More phish bait found in Second Life
Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 7:30 PM by: Brent LindenThis isn’t a password phishing attempt as far as we can tell, but it does appear to be a pyramid scheme or email spam scheme — neither of which are fun. Please do not visit the following site or give it your Second Life name, password or email address:
Congratulations! You’ve been selected, to be elligible for up to $3, 500 Lindens. To claim them, please visit: hteeteepee:\\www.undergroundsweepstakes.com (We are in no way associated with the FREE Linden scam that has been going around and we will NEVER ask for any passwords of any kind.)
Note: The web address above has been specifically rendered less linky to protect those of you with obsessive clicking disorder 
The above site not only requests that you complete offers before getting your L$ but also specifically indicates that you must have a valid Second Life account and password in their terms of use … both of which should be red flags!
Subject to our Terms & Conditions, receipt of your gift requires compliance with our eligibility requirements including; age and residency requirements, registration with a valid Second Life account and password, completion of at least one sponsor offer. Only one account per person. Members have 90 days to complete all necessary requirements to be eligible for a free Lindens. Available offers will vary and some sponsor offers may require purchases to qualify.
Please treat this as you would a banner on the web proclaiming you’re the 1,000,000th visitor and you’ve won a prize: don’t fall for it 
November 16th, 2006 at 7:50 PM
ROFL! The next thing we know the Prize Patrol will be invading Second Life.
November 16th, 2006 at 8:08 PM
How about Publisher’s Clearinghouse?
November 16th, 2006 at 8:25 PM
Have any of yall seen the skit on the Chappelle show when they had the internet as a place where you could actually go like a mall……. guess what, we are one step closer! aaaaahhhh, just beware of the goatplay!
Dave Chappelle Internet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kZ3z-6T_iU
November 16th, 2006 at 9:10 PM
how about the rich Nigerians who need help to get their money?
November 16th, 2006 at 9:12 PM
oh boy what will i win?! i really could use at least a toaster or coffeepot.
*click*…*clickity click*…*CLICK CLICK CLICK!*
nuthin’s happenin…
November 16th, 2006 at 9:16 PM
Yay!! Lindens, lindens, lindens!!!! Just to complete easy offers? .. *click click click* agggh LL messed with the web address!! You people don’t want me to get my free Lindens!!! Down with LL! They don’t care about the little people!!! I protest!!
November 16th, 2006 at 9:31 PM
Phish tastes funny…:p
November 16th, 2006 at 10:02 PM
I don’t understand how there are still people that fall for this kind of stuff? I would like to know who they are. Are they really this gullible?
November 16th, 2006 at 10:02 PM
Wait nevermind… greed is a currious beast it is.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:01 PM
Here are a few tips for things that *look* like they may be on the up-and-up (their website has a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy) but are probably pretty phishy:
Check their domain. In this case, the domain registration for the above mentioned site is domainsbyproxy.com. You can get a domain registration entry (or “whois”
from many sources, including http://register.com , http://whois.com and on the command line in UNIX/Linux/Mac OS X (possibly windows?) by typing whois undergroundsweeepstakes.com.
Google it. I googled “COM@domainsbyproxy scam” and came up with 1260 results! Quickly looking through them it appears to be mostly people warning others about scam sites.
If you hear about something that sounds phishy like this, click Help > Live Help inworld and talk about it. Lindens are listening, and we don’t want you to fall victim to a scam.
Above all, remember: Don’t ever give out your account password to anyone/anything/anysite (well, except Secondlife.com!) and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
November 16th, 2006 at 11:29 PM
laffin ’bout the clickin’ disorder comment, that is too funny !!!
November 16th, 2006 at 11:32 PM
I’m not going until they are giving away a George Foreman Grill.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:34 PM
I’m secondlife.com gimmi teh yu0r passw0rd!!!11!1oneone
(v1agr4 cd-key crack warez free L$ camping chair $$$ ding gratz wow gold guaranted moneyback free shiping naked-linden pr0n)
November 16th, 2006 at 11:40 PM
Guess we will see a lot more phish bait soon. in form of pretty open source clients with a variety of new backup functions.
