• All submissions to this site are governed by Second Life Project Contribution Agreement. By submitting patches and other information using this site, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to those terms.
Issue Details (XML | Word | Printable)

Key: SVC-2641
Type: Bug Bug
Status: Resolved Resolved
Resolution: Cannot Reproduce
Priority: Critical Critical
Assignee: WorkingOnIt Linden
Reporter: cheergirl allen
Votes: 59
Watchers: 16
Operations

If you were logged in you would be able to see more operations.
2. Second Life Service - SVC

Classifieds still appear in search despite insufficient lindens to cover fee

Created: 13/Jul/08 06:44 PM   Updated: 29/May/09 02:19 PM
Component/s: Search
Affects Version/s: 1.22.4 Server
Fix Version/s: None

File Attachments: None
Image Attachments:

1. classifiedcap.JPG
(86 kB)
Environment: n/a

Last Triaged: 15/Jul/08 11:02 AM
Linden Lab Issue ID: DEV-17907


 Description  « Hide
Summary: classified ads will post and continue to appear in search, even if the account has insufficient funds to cover the classified fees. This is enabling people to post extremely expensive classified ads for free, and skewing the search results. – Hypatia

MY Question has to do with Classified ads and their Impact on the SL economy.

For the past 4 weeks I ran a small experiment with paid classified adverts on SL. It is a follows, 4 weeks ago I set up an ALT on a friends computer I gave that alt 50$L . this alt had no Business to run & no source of $L dollar income. I then placed a 50$L classified on SL with this alt. the classified was for a sandbox for the cost of 50$L. Before I paid for the classified I checked off the "AUTO RENEW EACH WEEK" button with the understanding that this alt would not LOG ON again for the next 4 weeks. so I clicked OK and paid 50$L to run a classified for a Public sandbox. Each new week I would SEARCH classifieds to check the status of the classified. Low and Behold each week with out fault the classified was still Running. 4 weeks passed and still the classified was active for a cost of 50$L dollars when the 4th week was up, I returned to my friends house LOGGED IN to the ALT account to find that it's L$ dollars was in the Red! The ALT had -$L150 thats right it had Negative one hundred and fifty linden dollars! This was Caused Because Linden Lab Deducted 50$L each week from that account for the cost of "AUTO RENEWING" the classified. This is ALSO TRUE for 30$L a week LAND CLASSIFIEDS that are AUTO RENEWED. With the Results of this Experiment I was Shocked but not Surprised. What happened to the Alt you may ask? easy, I sent it 150$L to bring it's $L dollar amount back to 0 (zero) then Canceled the account. so my Questions are as follows

Q.1 - does this work for people who take out 100000$L and up classifieds?
A????

Q.2 - how does this effect the Economic stats seen on the SL website for Classifieds?
A????

Q.3 - How does is effect the Exchange rate for $L dollars to US or Canadian Dollars?
A????

Q.4- are People who Run as I refer to it "Classified Alts\bots" liable for the Negative balance of thier accout?
A????

Q.5- how does Linden Lab plan to Prevent this from happening in the future?
A????

Q.6- Does Linden Lab really expect people to Believe that some one is paying 500000$L a week for a classified? that is over 500 US$

A????



 All   Comments   Change History      Sort Order: Ascending order - Click to sort in descending order
Dante Tucker added a comment - 14/Jul/08 08:43 AM
How does it affect 100000$L adds?

Simple, the alt pays for the first time.

Then it auto renews once, and bam the account is suspended instantly and automatically for being that far in the negative. All this without any harm to the economy, seeing as they did actualy pay for the first term.


wildefire walcott added a comment - 14/Jul/08 02:30 PM
FYI someone on the official forums just confirmed that the account doesn't even have to pay for the ad the first time. She created a L$9,999,999 classified using an account with only L$50. Screenshot:

http://www.bijodesign.com/classifiedexploit.png


cheergirl allen added a comment - 14/Jul/08 05:32 PM
INTRESTING PIC wildfire! can you post or IM me the Link to the Forum that this pic was taken from?
Thanx
CG

markbyron falta added a comment - 14/Jul/08 06:46 PM - edited
Added parenthetical in summary to clarify the issue and get Linden attention; I highly recommend you rephrase the summary to more accurately reflect the problem. While it will adversely impact Linden Lab's profits if classifieds aren't paid for, the position listing of classifieds are based on the amount paid, and those who actually pay for their classified are being CHEATED by those who are (or will) use this exploit.

