Notjustanyone

The off topic nonsense posted about this scam in Tyche's "New SL Sims in the past week" thread is without doubt insulting to Tyche and anyone trying to view her thread for what it was intended.

Most importantly though it is proving to be extremely damaging to innocent parties who find themselves implicated in the whole fiasco. It is time for the real facts of this case to be presented. So much damage has been done now things could hardly get any worse, but at least there is an opportunity to put the record straight while the topic is still relevant to those who took an interest.

Not that I think it will stop the childish witch-hunts, character assassinations, unfounded speculation, conspiracy theories and innuendo. But at least that nonsense can be drawn away from Tyche's thread and live in it's own festering little pool instead.

The following post is long because it is detailed. I make no apologies for this. If you have a short attention span or really don't care, now would be a great time to move on to another post. If you are unaware of the scam mentioned in this post's title, you probably won't find what is below either interesting or relevant.

So, lets get down to business. I will tell you the actual facts and circumstances surrounding the Trixie Farrior/Bunny Claven scam in the approximate order they occurred. I will also digress occasionally to give the details of actual events which have been misrepresented by people with the sole intent of character assassination. I am uniquely placed to do so because I am LadySmack Gears SL partner. My in-world name is Spyder Kamm. I know the individuals involved and the events that took place in recent weeks and also the history of those involved, going back several years.

Fact 1: Trixie Farrior and Bunny Claven are both operated by one and the same real life individual. That individual is a man who lives in the UK. I know the RL name of this individual but for obvious reasons can't post that much detail here. For the purposes of this post I'll refer to him as "N".

Fact 2: LadySmack Gears is NOT the same person. She is a woman living in the United States. Obviously I know her RL name too but I'll just refer to her as "Lady" here.

Fact 3: "N" has been around SL longer than Trixie's born date and did in fact operate a real estate business in SL some 3 years ago - Australasia Holdings (AH). That business was legitimate, profitable and grew remarkably quickly.

Fact 4: Lady was hired by "N" as an estate manager and subsequently general manager in the early days of AH. Lady got to know "N" because she was a tenant on one of his sims. I was also one of his tenants back then, but that predates my current partnership status with Lady by some years.

Fact 5: The AH business started to fail when "N" became ill and Lady's own RL circumstances limited her time in SL. Day to day management fell to another person who wasn't up to the task.

Fact 6: "N" returned to SL but rather than try to repair the damage to Australasia Holdings he decided to cut his losses. He sold or abandoned all his sim holdings and guess what? He did this without consulting anyone or making allowances for existing tenants. Lady was blindsided and bore the brunt of the angry tenants. She managed to obtain one of the sims from "N" and moved as many of the affected tenants as possible there so as to honour pre-paid tiers. That sim was called Shima Koto and Lady continued to own and run that region single handed until February of this year. Some of those original tenants stayed on Shima Koto until recently.

Fact 7: "N's" main account at that time was banned from SL.

Fact 8: Lady was understandably furious at "N" for his actions, especially the way he left her to carry the can with the affected tenants. However you have to remember he had also become a good friend of hers from working closely together and up until falling ill had operated the business ethically and successfully. She remained in touch, and as time passed it became a case of 'forgive and forget'. Some readers may be sceptical of this, but it is what happened.

Fact 9: About 18 months ago "N" reappears in SL, using the Trixie alt.

Fact 10: Lady decides in February this year she has had enough of the financial commitment of owning a sim and sells Shima Koto to Jim's Estates (JE).

Fact 11: Jim subsequently hires Lady as GM of JE.

Fact 12: A month or so later, Lorac is hired by JE. Lady and Lorac did not see eye to eye on a number of issues. Lorac's business practices and ethics were somewhat at odds with Lady's. As an example, Lady sees no insurmountable problems with allowing tenants to terraform their own land, neither does Lady believe it is ethical for estate managers to place so called "anti griefing" devices on sims to log and monitor the ins/outs of all tenants and their guests without consent.

Fact 13: Lady resigns from an increasingly untenable situation at JE. The catalyst for her resignation was the poor treatment of a friend whom she recommended a JE plot to. That friend was asked to move to a different JE sim only days after purchasing his plot and moving in.

Fact 14: Lady's friend declined to move and instead decided to stick out his remaining tier days - finally vacating the plot when the tier expired and leaving a large "F@#$k you" sign behind. Does this constitute griefing? Lorac apparently believes it does. That's up to you to decide. Personally I find it trivial and rather amusing.