November 17th, 2006 at 12:55 AM
A great thing to do when facing these kind of sites is to report them as phising sites trough the Firefox help menu. That prevents Firefox users with the phising protection feature enabled falling for it.
November 17th, 2006 at 1:20 AM
About a week from now, odd-acting Resis will be offering free ipods if you can click on the fast-moving monkey.
November 17th, 2006 at 2:08 AM
Seems the once wonderful world of SecondLife is turning into just a big adbot filled chatroom. If anyone has ever gone into a yahoo chat room, you’ll understand 95% of those in the rooms are bots. Seems like that ad on Yahoo.com brought many of those leaches our way.
~claps~ Hurray for bringing so much attention to our once fine world and letting the gates open to a flood of new griefers, scammers, and just plain irritating people.
November 17th, 2006 at 3:19 AM
Ok, What about the “pyramid scheme” groups I have seen in SL lately? There are some out there that encourage you to get people to pay to join the group, which has no use then for the next person to get people to pay to join the group and so on and so forth. Is this actualy a legit use of groups?
November 17th, 2006 at 3:19 AM
THERE TWO THINGS THAT SMELL LIKE PHISH,
ONE OF THEM IS FISH……
November 17th, 2006 at 3:26 AM
Kazuma, not all of us who have joined as a result of the increased publicity are bad, or (I hope) irritating! Although I must admit I can be at times
November 17th, 2006 at 4:10 AM
There’s a little plug-in I use (it’s freeware) CallingID that works in your browser and show the owner and the name and address of the website along with CID’s rating of that site. They also have a couple other tools one makes CID work over active links on a web page so you’ll know before you even visit the site whether it is safe or not. It works very well and I love it because it doesn’t get in my way while browsing. Though most of you on here probably don’t need something like this from the sound of this thread. Maybe you know someone who does. I found it through recommendation from CNet’s download.com. Gut those phish.
November 17th, 2006 at 4:11 AM
Stormy Wilde Says:
November 17th, 2006 at 3:19 am
“Ok, What about the “pyramid scheme” groups I have seen in SL lately? There are some out there that encourage you to get people to pay to join the group, which has no use then for the next person to get people to pay to join the group and so on and so forth. Is this actualy a legit use of groups?”
As far as I know pyramid schemes of all sorts are a TOS violation. They aren’t permitted in the form of scripted vendors, so I don’t think they would be permitted in any other form.
November 17th, 2006 at 5:06 AM
Is this really a phishing site or just a poorly conceived adaptation of the free iPod/gift card/etc. referral sites found across the web?
I don’t see anywhere on the site it requests one’s SL password or even anything resembling a password. “Account” and being logged in appears to be based around what one enters as an avatar name and email. I completed the 100L$ and I still wasn’t solicited for any additional registration information. Doubt I’ll get my hundred L but this doesn’t look like password stealing setup.
November 17th, 2006 at 5:19 AM
I’ve seen a scripted pyramid-scheme object recently, actually. It was even shaped like a pyramid.
November 17th, 2006 at 5:36 AM
Ishtara: “Guess we will see a lot more phish bait soon. in form of pretty open source clients with a variety of new backup functions.”
Do you know what the word “libel” means?
November 17th, 2006 at 5:50 AM
Are you sure, ’cause I just won the Irish lottery! Oh and Wells Fargo wanted to update my account history……eeven though I don’t have an account with Wells Fargo. Scams everywhere people. BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!
November 17th, 2006 at 6:44 AM
GigsTaggart Says:
November 17th, 2006 at 5:36 am
“Do you know what the word “libel” means?”
I know that pretty well. I didn’t say who may program these clients. With the client source code out there, everyone can change it and add any new function, such as transmitting the password to god knows whom. Not to speak of other changes people might implement.
