from me , but this person displayed my name and my profile photo on their profile . It was reported to me that this person was going around to all my friends with a sad luck story asking for Lindens .”
This virtual identity theft is unnerving and frustrating at the same time . “ I am not sure why I was targeted , but I do have a very large friends list . As soon as I found out what was happening , I notified Linden Labs immediately by using the Help / Report Abuse menu item . I also banned this person from my sims and from all my groups .”
Happily , within a few days Linden Labs deleted this account . “ I learned how to report a crime in SL from this experience , something I never thought I would have to do . I also learned to make sure I really get to know my friends so that I can immediately recognize an imposter .”
“ Back in October or November , our DJ , Roxy , at our iMoogi Radio nightclub contacted me about some bad situation that had apparently happened to me and my need for cash to help out with it ,” Scorpinosis Nightfire , publisher of Nu Vibez Magazine shared . “ I was a bit stunned , very confused and must have sounded a little odd in my response . I had no idea what she was talking about . At the time , I didn ’ t know identity theft was taking place at all in Second life ,” he continued .
“ Turns out , someone made my name in a slightly different way , joined several of our groups and started contacting people in those groups as me , telling a sob story and asking for Lindens to help out .” When asked how he felt , Mr . Nightfire shared , “ it ’ s extremely concerning as my reputation is very important to me . Second life isn ’ t a place to play for me . This is my business . I was very upset and right away went on the hunt of how to make it stop immediately .”
Many call the above avatar hacking , but it is actually identity theft , pure and simple . If your avatar was actually hacked , the criminal would have obtained your password , and stolen your avatar account from you in its entirety .
In this example , though , the criminal takes your avatar name , usually choosing those perceived as popular , who would have many on their friends list . Then , create a new and similar avatar name . For example , if your name is “ Avatar Joe ” they might make an avatar named “ AvatarJoe ”. The missing space between the names is easily overlooked or missed . They screen capture your profile photo and even go as far as to completely copy your profile information right down to the last Pic .
“ There are other forms of identity theft in SL actually ,” Nu Vibez Editor-In-Chief Filipa Thespian chimes in . “ Years ago , when I was running the Ancient Roman Role-play sim known as Gods of Valor ( GoV ), a very spiteful and hateful woman in the Roman RP genre saw us as her rivals and wanted to end our community . One of the many ways she chose to attack us was by joining one of the most widely used role-play groups in SL on an alt . Once there , she pretend to be a GoV resident and sent out a group notice . In this notice , she advertised that my sim , Gods of Valor , was look-
44 NU VIBEZ & ROLEPLAY GUIDE MAGAZINE