Fact 15: In June this year "N" approaches Lady with his new "one Stop Sim Shop" business and asks her to work for him again, as estate manager.

Fact 16: Lady and I discuss "N's" job offer at some length. Lady assures me she trusts "N" explicitly and is convinced his previous region dump activity was a product of stress and difficult RL circumstances. Lady accepts "N's" offer and agrees to work for him.

Fact 17: Lady starts to get concerned IM's from her former Shima Koto tenants (now in the hands of JE). They are concerned about the future of JE estates based on statements being made by Lorac. Lady responds to all inquirers by reminding them she no longer owns Shima Koto, nor does she have any further association with JE. She directs people to take their concerns back to Lorac or Jim for clarification.

Fact 18: Lady agrees to let "N" use an old, inactive alternate account of hers for some One Stop Sim Shop transactions and to make it easier for both of them to administer and manage the regions. This account was named "Bunny Claven". Obviously this was not the smartest thing Lady could have done, so yes, she holds her hand up and admits to her own poor judgement over this. Hindsight is a marvellous thing.

Fact 19: "N" loads his own payment details and email address against the Bunny Claven account.

Fact 20: "N" purchases 13 regions in a single transaction (so he tells Lady) although a list of sims from "N" actually shows 14. Neither Lady nor I know who these regions were purchased from and speculation about the source of those regions is pointless as only "N" and the seller know the details. It does appear from the list given to Lady that the recurring fees on those sims was $295 per month. In which case "N" was of course offering them at a loss when advertising at L$15k per week. But as we know, he could have asked 5K per week and still make money if he intended to defraud tenants as he did. Here is the list given to Lady:

06/20/2012 22:12:22 - Recurring Island Fees (Yaboop Island): $295.00 $295.00
06/15/2012 22:10:08 - Recurring Island Fees (Kava Kava): $295.00 $295.00
06/14/2012 22:10:26 - Recurring Island Fees (Little Cove): $295.00 $295.00
06/13/2012 22:10:32 - Recurring Island Fees (Sandy Echoes): $295.00 $295.00
06/11/2012 22:10:28 - Recurring Island Fees (Buttercup Meadows): $295.00 $295.00
06/06/2012 22:09:59 - Recurring Island Fees (Magical Tales): $295.00 $295.00
06/05/2012 22:12:57 - Recurring Island Fees (Misty Grotto): $295.00 $295.00
06/05/2012 22:12:57 - Recurring Island Fees (Forest Glow): $295.00 $295.00
06/03/2012 22:09:55 - Recurring Island Fees (Green Bank Hill): $295.00 $295.00
06/03/2012 22:09:32 - Recurring Island Fees (Blue Water Lake): $295.00 $295.00
06/20/2012 22:12:21 - Recurring Island Fees (Onestop Sim Shop): $295.00 $295.00
06/11/2012 22:10:20 - Recurring Island Fees (Highlands): $295.00 $295.00
06/03/2012 22:10:38 - Recurring Island Fees (Sandy Bay Isle): $295.00 $295.00
07/07 Hazey Dreams

...continued in next post

Notjustanyone

...continued from previous post...

Fact 21: "N" instructs Lady that these regions are to be rented out as full sims."N" determines the pricing. 'Trixie' begins advertising and sales while Lady applies terrain and basic landscaping to make them more appealing to potential buyers. STX tier systems and signage owned by "N" are placed and put into operation. Lady is under the impression that the L$15k per week deal was a one day only thing. As the financial aspects and ownership of the sims was entirely funded by "N" she was not particularly concerned with the how and why of "N's" pricing although obviously she raised an eyebrow at the L$15K per week deal.

Fact 22: Over the course of a few days 7 of the sims are sold/rented out by "N" (Trixie).

Fact 23: "N" agrees to let Lady subdivide one of the remaining regions and rent it out as 4096sqm plots.

Fact 24: Lady and I purchase 2 plots on this subdivide sim from "N" and pay him two weeks tier in advance. I begin setting up our house there and Lady sets up the tier system and signage on the other plots to get them ready for sale.

Fact 25: The following day Lady receives an IM from an irate sim tenant who has had all their objects returned and sim ownership transferred. Thinking "N" has made a mistake she moves the tenant to another sim. Then it starts to be become apparent that this is not an isolated case and she realises the extent of "N's" deceit.

