is stealing virtual land from people who made selling mistakes.

FBI boss: Is this related to our efforts to infiltrate the age-play rings?

FBI agent #1: No Sir. This is a new tip. Although we might have our in-world team check it out as long as they are there.

FBI boss: Sure, let’s get undercover agent OMGWTFBBQ! Oh on a conference call and have see where things are at.

*phone rings*

FBI boss: OMGWTFBBQ!, how is our investigation going in Second Life? Have you cracked that age play ring yet?

Agent OMGWTFBBQ!: Yes, Sir. I just went bling shopping with one of the principals and grabbed some amazing diamond nipple clamps made for kiddie avatars, these sparkled so much you can see them two sims away, and they are color changeable! These people totally trust me now as one of their own….

FBI boss: We’ve received a tip about land theft using scripted objects known as bots. Are you hearing anything about those in the circles you are infiltrating?

Agent OMGWTFBBQ!: Not a thing. Damn, why can’t I get these new kiddie Gorean Silks to rez? Oops. Sorry Sir. Undercover, you know….

FBI boss: I totally understand, Agent OMGWFTBBQ!.

Agent OMGWTFBBQ!: I’m taking off my top slowly….

FBI boss: Agent OMGWTFBBQ!, what was that?

Agent OMGWTFBBQ!: Sorry Sir, forgot to turn off my headset.

Like all 'closely held, top secret' bot software, expect every script kiddie on the grid to have their own bot by next year.

Anyone remember lineage2 and l2walker.exe?

I guess that's what Mulder and Scully are up to these days.

I guess I was a little unclear. The thread is about someone attempting to get the FBI to investigate a crime. The FBI is a real life law enforcement agency. They are not concerned with, nor do they have the authority to enforce, the SL TOS/CS.

When I said the landbot's actions are 100% legal, I mean he is not breaking any real life laws. He is simply purchasing land at the price set by the seller. Refusing to refund mistakes may be "taking advantage", but it is not criminal. I wish being a despicably unethical d***face was a criminal offense, but it's not.

If you can cite one real life law the landbot is breaking, I'd love to hear it.

BTW Isablan, I want Agent OMGWTFBBQ! to be my undercover boyfriend!

If anything, hopefully all of this draws more attention to the issue and hopefully keeps it in LL's mind. With as much damage as these unethical F**Ks are causing they have to take more notice and action eventually. *Crosses fingers*

It is called intelligent business practice when you are dealing with customers who can walk away at any time. It is also called doing the right thing, but I digress....

if i summarize... someone doen't like bot and is kind of trying to find a way to perform a bot based distributed grid attack?

That's really low...

Well I think it digressed into that, but that was not the intention of my original suggestion.

My suggestion is that everyone have access to the same tools for finding inexpensive land to buy, so that one person does not have an unfair advantage in the market. Possible outcomes of "freeing the landbot" would be:

(1) The landbot's heavy use of system resources (simultaneous avs, teleports, land searches), while supportable for a few, will not be supportable for widespread use. For the sake of grid stability and performance, LL will have to ban ANY use of a landbot.

(2) Landbots operated by ethical users will compete with those currently operated by unethical users. The ethical users can set the land for sale back to the original owner for the price it was sold at, and IM the original owner to explain what happened and how to prevent similar mistakes in the future. Unethical non-returners will still get some of the mistakes, but fewer of them than they currently do.

(3) Even if LL allows everyone to run landbots, AND the bulk of them are non-returners, such widespread use will become so widely known that most players will be aware of it and be far more careful when selling.

We all have access to the same tools, download a copy of the libsecondlife source code and gcc ,then start writing your own in notepad.

When i need something i write my own, if don't know how, i learn how to, if i can't bother to learn, then maybe it wasn't something i wanted badly enough.

I won't comment again on the evil and objectionable practice of buying land from someone who wants to sell it, for the price they ask for. Just a few words about the AvaStar.

When the AvaStar appeared on the grid in december 2006, they claimed to be the "first tabloid in SL". This blatant lie says a lot about the quality of their journalism. What says even more is the company name behind the AvaStar: Axel Springer AG, a German publishing house infamous for their RL tabloid "Bild" (or "Bild-Zeitung".
The "Bild" is, I'm ashamed to say it, the largest and best selling newspaper in Germany. Some excerpts of the headlines (no joke):

"Killer germs - deadly menace from Mars"
(Killer-Keime - Todesgefahr vom Mars)

"Pregnancy caused by Egyptian cotton sheets?"
(Schwanger durch ägyptische Baumwoll-Laken?)

"Saddam threatens with nuclear strike"
(Saddam droht mit Atomschlag)

Aside from such obviously false reports on page 1, they entertain the reader with "news" like "Hunter shoots his own butt while taking a leak" (Jäger schießt sich beim Pinkeln in den Hintern) and "Emasculated by dachshund of mother-in-law" (Vom Dackel der Schwiegermutter entmannt).

