Linden Lab Official:Scams

Buy Linden Dollars from a trusted source, such as Linden Lab or approved L$ resellers. Be extremely careful when purchasing anywhere else, especially if the wording sounds too good to be true. As P.T. Barnum allegedly said, "There's a sucker born every minute" Scammers prey on your uncertainty and greed when trying to defraud you, so do your research beforehand and save yourself a lot of trouble. If a scammer tricks even a handful of people, that gives them confidence to expand their scam.

Important: This page can only be updated by Linden Lab employees, so rest assured this info comes direct from LL.

BEWARE OF THESE SCAMMERS!

When viewing a scammer's posts, click the Abuse Report link (either on the left of a thread or below a post). Keep in mind that scammers disguise under different identities, and that this is not a 100% comprehensive list, but blatant abusers to avoid. However, the practices on this page are broadly useful.

• "eingee" aka "eveonlinez" - See example scam ad. Repeatedly spamming the blogs.secondlife.com forums under different accounts and trying to circumvent Linden Lab's blocks, in the process causing a lot of pain for our Residents. It should be obvious such desperate and disruptive behavior is a red warning flag that they're scammers. We've blocked their direct hyperlinks so they are trying different combinations (like this) to get around.
• "gamesker" - Similar wording to eingee as noticed here. Has tried to post images to circumvent word filters on the new community.secondlife.com site.

News

• 2011-02-10 - What's happening with fighting spam? - Post by Torley Linden.
• 2010-11-04 - How Linden Lab is combating spam on these forums - Post by Torley Linden.

Forum-specific questions

About the blogs.secondlife.com forums.

What should I do if I see or suspect a scammer?

Abuse-report their post by clicking the Report abuse link in the left of the thread or underneath a post so that Linden moderators will see it. Many independent reports from multiple Residents who all think it's a scam helps escalate it to our attention, so the scammers can be banned.

Remember, scammers can't take your money if you don't give them business. Ignore their pleas for attention, and you can reply, telling other Residents to beware (with our Discussion Guidelines in mind). But don't direct-link to their sites, it gives them traffic and leaves others vulnerable — this is especially dangerous with phishing attacks.

Why can I post only once every two minutes?

This was added to deter mass-spamming from scammers. We think it's a reasonable limit that shouldn't really detract from actual conversation. However, like other spam-combating methods, it's subject to change.

Why did my post get moderated?

If you see this message:

Please note, your discussion will need to be approved by a moderator before it will be viewable by others.

Posts matching certain keywords and criteria may be automatically flagged for Linden moderation and not posted unless approved. This is different from reporting a post as abusive, which requires our human intervention to moderate. We can't disclose the exact criteria, since that would allow spammers to figure out how to be unblocked.

As we continue to change things behind-the-scenes to make the process target more scam-spam and less legit posts, we're sorry if your post accidentally gets caught in the net. If so, please wait until a Linden next checks the queue and approves it.

See also

These resources may take some time to read but it's better to be prepared than caught unaware.

• Email_Scam_(Phishing)_FAQ
• Safeguarding_your_account_and_protecting_your_password
• Someone else has my password; I may have been the victim of fraud.

On the broader Internet:

• Preventing the Most Common Scam Methods - Best practices from MMObay that generally also apply in SL.