Linden Lab responds on fraudulent funds griefing
In response to our piece on the both speculative and historical use of fraudulent funds transfer in Second Life as a griefing tactic, Peter Gray of Linden Lab's PR agency, LewisPR sent us an unsolicited statement yesterday.
In it Gray begins, "The policy stated at http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/api/risk seems to have caused some confusion. .... The policy stated at the above webpage is directed at operators of Linden dollar exchanges; if Linden Lab identifies that the operators of these exchanges have PURPOSEFULLY purchased fraudulent L$, Linden Lab may recoup 150% of the amount. The fine mentioned on this page is a potential repercussion of an exchange operator purchasing fraudulent L$ where Linden Lab has identified an intent to collude in fraudulent behavior. To date, this fine has never been levied."
Which is all very well - but actually has nothing at all to do with what we are talking about.
The matter at hand is not an exchange operator who has purchased fraudulent Linden Dollars. The issue here pertains to ordinary residents who have had fraudulent Linden Dollars transferred to them, with or without their knowledge.
The key passage in Gray's statement regarding this is, "Linden Lab has no blanket policy to fine all buyers of fraudulent Linden dollars, and any incident is handled on a case by case basis."
Which basically tells us nothing about what Linden Lab does in these circumstances - for that, we have to go back to the stories of individuals or groups who have been victims, each of whom have reportedly been subject to account suspensions (such as Nexxus Ambassador, or Chmarr Walcott), and have apparently had more Linden Dollars removed from their accounts than the total fraudulent sums that were transferred to them.
It is Linden Lab's policy not to discuss the specifics of any matter involving fraud or abuse - our attempts to verify such matters in the past have been met with silence. Gray's statement tells us nothing about what happens to users who have received fraudulent funds, other than that they are "handled on a case by case basis" - which could mean just about anything.
