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5 Days after Michelle lost her land, Celene agreed to give it back to her with the condition that we blogged about it.  You can find that blog HERE. 

A few days ago I recieved this instant message from Michelle Lingiuan who had lost her 4096 meter parcel and all contents for $1L to infamous land bot runner Celene Ballinger. Like most people taken by Celene, Michelle was totally unaware that such bots exsisted and could buy Your land in a split second until it happened to her. Linden Labs refuses to take notice or help the residents this has hurt and in my opinion if they will not help people then they should at least make this danger well known with blogs and warnings. I can't explain Michelle's experience better than she can so here is our conversation...

[21:10] Sarah Nerd: how much land did you have taken?
[21:11] Michelle Lingiuan: it was 4096 or something i just bought it and had my store contents in it the other day
[21:11] Michelle Lingiuan: and a friend was trying to help me out
[21:11] Michelle Lingiuan: so we were there, and i was selling it to him for 1 linden to get him to fix something and within 2 seconds it was sold to her
[21:12] Michelle Lingiuan: then these bots came in soon after
[21:12] Michelle Lingiuan: 2 of them
[21:12] Sarah Nerd: yea theres 4 or 5 bot runners, most give back land errors
[21:12] Sarah Nerd: Celene doesn't =(
[21:12] Sarah Nerd: It's just really dirty
[21:12] Michelle Lingiuan: thats what i was reading and damn this is so wrong
[21:12] Michelle Lingiuan: i can't believe linden labs is allowing this
[21:13] Michelle Lingiuan: i mean our real life money is gone now
[21:13] Sarah Nerd: Did you even know they exsisted before you lost the land?
[21:13] Michelle Lingiuan: nope
[21:13] Michelle Lingiuan: and i have been playing since november of last year
[21:13] Michelle Lingiuan: thats why i was looking today all about this
[21:13] Michelle Lingiuan: and the only things i found out was from your site and not on linden labs
[21:13] Sarah Nerd: People always argue in forums that people should know about them by now, but until it happens or if you deal land how you could you know?
[21:14] Michelle Lingiuan: they should have posted something to warn us
[21:14] Sarah Nerd: Linden labs should at the very least warn about this
[21:14] Michelle Lingiuan: exactly this is their responsibility too
[21:14] Sarah Nerd: And not allow it if you ask me
[21:14] Michelle Lingiuan: i sent in a ticket last night right
[21:14] Michelle Lingiuan: and basically i got back a response saying it was my own fault
[21:15] Michelle Lingiuan: so then i called them today
[21:15] Sarah Nerd: Do you still have it?
[21:15] Michelle Lingiuan: and got an answering machine
[21:15] Michelle Lingiuan: the ticket?
[21:15] Sarah Nerd: yea
[21:15] Michelle Lingiuan: yeah let me pull it up for you hang on
[21:15] Sarah Nerd: im curious about how they word it
[21:16] Michelle Lingiuan: k here is what i sent in
[21:16] Michelle Lingiuan: Summary: Land sale that should not have gone through If issue is about an Alt account, what account?: Ticket Type: Technical Issue Basic or Guest Access - only a few ticket types allowed: Contact Email address: Technical issue: Viewer/web: Inworld Issue: What Type of Connection do you Have?: Operating System: Web Browser: What Graphics Card do you have?: Are there multiple monitors?: 1 Crash/Error: Error Message: Listing issue: Group issue: Land issue: Group name: Location (region, coordinates): behrii (232.1.193.4.29.0) Accounts issue: Partner name: Billing type: Linden$ Payment: LL Payment type: Resident payment issue: Billing issue: Charge type: Credit issue: Payment type: Paypal email address: Real name (on payment account): Credit Card type: Last 4 digits of Credit Card: Transaction Amount: Transaction Date: Transaction Time (PST): Region Request: Region Change: Transfer type: Other person's n
[21:16] Michelle Lingiuan: Other person's name: Celene Ballinger Region Name: New name for Region: Owner of island it will be adjacent to (if any): Order Date (approx): Avatar Name: Registration Date: Name of Guest (1 allowed): VAT questions: Preferred Language: English