November 17th, 2006 at 6:45 AM
Thanks Lindens
Doubt many people would have fallen for that, but it is always heartwarming to see how much you care for us all! 
November 17th, 2006 at 6:55 AM
I went to an event yesterday, inworld, at a place called Goldenchips Casino, which had an offer for something like 20,000 Lindens giveaway. I’m new to the game, so I went, not having a clue what a phish is or whatever, and there was this huge billboard that said to claim your free 20,000 Lindens go to this website and sign up. The site was hteeteepee:\\www.rentmymovie.com/goldenchips (also messed up for the clickaholics) and the offer wasn’t available to USA residents. Otherwise, I would have probably fallen for this phish scam, whatever it is. Anyways just wanted to bring it to the games attention….
By the way, I read a comment about who falls for things like this. Well, now you know. A newbie won’t have a clue what to expect inworld when it comes to things like that… That doesn’t make them stupid or dense or clueless, it only means they aren’t familiar with their new world and haven’t figured out the good from the bad.
November 17th, 2006 at 7:14 AM
I want my laptop, big screen tv and Bill Gate’s Money!
*rolls eyes*
November 17th, 2006 at 7:33 AM
Is posting this additional warning really going to prevent people that are so profoundly dumb to give up their passwords from giving up their passwords?
November 17th, 2006 at 7:35 AM
Did you know the word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary?
A few weeks ago it seemed like every time I logged on I had a new “invite” to a group that cost L$50 to join. I’m sure they were trying to scam people who were just clicking “OK OK OK” through the notices you get when you log in.
They seem to have stopped, so I guess (I hope) LL gave them a beatdown.
I wish LL wouldn’t use so many “approval dialogs” for routine actions.
* It encourages peole to reflexively hit “OK”.
* It gets annoying! I’d like to be able to say “yes, go ahead, animate my avatar every time until I tell you to stop”. I’d also like to be able to say not just “stop animations” but “revoke approval for all animations”, because some dance balls start animating you again after you stop them because they’re trying to keep everyone in sync.
November 17th, 2006 at 7:37 AM
LOL , at least I can go in SL today with a smile , Geez, I saw Bait , I thought Neo Realms was giving free fishing bait , heh ,not april fool today lol , but yeah thats a funny title and for the content matter, boy, you must be really desperate to fall for a scam like that ! “pats the person on the back who fell for it and says, ” live and learn”
November 17th, 2006 at 7:53 AM
Ah, isn’t it touching how hard they try to catch us? I feel almost honored. XD
November 17th, 2006 at 8:07 AM
A George Foreman grill? That is pretty tempting…
November 17th, 2006 at 8:25 AM
It’s funny though
If I enter my alternative email then I will get free money LOL. Rather than retrieving my account, should I try?
LOL
November 17th, 2006 at 8:30 AM
Kazuma Onizuka: ~claps~ Hurray for bringing so much attention to our once fine world and letting the gates open to a flood of new griefers, scammers, and just plain irritating people.
Congratulations on being the first one to actually blame Linden Lab for this. We at least got 15 posts into this blog before I put my face in my hands.
November 17th, 2006 at 8:47 AM
Just a note on domainsbyproxy.. Seeing this doesn’t *always* mean that something is a scam. I use them because I have a personal domain and don’t want everybody in the world that knows how to use whois to have my RL contact information.
Seeing it come up against a personal thing isn’t uncommon. Seeing it on a company is usually pretty suspicious, tho..
November 17th, 2006 at 9:05 AM
There are lots of gullible people. I’ve been doing sidework for my co-workers by “fixing” their computers. It’s amazing, even after four years of malicious spyware assaulting the internet, how many people buy a new computer when their year old one slows down or quits working. When I ask, “Have you scanned for spyware?” many will still say, “What’s spyware?” Never had anyone fall for phishing though. Man, I’ve had to recover a computer which took 30 minutes to boot, and upon double clicking IE the compy didn’t crash, didn’t blue screen, but it was so bogged down by 2,500 spyware programs trying to load that it just stopped. I called it a computer “stroke.”
