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Scammers Continue to Wreak Havoc in MMO's
eldavojohn writes "We're all well aware of the scams that sometimes happen in online games like Eve Online. But despite this looking primarily like a problem with Eve Online, the MIT Technology Review brings us stories from Second Life and the very real $700,000 (USD) in Linden Dollars that has recently disappeared in what is appearing to be a classic ponzi scheme by a company named Ginko Banking. Unbelievably high interest rates coupled with some shady withdrawal limits leads to classic epic losses to investors. Eve Online was merely virtual currency but Second Life has a real monetary value associated with Linden Dollars & therefore is certain to see more and more scams pop up like this. How can Linden Labs set up a safety net to catch things like this?"
They rarely do. I live in a relatively poor country, and all the time I see tourists come here and "fall in love" with a local girl. They buy furniture, rent an apartment for her, and when they go back home they keep sending money. In the mean time her real boyfriend has moved into the apartment with her and sleeping in the bed that he bought.
Once just by chance I happened to be talking to one of these tourist "boyfriends," and told him what was happening. What a mistake. Not only did he not believe me, he actually threatened me for "telling these vicious lies."
When the illusion is sufficiently compelling the desire to believe trumps rational thought.