Simone’s Account Hacked
Writing by Green Guy on Sunday, 11 of March , 2007 at 7:16 pm
Prokofy Neva, Community Affairs
Prominent Second Life designer Simone Stern reported to the Herald today that her work account had been hacked this morning and L$400,000 stolen (an estimated $1500 US) from the account.
In a heist similar to another large theft two weeks ago at DarkLife, the hacker first transferred funds from Simone’s work account, an avatar named Rica Wolfe, then to another day-old alt, Rica Beck, and then evidently on to a third day-old account MandyLynn Bailey. The day-old avatars were not online available for comment.
Simone contacted the only Linden she could find online, Hermia Linden, a liaison on duty, who was not able to do much other than to tell her to change her password and call the Lab Monday morning, and apparently was unable to authorize freezing of the account. Simone has pleaded with the Lindens to freeze the accounts pending investigation. LL takes 5-7 business days or more to cash out Lindens.
Not even her long-time RL partner knew the password on the Simone and Rica accounts, says Simone, because she had recently changed them, and no employees had the information. The money on the account included proceeds from her successful fashion lines, which have put her at the top of the list of SL avatars with profitable businesses, as well as proceeds from charitable activities.
Simone has been active in raising money for Ayshe’s Angels, helping a young woman with brain tumours, Ayshe Millions, obtain medical treatment for acoustic neuroma. She had just completed a yard sale yesterday to add to the more than $15,000 US already raised in the past year to help Ayshe.
Simone was alerted to the heist when she saw a notice on her email account that someone had logged in and “received inventory” on an account that she herself was not logged on to. She then saw that not only was $400,000 missing, but that the thief also sent a $5000 “gift” back to the Simone account, either to taunt her or to help cover their tracks and confuse any investigation.
Ayeshe Millions of South Africa also had access to Simone’s work account, Rica Wolfe, as she was the recipient of the funds raised for treatment, but the passwords had just been changed, as they are routinely, said Simone.
In the drama-saturated, back-stabbing fashion world, know for its jealousy and vindictiveness in Second Life, Simone says she has been getting some criticism for her efforts to raise money for one individual and demands for accountability from one particularly persistent critic. Simone says the expenses for trips to New York for treatment are documented. A supportive community of people familiar with the case and the activities have been very active in sustaining the SL-based effort to turn virtual dollars into concrete help, and following regular reports of amounts raised on the Ayshe Angels blog.
Simone says she has no idea whom to suspect, but that the Lindens could stop the damage from being done by freezing the accounts and preventing any cashouts to PayPal or checks. “The Lindens have the audit trail,” she said.
“Obviously this is an alt of someone who knew this was my work alt, knew there was money on the account and knew to hack it,” she said. But that could be anyone logging on to Second Life, as her work alt is listed as the owner or creator of objects in her high-traffic store, and her charitable events are heavily publicized.
Click here to advertise on the Worlds largest Blog Advertising Network
Category: Main
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