Has anyone registered this site in Microsoft’s Anti-Phishing filter in IE7?
November 17th, 2006 at 10:02 AM
Speaking of dialog boxes from Argent Stonecutter’s post above I still do not understand why anything that deals with money doesn’t have a bright RED box or even any other color than blue. I also think money boxes should pop up on the bottom of the screen in a different spot than the others.
November 17th, 2006 at 10:26 AM
I personally don’t want the boxs in different colors , it will hurt my eyes , the pop upss are fine where they are , geez , “if you don’t like pop ups turn them off in preference “
November 17th, 2006 at 10:29 AM
LL , see what you cuased , uproar on the Log in Page I blame you LL and Philip for making this blog and putting it on the log in page , should go where the forums is , geez!
November 17th, 2006 at 10:31 AM
Yeah, unless you have 10 boxes you rapidly click through and didn’t realize one of them was asking for permission to take all your money. If you carry $100USD in Lindens it maybe a bigger issue to you.
If you turn off pop-ups how do you approve/disapprove anything?
November 17th, 2006 at 10:33 AM
then stop complaining and ask Live help but then again they will answer “its your graphics card” hehehe
November 17th, 2006 at 10:55 AM
I agree that the pop-up messages can be gamed. How about if we move the Join button over when money is involved, or permissions?
November 17th, 2006 at 11:09 AM
I have found that my second life is getting more like my first life, complicated.
But I don’t think I excepted any thing different.
November 17th, 2006 at 11:09 AM
That would probably work. Just far enough the were the courser would have to be moved to be approved. Simple and BrightAngles Eyes can rest easy.
Also I am not trying to complain. In my opinon anything that can keep people from getting ripped off is a good thing. Just like this post about phishing.
November 17th, 2006 at 11:13 AM
*winks at Brent* Problem solvers are HAWT!
November 17th, 2006 at 11:16 AM
In all honesty, I think Linden Labs is jumping the gun just a bit here. If they are going to credit someone those Linden Dollars, of course they have to have a valid SL account. I did not see on there, anywhere where it asked for a password. Its asks for your SL name and email address which is completely valid for this industry. I understand that Linden Labs is worried because of all the new phishing scams coming out lately, but as far as I could tell this one is not one. I agree they should not have stated you must have a valid SL username and password in their terms, which seems fishy, but yet they do not ask for the password anywhere. Asking people to fill out offers in exchange for Free Linden Dollars is actually a legitimate business. I am personally in the CPA (Cost Per Action) advertising business, and I understand it completely. All these people want an easy way to earn Free Linden Dollars, so this is a way. Sure you will get extra offers in your email box, but thats why you should never use your primary email address. Create a secondary one and fill out these offers and reap the benefits. These are the only types of advertisements on the internet where an incentive is allowed to be given and no credit card must be used. So you take the good with the bad. If you don’t want to actually buy something, but you still want to get those Free Linden Dollars, then you must pony up an email address to marketers.
Also, in regards to the comment made by Brent Linden saying DomainsbyProxy WHOIS info means its a scam is just plain ignorant. When you register a domain name, you have the choice to pay an extra yearly fee to make your domain name private to the public. Sometimes when you release your information, robots and spiders will scan WHOIS lookup sites and spam the information they get. So if you put your real information out there for the public, you are highly likely to get spammed to death. It has happened to me many, many times. I still believe it is more important to put your business information up if you are in fact a real business to assure people you are legit. So I usually use a fake email address for my WHOIS information. Again, this is another situation where a Linden jumped the gun and assumed something because he did a Yahoo Search.