Hypatia Callisto added a comment - 14/Jul/08 07:45 PM
I think I'm making all cheap classifieds now. What's the point. This will get fixed maybe in two years...

Hypatia Callisto added a comment - 14/Jul/08 07:50 PM
clarified title

Hypatia Callisto added a comment - 14/Jul/08 10:10 PM
cheergirl, do you want this to be found by people in search or dont you? You need to write it better if you want it to be seen.

Classifieds still appear in search despite insufficient lindens to cover fee - should remain the title, if you want to get votes.


Hypatia Callisto added a comment - 14/Jul/08 10:18 PM
changes it again, and will continue to

Harleen Gretzky added a comment - 14/Jul/08 10:53 PM
Maybe we need to open another JIRA on the real issue of classifieds been added and renewed with insufficient Lindens, since the OP seems more concerned about the economical impact (though there is no proof this has any).

Hypatia Callisto added a comment - 15/Jul/08 12:00 AM
I just cancelled all but a 50 linden ad in protest of this bug.

givemeabig oh added a comment - 15/Jul/08 07:41 AM
The economic impact is important, but it is more that the system can be cheated. Classified ads do have impact on an individual business. Businesses with higher cost ads filter to the top of the search results which one can expect receive more tps which likely leads to more business. It also instills a sense of confidence in the buyer about the business. If someone runs a 500,000L ad, then one presumes this company has either major financial backing or is exceedingly successful. Whether you like it or not, many people place quality judgements on cost. That is, if something costs more, it must be good. The same goes for the ads. If someone can pay a lot for an ad, their products must be good and popular, otherwise how could one pay for such an ad?

This is unfair to the business community. It could also lead to a lack of confidence in the system overall if this issue is not resolved, and word of it spreads. Lack of confidence in the system means lack of confidence in the economy, and as a result, people will spend less, and the economy suffers. If the economy of SL suffers, then SL as a community will suffer.

This issue needs to be resolved, and I would urge all of you to encourage your friends to vote for this topic.


markbyron falta added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:01 AM - edited
I'm attempting to reproduce the problem and while I'll have to wait on the auto-renew, I was UNABLE to initially place the classified ad unless the account had sufficient funds. Has anybody else been able to auto-renew classifieds without sufficient funds?

cheergirl allen added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:05 AM
markbyron falta yes,

if you look on the Forum post related to this jira it explains how you can do that as well...

http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=270710&page=1&pp=15&highlight=classifieds

they even include a screenshot


markbyron falta added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:11 AM - edited
I just added a screenshot that clearly shows I couldn't place a classified without sufficient funds. Now we'll have to wait to see if it auto-renews with no funds in the account but one of the other posters had expanded the problem to note that you could place the ad without sufficient funds. I couldn't reproduce that as shown in the screenshot; perhaps there's a special way to do it or Linden has already plugged the hole?

Aki Shichiroji added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:20 AM - edited
<strike>@MarkByron - Yumi Murakami explains there was a method behind how this was accomplished and has submitted it as a seperate security exploit on JIRA. Unless you were privy to that information, I doubt you would come out with the same results.

http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=2070954&postcount=23
"Ok folks..

I have just confirmed that there IS an exploit.

Using it you can place an L$99999999 ad for L$50.

Yes, I did it and I saw it right there: an ad placed at the very top of Browse for L$50. See here: [url]http://www.bijodesign.com/classifiedexploit.png[/url] (ignore Devil's Moon - that just happens to be where my alt was). Of course I've deleted it now.

I have submitted this to the security section of JIRA."</strike>

-----------------------------
Ok, my apologies. apparently this refers to a similar but seperate issue.

nevertheless, it does seem like quite a few people have either seen or been able to repro this if one is to believe the messages in the above linked forum thread.


Delora Starbrook added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:22 AM
I made a few spelling corrections... I've voted for this, and may come in to make it a little more clear and concise to read (so the Lindens will take notice of it) later today.

Qie Niangao added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:34 AM
I think it's critically important that it's clear that this exploit is distinct from the one Yumi uncovered (described in Aki's comment above). While both render all high-priced Classifieds suspect, and arguably have a macroeconomic impact on SL and the L$, fixing one does not fix the other. I think there is plenty of evidence that the exploit described here does occur, although I don't think there's a "smoking gun" to show that it would continue to work with auto-renew for very high-priced ads. The other exploit would clearly apply to such very high-priced ads, but I don't know that there's incontrovertible evidence that it's actually been used (yet) to scam the Classified system. (At least not known to the public.)