[21:17] Michelle Lingiuan: Celene Ballinger purchased my land in error (and I just bought it for 15000 lindens the other day), my friend bison and i were working on something and i was selling it to him for 1 linden to test some stuff out but she grabbed the land before he could, can i please have it back? my store is there everything that i worked hard for and this was a mistake and i am not sure how in the world she was able to buy it like that since it was just the 2 of us here. the land was not for sale at all its behrii 242,191,29 I am assuming this person has bots planted as they started showing up on the land. I will return her linden dollar but I do want my land back. I would also like this av checked out because it does seem wrong that she was able to do this within a matter of seconds.
[21:18] Michelle Lingiuan: and here is there response
[21:18] Michelle Lingiuan: Hi there, thank for your contact. I would urge you to make contact with the new owner, Celene Ballinger, to resolve this matter since this was a private land sale and nothing to do with Linden Lab. There are residents across the Second Life world who use various methods to track down and buy cheap land and, given the extremely low price your land was set to sell for, it was inevitable that someone might swoop in and buy it. The best advice I can offer for future land transfers is not to set your land for sale to 'anyone' at low or no price but to sell land to a specific resident for a low or no price instead. The land parcel tools allow you to do this and it removes the risk of anyone else being able to buy it. Kind Regards, Matthew
[21:19] Sarah Nerd: well what a nice fuck you
[21:19] Michelle Lingiuan: okay so i knew all that part but i did not know there were these bots running around doing this
[21:19] Michelle Lingiuan: so then i wrote them back with this
[21:19] Michelle Lingiuan: Hi there, I have tried to contact her on many attempts, her profile even has this listed and I did do as it says: Hello, thank you for looking at my profile. I come to Second Life to explore and to have fun. Are you contacting me about a land you sold me? Do you want me to look into it? Send me a "note card" with details. If you made a MISTAKE by listing your land for cheap, well be nice, or else... I DO NOT answer to Instant Messages. Only to notes. Now if Linden Labs cannot help me with this who can? This was something a friend and I were doing privately so he could help me fix something and was not to be sold to someone so how can they just be able to come and swoop up and buy the land within a matter of seconds, I understand they use various methods but the amount of money I have lost when I purchased the land and all my items on the land are there I mean it just does not seem appropriate that a bot can come and take your land like this????
[21:21] Michelle Lingiuan: no response back yet from that last one, then i called and left them a message about it that i searched on their support sites etc and there is NOTHING there about land bots etc or anything to make us aware this is going on
[21:22] Sarah Nerd: When they first came out, there was a mention in the blog saying they were looking into it, but they have never said anything since beyond, we dont get involved.
[21:22] Michelle Lingiuan: has this happened to you?
[21:23] Sarah Nerd: I've lost 2 lots, but luckily they were both very small. I know several people who have though, up to nearly a full sim
[21:23] Sarah Nerd: Mostly from people transfering to the person next to them unaware bots exsist, and a few glitches
[21:24] Sarah Nerd: like its laggy and a number bounces back in price before people realize
[21:24] Sarah Nerd: No matter how it happens, its not right that people get taken advantage of in such a manner
[21:25] Michelle Lingiuan: i know especially when we are dealing with rl money now too
[21:25] Sarah Nerd: Yea nothings cheap in sl, this all works out to real money and a lot of real money
[21:25] Michelle Lingiuan: exactly people put in a lot of money into this
[21:25] Sarah Nerd: Would you mind if I blogged any of this or shared it with a few people in anti bot groups?
[21:26] Michelle Lingiuan: and to have mistakes like this and just have it taken over
[21:26] Michelle Lingiuan: oh please do
[21:26] Michelle Lingiuan: the more people know the better

[21:26] Sarah Nerd: Yea thats the way I look at it. I hope if enough people are aware and ride LL about it that eventually they take action
[21:27] Michelle Lingiuan: question is will be get our lands and contents back too