My company, CPALead.com, is currently starting up a Free Linden Dollar Bank in SL with the same concept in mind. Except it is not a “contest” where only one person wins. Every offer you fill out, you get Free Linden Dollars instantly credited to your account. You can come see our building in SL if you would like at our SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Scandium/94/48/80/?img=http%3A//www.cpalead.com/hp3.jpg&title=Free%20Linden%20Bank&msg=Fill%20out%20online%20surveys%20for%20tons%20of%20Free%20Linden%20Dollars%20that%20we%20credit%20instantly%20to%20your%20avatar%21
The store has not gone live yet, but will in a few days. We are 100% legitimate and NEVER EVER ask for a SL password. We have even talked with the CFO of LL himself, as well as other Lindens about our project and have been given the thumbs up. I think posts like this hurt our business, and Linden Labs should really look into this a bit more before jumping the gun again.
November 17th, 2006 at 12:47 PM
I may be interested if yer offering free checking. And maybe a toaster would be cool.
November 17th, 2006 at 1:28 PM
Its funny how “older” residents is tired of new players… “Our once fine world” Maybe people thought you were annoying too once, thought abt that? Why is it that ppl who been here for some time think that its their game now, and the doors should be closed? It would suck if the door was closed just before u came in, wouldent it? U guys (the ones i talk abt here) are too funny sometimes….. Did i mention selfish there???
LOL
You were ALL new once, remember????
November 17th, 2006 at 1:38 PM
Nobody Fugazi Says:
November 16th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
I’m not going until they are giving away a George Foreman Grill.
Foreman Grills are awesome!!!
November 17th, 2006 at 2:31 PM
does this mean piblishers clearing house wont be knocking on my secondlife door anytime soon
November 17th, 2006 at 2:36 PM
It’s nice after the past few days of he said she said and hot tempers to be able to laugh at a post again.
November 17th, 2006 at 4:48 PM
Everytime I see the word “phish”, I imagine people in business suits dressed in giant tuna costumes. xD
November 17th, 2006 at 5:07 PM
ok first problem that should smack you in the face is the prize is about 12.50$ american then theers the line that makles it gperfectly clear with its bad english “complete all necessary requirements to be eligible for a free Lindens” whats “a free lindens” ? all your base are belong to me as well
November 17th, 2006 at 5:53 PM
Let’s have a phish fry…….. here kitty kitty
November 18th, 2006 at 10:11 PM
Frend Projects Said: “Let’s have a phish fry…….. here kitty kitty”
Yes? Hello? *Meows* Someone say free phish?
November 21st, 2006 at 10:04 AM
Concept: Elect some SL residents to go to SL Congress, pay them 10 times the salary many of us can hope to earn. Then we all agree to continue to support them for 5 years of their 6 year term (includes paying all of their home-lot tier costs, of course!) to come to agreement on the drafting of a new SL TOS, to be implemented upon being signed into effect by Phillip Linden.
This new TOS would prohibit, under threat of 1 year of avatar isolation (negotiable down to 1 day of light sandbox cleanup duty), any commercial and/or private account-holder in SL from spamming/phishing against any SL resident who chooses to put their SL name on a No-SL Spam/Phish List.
Needless to say, we will need a new multi-region island established (SL Congress Island), one with 5X Prims for all plots, on which all of these SL Congress-folks will reside, have offices (located next door to a fully-equipped Casino&Happy House…), have full RL and SL support staffs, and receive visitors 24/7 from all of the incoming and established SL corporations. Also, it would not be unreasonable to expect all of us to then contribute 100L and 16sm to Group: “Languishing on Your Dime” every month to this effort, and for us to mandatory-camp at least 2hr/wk at the new Department of SL Anti-Spammanist Security, also located on SL Exorbitance….errrr, I mean SL Congress Island.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:59 PM
umm yeah look my account was hacked a few weeks ago and all of my stuff erased and all of my L$ gone and now when i log out my L$ disappear if you guys could for ounce help me out that would be nice