I'd also like to emphasize "Q5" in the description: If LL does not currently do fraud detection on L$ sinks, it's past due now. Both of these exploits would have been readily detected by such a program.


markbyron falta added a comment - 15/Jul/08 09:52 AM - edited
Clarified the summary to specify the problem with free auto-renew. Since the exploit to initially post classified without sufficient funds has been addressed as a SEC, than this JIRA should focus solely on the issue of being able to auto-renew without sufficient funds. That said, Linden needs to soon address the issue as it relates to both potential problems; the integrity of the classifieds has been called into question. Where's the Linden "resident communications manager' when you need them?

OP, I salute you for posting the problem to begin with but the issue has been clouded; in order to get Linden attention, you must be crystal clear as to the nature of the problem. The addition of the security exploit with respect to posting ads only contributed to the lack of clarity. The problem you're stating is simple; you can auto-renew classified ads without sufficient funds. The problem is not classified ads draining the SL economy; that's a potential impact if the problem is not fixed. Let's hope Linden is not similarly confused, or only addresses one problem and not the other.


cheergirl allen added a comment - 15/Jul/08 10:27 AM
NO need to clarify for Lindens to see. they know. I originally brought this issue up at Linden office meetings. I was Told and I quote "...post to the jira..." it was this very same Linden (who I will not use 1st name) that showed me How to use the jira and how to post. Also as I write this comment that Linden is in IM with me about this issue.

[10:26] :-P Linden: People are always looking for a champion.....they think you're leading them to victory!
[10:26] :-0 Linden: you are their cheerleader for justice!


Alexa Linden added a comment - 15/Jul/08 11:00 AM - edited
I am changing the subject line to what was suggested - "Classifieds still appear in search despite insufficient lindens to cover fee" so that it can be better tracked by other residents and it will better reflect the nature of the bug.

Alexa Linden added a comment - 15/Jul/08 11:14 AM
Thank you all for the information, examples and pictures. I have imported the issue.

Yumi Murakami added a comment - 15/Jul/08 11:23 AM
Just to confirm for readers here that the exploit I found was submitted as SEC-118 (not publically viewable) and is now LL issue DEV-17891.

Hypatia Callisto added a comment - 15/Jul/08 04:31 PM
Thanks Alexa

Montana Corleone added a comment - 15/Jul/08 07:02 PM
Funny, this did not happen to an alt of mine last week. The ad ran out, and when I logged in, no red minus, but also no ad placed, even though this has been a long running ad and autorenewed.

Maybe it's a viewer thing? I would think it unlikely, but apart from running Nicholaz patch of 1.18.5.3 on a Mac, can't see why I get a different result.


cheergirl allen added a comment - 15/Jul/08 07:19 PM
@Montana Corleone
  • very intresting point, I did not try this Glitch on a Mac running Nicholaz patch V.1.18.5.3
    does the 30$L a week Land classified also get shut off? or auto renewed and your Alt (if it has a balance of 0) gets a Negative $L balance for 30$L? on a PC using viewer 1.19.1 I do get a Negative Linden balance. Please let us know Next week if 30$L land classifieds effects your Version running on MAC. if Not... time for me to Boot up the G4 with SL

Cheers babe


oryx tempel added a comment - 16/Jul/08 08:02 AM
I can confirm that Places continues to list even when it's not paid. The Forum Cartel has a hangout in Allana that is deeded to Group, and even when group funds are negative, the Search/Places listing continues to run. We just keep deeding objects for sale to the Group and buying them for whatever we owe. The funds are NOT taken out of the group owner accounts, as is setup in the Roles and Abilities in the Group Dialog box.

cheergirl allen added a comment - 29/Jul/08 01:18 PM - edited
so this was like Created: 13/Jul/08 ... little more then 2 weeks ago
so far 1 Linden has comment as well WorkingOnIt Linden was assigned to this less then 24 hours after the Jira was created
yet no answers to our questions, how come?

oryx tempel confirmed that Places continues to list even when it's not paid.
has anyone reproduced the Auto Renew each week yet for a 50$L classified?

few things I have noticed since this Jira and the related forum post

  • few high paid classifieds have stopped running
  • highest paid classified has dropped 100 000$L from 500K to 400K
  • so called server patch\update last week did not fix the 30$L land ads going unpaid
  • groups &/or group owners still go Negative $L if they lack the funds to pay for classifieds

nya Linden added a comment - 22/May/09 02:29 PM
We've been unable to repro this. Is this still an issue?

nya Linden added a comment - 29/May/09 02:19 PM
Please let us know if this is still an issue. We are unable to duplicate the problem.