The AvaStar tries to introduce this form of dubious, exaggerated and often completely made-up news coverage to SL. When the Bild reports "Saddam threatens with nuclear strike", the truth behind the message is "Somewhere someone thinks that Saddam possibly dreams of nuclear weapons". Similarly, the AvaStar headline "FBI called over Landbot Fraud" translates to "Someone said that someone should call the FBI".

Yes. It's truly evil.
- As opposed to the practice of buying land from someone who doesn't want to sell it, for the price they accidentally 'ask' for. This is a good and holy practice, because it educates them. They should be thankful that someone cares that much that they are prepared to educate them.

Associated with does not mean one in the same, and I have always loved the set up of the Avastar. Every story I have ever read in that paper has seemed well done and it seems they try to get and publish opinions from both sides.
As for landbots, I have seen them take advantage of the errors of people, I have seen them cheat people and steal, yes downright knowingly steal land while hiding under the TOS. When you knowingly take something that was not intended for you and refuse to return it's theft. I have seen the harm they cause.
I'll take the Avastar no matter who they are associated with over proven unethical landbots any day.

If someone doesn't want to sell land - why the do they sell it then?

I don't say it's a good and holy practice. Especially the part where the seller politely asks the buyer to give the land back because it was mispriced / intended to be sold to someone else, and the buyer refuses - that's definitely not nice. Nonetheless it's legal and within the ToS. The seller shouldn't be happy, but admit that it was his/her own mistake instead of blaming the buyer.

I didn't write it as "AvaStar versus landbots", I wrote it to point out how credible this newspaper is. They aren't merely associated with an RL publishing company, but the first test run of a virtual world version of the German Bild newspaper, as the publisher himself said. All I ever read in the AvaStar was badly researched sensationalist press, with a bottom line layout - same as the Bild (including the "sex sells" motto). As for publishing opinions from both sides: please re-read their articles on ageplay, for example.

As for the landbot issue: I often said it, it's definitely not nice to keep land after the seller told one that it was an accidental sale (assuming the seller contacts the buyer immediately). Such a person is an *sshole, I agree there. However, an *sshole is not a thief. Landbots do nothing else than buying land that is for sale. They don't knowingly (it's a bot, for heavens sake, it doesn't know anything) take something that wasn't intended for them. If something is for sale to anyone, it is intended for anyone, why else is it offered for sale that way?
Of course that can happen by mistake. People do a lot of things by mistake, and some mistakes are more costly than others. One can abandon land by mistake, delete inventory by mistake, decline offered objects by mistake and whatnot. It's no one's fault but the person who made the mistake.

/Edit: I can see why you dislike land bots, since this technology gives competitors an edge that can be called unfair. But I'd rather attack them by facts, not libel. You could, for example, point out that they may slow down the grid by using too much resources with their automated search. If that is the case, LL would be more likely to listen, and I'd also support setting up rules against landbots.

ROFLMAO

I'll take Sarah Nerd over an unethical landbot or a snide response any day.

I wont. She claims the landbots are stealing, but it's not stealing. You can't steal from someone who clicked "sell to anyone"

Who is getting robbed? They are losing money? No, they aren't. They got exactly what they asked for, and you can keep beating this till it's dead, but all it is in the end is a group of people feeling cheated because of their own mistakes, and another group capitalizing on it. Is it ethical? No, most certainly not. Landbots are horrible. But is it wrong or against the rules? No, it's not.

Well I don't need a TOS in order to understand right and wrong. Knowingly taking advantage or errors and profiting off of errors is not right. When someone tells you, It got really laggy and I missed a number and you refuse to give back something not intended for you at that price, you know what you are doing is wrong without looking at the TOS. Hiding under the TOS and using it to legally steal is cowardly and wrong. When someone tells you that was an error and you know they did not want to sell at that price, YOU KNOW your stealing even though the TOS protects you.

It got really laggy and I missed a number?? That sounds like a cop-out to me. It's not legally stealing. It may be low, and morally gray, but it's not against the rules for someone to purchase land. With a bot or in person, if someone posts land at a price, wrong price or right, and another buys the land, then it's done. Personal feelings aside in the matter - and that's all they are. People don't like landbots. It makes them feel grimy. Something can be grimy and be perfectly legal - no rules are being broken, and that's what it comes down to, for me. I don't like landbots, but there's a lot of things well within the law or the rules that I don't like. I still wont stop someone else from being able to do it.

Ok to word my beliefs differently, They are totally stealing but getting off on a technicality.

The bot runner knows exactly what he is doing when he sets the bots to buy only the super cheap land.

And laughs when they beg for the land back.