Scams in Second Life & Cyber Law

Money Laundering & Scam

Second Life claims to have more than five million residents, a daily cash flow of US$265,000, and an economic impact of about US$17 billion. As an indication of the power of this market, household names, such as Nike, IBM and Dell, have created a presence in Second Life.

 In addition, the World Bank has held a virtual conference and major universities have used virtual classrooms for online study programs. Most virtual world platforms charge a subscription fee, typically around US$15 per month.

Participants in Second Life use credit cards or an online payment broker such as PayPal or Neteller to buy virtual currency called Linden dollars. Players use their Linden dollars to buy and sell goods and services in the virtual world. These include skins (avatar images), virtual houses, airplanes, and virtual goods available in virtual online stores.

Thus,whenever there is ample amount of money involved in transaction between single or multiple parties,the chances for money laundering or scams to occur are very high in nature.The virtual world has contributed to many online fraud and scam which resulted in many case being reported in the European countries although less cases where reported in Asian countries.

Scammers prey on your uncertainty and greed when trying to defraud you, so do your research beforehand and save yourself a lot of trouble as you are not sure which site is genuine to purchase the Linden Dollars.Thus,we becareful when the offer is to good to be true.

In cases where someone not involved in a deal intercepts payments, or causes a script to make fraudulent payments, Linden Lab will attempt to identify the abuser, and apply discipline as appropriate.

Separately, Linden Lab may be able to recover some or all lost Linden dollars, and return them to the correct Residents. Any restitution depends primarily on the recovery of lost Linden dollars from the abuser's account.

The increasing alert on money laundering and scams,Second Life virtual world moderators do provide us with 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.

Obviously there is some kind off effort from the moderators of Linden to help curb this money scam and money laundering.Thus,the conduct of reporting abuse has certainly got relativity with cyber law.

The user of Second Life blog must be educated enough to know their rights and take proper initiative to equip themselves with proper and genuine cyber law knowledge to avoid getting scammed

"We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before." A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. John Perry Barlow. Davos, Switzerland. February 8, 1996. 

posted by Thressna Vaani a/p Chandrasegaran

Living the dream in Second Life

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SITI AFIQAH ABD MUTALIB

CSI NY EPISODE 5 SEASON 4

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

You can watch an eposide that relate with the second life in this drama series.
http://watchseries.lt/episode/csi:_crime_scene_investigation_s4_e5.html

A murder victim bears a striking resemblance to a well-known avatar in the online role-playing game "Second Life." Mac is forced to enter the game himself to solve the mystery surrounding her death.

POSTED BY,

SITI AFIQAH ABD MUTALIB

Real story in second life affairs end in divorce

 A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged "affair" in the online world.

Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

"I went mad -- I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done," Taylor told the Western Morning News. "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over."Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

Second Life allows users to create alter egos known as "avatars" and interact with other players, forming relationships, holding down jobs and trading products and services for a virtual currency convertible into real life dollars. 

Taylor said she had caught Pollard's avatar having sex with a virtual prostitute: "I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned."

But Taylor told the Western Morning News she had subsequently hired an online private detective to track his activities: "He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life."The couple's real-life wedding in 2005 was eclipsed by a fairy tale ceremony held within Second Life.

Pollard admitted having an online relationship with a "girl in America" but denied wrongdoing. "We weren't even having cyber sex or anything like that, we were just chatting and hanging out together," he told the Western Morning News.

Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft.

source : internationaCNN.com/europe

POSTED BY,

SITI AFIQAH ABD MUTALIB

Second Life.. Challenge to Cyber law community

1 Million Members in Second life.. What does it mean?

• Ever since www.secondlife.com was started, it has thrown up interesting challenges to the Cyber Laws community. T

• There have already been a couple of cases filed in the real world regarding “Fraud” or “Proeprty theft” in the secondlife. 

• The founder of second life, Philip Rosedale has reported thatmembership has crossed 1 million he is concerned about the increasing number of crimes in second life involving property thefts.

•  It is also reported that the linden currency dropped off under the threat of a malicious programme called “CopyBot” which could duplicate virtual property on second life and recovered only after some security warnings from the administrator 

• Money laundering: …legal experts claim the lax regime could provide a haven for money launderers, fraudsters and even terrorists to hide and move funds … the criminal networks threatening to take advantage of the cyberspace world are all too real. Now a report drawn up for Britain’s Fraud Advisory Panel (FAP) is calling on the Government to extend real-world financial regulation into Second Life and similar games. — The Telegraph
  • Online rape:   …while individual avatars are supposedly prohibited from taking control of other avatars without permission, savvy users can still use scripts to force submission. As a result, Belgian police are now investigating an SL user’s allegations of a sexual assault that took place entirely online.  — Freakonomics
   
  • Illegal gambling: Linden Lab called in the FBI to assess if its virtual casinos break US laws against online gambling. Steven Phillipsohn, a fraud litigation solicitor and chairman of the FAP’s cybercrime working group, said: “There’s nothing virtual about online crime, it is all too real. It is time government took this seriously. The legitimate benefits of virtual communities will prove enormous, but people need to be aware that this cutting-edge technology has a darker side. Money laundering is the obvious risk. — Online Casinos

Security Issues within Virtual Worlds such as Second Life

modified version of Virtual World Security Threat Matrix (Lee 2007)

The following discusses a series of major security incidents which have occurred within Second Life. The discussion of the security incident is then mapped to the modified version of Virtual World Security Threat Matrix (Lee 2007).

