Peering Inside: A cautionary tale
Meet Jay. Jay started in Second Life in April this year and was interested and involved enough to get himself some Linden Dollars via a currency exchange. A lot of Linden Dollars.
Unfortunately, Jay is now out-of-pocket by US$110, and is being told conflicting stories.
The exchange Jay selected was IGXE.com who purport to trade in the currencies of about 70 different online worlds/games (in many cases violating the terms of use for such worlds/games). He made a purchase with Paypal and had his currency delivered.
Linden Lab's anti-fraud team subsequently removed the currency he had purchased, telling Jay that the funds were purchased with a stolen credit card. IGXE for their part advertise that they purchase Linden Dollars "from game developers directly" and swear that they're not at fault.
Poor old Jay is caught in the middle, and seems to be the only one who is out-of-pocket on the deal.
'Linden should have a list of "Sanctioned sellers",' said Jay, 'and when I asked Linden they claim they didn't keep or post a list.'
Well, actually Linden Lab kind of does keep a list, but only for exchanges outside the USA, and strongly urges caveat emptor, though not in so many words. It seems kind of obvious that if you want to pick up your ellz and are able to pay in USD, Linden Lab would rather have you purchase from them directly.
From Linden Lab's perspective, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between a villainous user who is passing fraudulently obtained L$ through a couple of accounts and an unlucky, but innocent victim who is the recipient of them. At least Jay only lost 100% of his purchased funds, rather than the up-to-150% that has taken place on occasions in the past.
IGXE claims that the ellz were legitimately purchased. What the heck, they already have the cash and show no interest in letting it go.
'If you believe the Linden story that the L$ I bought were purchased with a stolen credit card, then Linden has stolen from me to replace what they claim is stolen L$,' says Jay.
Assuming Jay purchased in good faith, then any which way you slice the scenario, and regardless of who you assume to be at fault, Jay's the only real loser here. If IGXE (or someone who sold to them) used a stolen card, well, neither of them are out any money, (and neither is Paypal, for that matter) and Linden Lab has removed the extra money from the system by deleting it. All it has cost the Lab is a little time.
If Linden Lab is wrong about the card?
'In the real world,' Jay insists, 'Victims have recourse and statutes to recover their loss, and there are state bureaucracies protecting consumers. Linden's "buyer beware" attitude toward a product they create and manage [Linden Dollars, in this case, rather than Second Life] is unconscionable, especially when considering the protection of Second Life residents.'
Which raises an interesting point. For all practical purposes, Linden Dollars are a distinct product, created, managed and monitored by Linden Lab. Linden Dollars are not only exchanged for the purchase of virtual goods and digital land, but also exchanged for physical goods and services outside of Second Life.
The question there becomes, is the Linden Dollar a currency or a product? If it is -- as Linden Lab says -- a product, one would expect tighter controls on its use and trade. However, for all practical purposes, Linden Dollars represent a currency by any usual definition (though not legal tender, per se). As a currency, such additional controls would be inappropriate.
In the end, Jay's still down $US110, and he's not happy. We, ourselves, would not have purchased from that exchange, but that's cold comfort to Jay.