Fact 26: "N" is not online at this point so Lady immediately goes to all the unoccupied sims and removes the for sale status on them. She locks them down to prevent public access and returns all "N's" STX tier payment kiosks to him from all his sims. This was done to prevent anyone else purchasing a sim or paying tier to "N" and finding themselves out of pocket. (This is why Marcus subsequently had to wait 20 minutes for Trixie to figure out why he couldn't get Marcus' alt on to the sim to show it to him.)

Fact 27: Lady gets a list of all the affected tenants from the STX tier system website and endeavours to contact them all about recompensing them for outstanding pre-paid tiers.

Fact 28: Lady personally FULLY refunds 5 of the seven tenants from her own money, including Ulaa who neglected to mention this important fact in the reported conversation with Marcus Lefavre. Obviously there is account transaction history to prove this and I have personally seen this history showing all the refund payments. The 6th tenant was moved to another sim as mentioned above, the final tenant of the 7 did not make contact at the time and still hasn't done so.

Fact 29: Next time Lady comes online "N" berates her for shutting down the sims and returning the tier Kiosks. She expresses her outrage to "N" over his deceitful and unethical behaviour. "N" says "I sold those sims in good faith. You were stupid to refund everyone and I'm not paying you what it cost. Have a nice life" and defriends Lady. He then bans her from all his sims, including the one we had purchased plots on.

Fact 30: Lady tries to log on as Bunny Claven to change the password but "N" has beaten her to it and she is frozen out of the Bunny Claven account.

Fact 31: I log in to our new home, unaware of what has been happening. I find the sim terrain totally changed, the sim under new ownership and all my objects returned.

Fact 32: Lady removes all references to "One Stop Sim Shop" from her profile. "N" does nothing to remove her name as a contact in advertising, sim descriptions or even from Trixie's profile.

Fact 33: Lady continues to receive enquiries from people interested in purchasing sims from Trixie. She responds to enquires thus: "I do not work for one stop sim shop, i do not suggest any sim for rent by them. I am not affiliated with any sim company or parcel sales company. I would suggest you do some looking around before you buy from any company, this one especially included. Trixie Farrior should have taken my name off profile long ago. Good luck with finding another sim."

Fact 34: Lady decides to keep her head down, thinking that "N" will soon transfer the remaining unoccupied regions, take his profit and that will be the end of it. How many regions may have been sold/transferred or additional ones acquired since, we don't know.

Fact 35: Trixie's ("N's") scam becomes public on the SLU forum, in Tyche's thread. Lady and I watch as her character is assassinated by people with an axe to grind (Lorac) or those who have not the faintest idea what is going on and prefer to present unfounded speculation as fact.

Fact 36: Lady and I both see a new post by Trixie in these SLU forums advertising sims for rent and realise "N's" audacity in continuing what is obviously a deliberate scam.

Fact 37: I place a carefully worded warning to potential buyers on Trixie's SLU post. Lady AR's Trixie at this point.

Fact 38: Lady and I watch Marcus prepare his case against Trixie and are pleased to see him finally AR. It is of great satisfaction to see Marcus arrive at the correct conclusion that LadySmack is irrelevant as far as perpetration of the scam is concerned. Marcus acknowledges that LadySmack is also a victim of "N's" activities.

Fact 39: Yes, I used the word victim above because it is a fact. Let me quantify it: a) She is personally out of pocket by over US$400+ paid out as refund to One Stop Sim Shop tenants b.) She has seen her reputation sullied and called into question by idle gossip and drama mongering C.) She has been betrayed and let down by someone she has stuck by as a trusted friend for many years d.) She now finds herself banned from some sims in SL, presumably on the sole basis of the gossip and innuendo discussed in this forum. Now, has anyone else lost more than that in this scam? I think not. If that doesn't constitute a victim of "N's" ativities I'd like to know what does.

Fact 40: At no point was LadySmack Gears, anyone from Jim's Estates, not Lorac, not Jim, not anyone, knowingly or intentionally party to any wrong doing whatsoever with regard to this scam. Neither was Marcus Lefavre or any of his enterprises. This entire scam is not some big masterminded conspiracy. It is the work of one, small, blundering, petty crook living in the UK who set out to fleece as much cash from SL as possible before the axe falls and he gets banned.

Without doubt many who read the above just won't be able to accept the simple facts as they make for a less than exciting story. It is all rather small and boring isn't it? The more intelligent of you will apply the Occam's razor principle and accept it for what it is. Anyone trying to infer the involvement of anyone but Trixie/Bunny ("N") in anything underhanded is talking absolute nonsense. I have seen the term 'derail' used excessively by one poster on this matter, this is laughable as the poster concerned has never even been on the right track themselves.