Security breach of user details

In September 2006 a hacking attack upon Second Life’s database led to the real life personal information of Second Life residents to be breached (BBC 2006a; Lazarus 2006). While much of the data was encrypted, there was a risk of identity theft and financial frauds as a proportion of Second Life residents have registered their credit card details to convert real life currency to Linden Dollars and vice versa. Linden Lab immediately required all users to change passwords after the attack (Fost 2006).

Applicable Threat Dimension(s): I & II

The “Grey Goo” attack

Worm-like malicious virtual objects appeared at various locations on the Second Life Grid in November 2006. The golden ring- shaped virtual objects flooded various Second Life locations by self- replicating. They caused disruption to the Second Life teleportation service, account balance and the rendering of avatar clothing (BBC 2006b; Lemos 2006). The incident was termed a Grey Goo attack as the maliciously coded virtual objects share many similarities with out of control nanotechnology robots that self-replicate and consume all available physical resources. An outright ban on self-replication scripts was not possible as that would limit legitimate use of self-replication for coding virtual objects. Unlike virtual worlds such as There.com, Second Life residents need not submit virtual objects to Linden Lab for approval before the objects could be introduced in the virtual world. Furthermore, Linden Lab encourages Second Life users to create innovative virtual objects, such as virtual plants that grow, multiply, and interact with avatars and virtual environmental elements Although Linden Lab was able to respond to the Grey Goo attack quickly, the incident highlights the vulnerability of the Second Life Grid to attacks by malwares, computer viruses and worms.

Applicable Threat Dimension(s):II, IV, VI & VIII

Griefing attacks

Griefing is an anti-social behaviour that shares many similarities with bullying (Chesney et al. 2007), harassment and vandalism. Griefing is defined as an intentional act that is enjoyed by the attacker, the griefer, and one that affects the victim’s experience negatively (Foo and Koivisto 2004). Attackers often take advantage of loopholes and weaknesses in the virtual world mechanism or policies. A griefing attack may target an avatar, an organisation, a virtual location, or a virtual event. In an attack on an avatar, the attacker may use push weapons to displace a victim or override the movement or capabilities of the victim. Griefers have also been known to plant malicious tools and virtual items at virtual locations, or visually vandalise the space by clouding it with large virtual objects that carry disparaging text or graphic. Denial of Service-like griefing attacks occur when a large number of attackers swamp a virtual location or virtual event, generating excessive avatar traffic. Griefers may also attach computing -intensive virtual objects onto their avatars when they visit a virtual location to overload the server that renders the graphics for the virtual location. In December 2006 a real-time CNET interview conducted with Anshe Chung (the avatar of Ailin Graef, a virtual entrepreneur) held in Second Life was severely disrupted by griefers (Terdiman 2006a). In the end the interview had to be moved to an alternative virtual location.

Applicable Threat Dimension(s): IV, V, VI & VIII

Copybot

Another well documented security incident in Second Life relates to the existence of a Copybot application that makes unauthorised copies of virtual objects and avatars (BBC 2006b; Terdiman 2006b). The Copybot application violates Second Life’s Terms of Service which stipulates that Second Life residents retain full intellectual property for digital content created in Second Life (2007k). The Copybot application was originally used by developers for debugging purposes, so that developers could import/export digital content into the Virtual World. The application subsequently modified to make unauthorised copies of virtual objects. Although the Copybot application does not operate within the Second Life Grid and does not interfere with Second Life server performance, it rocked the Second Life economy as virtual objects that are usually sold for a price could be copied free of charge. After much protest by residents and businesses, Linden Lab has banned the use of Copybots and declared its use an infringement of copyright. However, Second Life residents whose virtual objects or avatars have been copied will still need to take individual action against the perpetrator.

Applicable Threat Dimension(s): II & III

Second Life Permission Request Weakness

Second Life residents may allow their avatars to interact with scripted virtual objects in the virtual world. By accepting a permission request emitted by a virtual object, a monetary payment of L$ to the owner of the virtual object may be initiated, or the avatar’s movement may be animated. The permission request system could be abused to hide fraudulent and unauthorised monetary transactions, such as charging a price for a virtual object appears visually as a freebie (Second Life 2007l) . Once a permission request has been granted, the Second Life resident is not able to pause, cancel or revoke the process.

Applicable Threat Dimension(s): I, II, III, IV, VI, VII & VIII

Posted by : Nur Asma Husna Abd Samat