I have the full endorsement of LadySmack Gears in making this post. She has reviewed the text and corrected a few factual errors I made in the original draft. She and I would be happy to discuss the contents and facts presented here with any affected or interested parties in-world. Obviously we are not at liberty to share chat logs or further personal details over and above what I have already made public because of Linden Labs TOS constraints. It is unlikely that either of us will post anything further regarding this matter in these forums - there really is no more to tell.

If anyone does want to get out the pitchforks and charge off after LadySmack, or me, or Marcus, or Jim, or Lorac, or the man in the moon, you are welcome to, but you are wasting your time and making yourself look like a complete fool in the process. But by all means go after Trixie Farrior/Bunny Claven - the sooner scum like "N" is driven or removed from SL the better for everyone in my opinion.

If anyone reading this has fallen victim to Trixie/Bunny and lost money over their land purchase you have my and LadySmack's sympathies and we urge you to file an AR as soon as possible.

To those who have tried and convicted LadySmack Gears on the basis of rumour and innuendo in this forum and banned her from your sims, well, that's fine. You are entitled to do whatever you like with your own land. What's done is done and life goes on, an apology is neither looked for nor expected. Perhaps in future you won't be so quick to judge on the basis of notoriously inaccurate "he said/she said" forum posts.

Cincia Singh

tl;dr ... drama in a land business in SL ... who'd a thunk it.

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*My concern can be measured in micro give-a-shits, and I'm working on nanotechnology!*

Sid Nagy

There is a great soap script in there somewhere.

Aribeth Zelin

'As the Grid Turns'?

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Faerycat Designs In World -Marketplace 1- Marketplace 2

Soen Eber

Its a useful post, I read it, I agree, but, ah, umm....

(I'm not actually quoting anything here, just making the word counts stand out a bit)

I think you could have the same effect if you, ah, subtracted a declaration of independence or two from it, honestly.

UlaaC

Didn't realize I was obligated to share, beyond getting scammed in the first place, any further details of the events. Never denied getting a partial refund. My only purpose in contacting Marcus' alt in the first place was to try and keep him from getting screwed over. Didn't know he was doing investigative shit.

Joshua Nightshade

I look at this thread and see two walls of text and a bunch of one-off anonymous accounts and I wonder why any of us are supposed to care.

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MissKillian Barbosa

And this just PART 1?

Jesus.. spare us, please!

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Silly Ol' Killy Dilly

FemGhost

[QUOTE=Notjustanyone;1596320]...continued from previous post...

I have seen the term 'derail' used excessively by one poster on this matter, this is laughable as the poster concerned has never even been on the right track themselves.]

LMAO... Your whole post is the most laughable of all. It took you how many days to write that up??? And now everyone will feel sorry for LadySmack... poor thing got caught up in a scam. She didn't know people were renting the sims... She didn't know the same sims were being sold... I guess this person who has been in the land business for many years... just wasn't paying attention at all and then placed that ad in her name. What was she thinking? hmmmm I guess she wasn't.

I guess "the poster" was off track when mentioning the Alts were one and the same. How was "the poster" to know that this smart business woman handed over an old alt acct to someone and had no idea they were going to scam people... "the poster" apologizes.

Thank you for taking a few days to write up your post and fill us all in on what really happened. And thank you for letting us know that all those people that were mentioned in the posts aren't involved.

Can't help but think your whole post reeks of bs and at the same time is almost believable. hmmmm.

Notjustanyone

For those above who are going to all the trouble of whining about post length or infering they don't care, I will repeat something from early on in the above post:

"The following post is long because it is detailed. I make no apologies for this. If you have a short attention span or really don't care, now would be a great time to move on to another post...."

What part of that don't you understand? Why didn't you just move on as suggested? Perhaps the concept of a browser "back" button is also beyond your comprehension.

I have a right to write as little or as much as I like. You have a right to read as little or as much as you like. Pretty simple concept really.

Joshua Nightshade

Coming along on an anonymous account and then being a brat is also not going to endear anyone to your cause.

Sredni Eel

I'm guessing this only matters to the people involved, which sounds like about three.

You're right. I don't have to read it, and I didn't. Mostly. I think I read the first paragraph before my eyes glazed over and I stopped caring. But the How to Get Into Heaven thread is oddly quiet and I'm looking for new stomping grounds.

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Johnnytreadlightly Nightfire

Try reading with some background music. It doesn't make the pain go away, but things start to make a little more sense.

Nimue Jewell

Setting any interest I have in the details of the whole affair aside, I do appreciate the effort to move this discussion out of Tyche's sim stat thread.

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My Snapzilla

Eboni Khan

I actually read the whole thing in bed on my tablet. I usually read celebrity gossip but this was more interesting.


Someone commenting on this situation in a land group I am in several days ago, so I was aware of the drama. Then I was able to come here and see the whole text based soap opera.

Thanks for posting the whole story. This is a cautionary tale to never be a land manager, kids.

Katya Dirval

Don't you love it when you give these people permission to use your name in public so they can explain themselves, they actually manage to make you look like a bad guy/girl?

Anyways, @ Topic starter:

I won't comment on the content of the post but I think it's a little odd that this main post is supposed to come from the person with all the answers while remaining anonymous. It could be anyone posting right now so anything you say might not be taken seriously by anyone.

When I got approached I was asked if my name could be used. Since I dont have anything to hide I agreed to Marcus he could use my name here in public (Marcus original post im talking about is in a different thread). Think it's a bit odd you want to remain anonymous yourself now while providing us with all the facts.

The source (In this case the topic starter) must be identified and validated to determine how valuable/reliable his/her story is. I know this is difficult on SL with all the alts, but starting off with a name like "notjustanyone" might not have been the best solution here.

Anyways,

LadySmack Gears

You will find this in the 5th paragragh in the original post. ...yes he did tell you who he is, and is genuine in the facts. Sorry you misunderstood.

Katya Dirval

Ah I see now, Sorry I only been reading everything that was stated as fact and kinda skipped the rest of the drama..

Apologies

LadySmack Gears

What his strategy was at the time, i have no clue. He did pay 1800USD for the first 13 regions. The fact that he still has my name on his sims tells me hes not paying much attention now, since i have turned numerous interested people away from his sims.

I'm sorry I really cant shed any light over your question.

Autumn Osterham

Paying enough attention to make a post on SLU selling regions a few minutes ago.

Since it's been admitted that you gave this person one of your alts I think I would do whatever I can to get it squashed or returned to your control. You are responsible for the actions of that account.

Linden Lab Official:Sharing or transferring Second Life accounts - Second Life Wiki

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LadySmack Gears

Yes, as i have already ARed Trixie, and told LL of the situation.

FemGhost

I was going to post this up in response to one of your bf's comments... but this may be a more appropriate place for it and it also may be the light you just can't seem to find....


This is interesting why would "you" Ladysmack Gears give "your" USA alt named Bunny Claven to Trixie Farrior to use in his UK business when Trixie Farrior could have made one in 5 mins??? ... Hold on I have to sneeze..... (((VATTTTttttttttt))) ....... there now lets continue : )

I sure hope LL don't catch wind of that one...

Ohhhh and I love how your bf outed Tricky Jonson... that wasn't to hard to figure out. I also enjoyed reading all of yalls sl profiles.... It didn't take long as they all pretty much look the same.... empty. Well except for yours Lady that changed several times. I love how you went from pretty much owning that spyder several weeks back to now that spyder owning you... I guess you wanted everyone to see the softer side of you. I hope you haven't lost that stern confident business woman attitude that you once portrayed. This whole story seems a bit Tricky to me... but if you sit back and look at all the facts, widdle through all the drama, you still end up with a bunch of peeps trying to cover their arses and eventually outing eachother. Keep it up... you're doing a fine job.

I see that Lady got in a reply just before mine here so I had to add this... In response to her saying she talked to LL... I wonder if her performance was good enough to convience them that she is a victim in all this? Props to her if she did.

Cincia Singh

I love when people talk about their "rights" lol. Let me present the internet Miranda warning about your rights:

1. You have the right to remain silent; in this drama-fest that would be a wise thing. But you won't.

2. Anything you say, or can be alleged to have said, will be presented as "fact" to spit-roast you over open coals with a prim apple stuffed in your mouth.

3. You have the right to an attorney; an internet attorney, not a real one. Good luck with that. Make sure that internet attorney knows where to find less than authentic fake legal documents to support your drama.

4. If you cannot afford an internet attorney one will be ghost-written for you by the community and will create as many alts, fake witnesses, bff's, SL family members, and SL pregnant talking uteri as may be necessary to carry on the soap opera.

4. Do you understand these rights as I've explained them to you?

Good ... feel free to carry on with your embarrassing little drama.

Sid Nagy

Okay, where can I plug it in?