Scammed by hacker on Second Life selling lindons that turned out to be stolen

[CharlesERL]

So a friend on Second Life reported they needed funds desperately and could not wait for the normal cash out period. This should have been a red flag but being tired and yet wanting to help I listened. I eventually purchased the lindons they had for sale at half the normal going rate. Honestly I did not need them but I felt my friend was in a tough situation and I wanted to help. 

So I received the electronic funds and transferred cash via PayPal to their cousin's account or so they said. 

Turns out my friends account was hacked. 

I did not find out until the next day the transaction was apparently done with stollen lindons.

So now I am taking the beating I probably deserve of having sent cash to a scammer.

Lindon Labs has yet to return their investigation of the situation. I tried to contact PayPal but they said the transactions were normal for me. Honestly I know I made the transactions I am not disputing that. I am trying to report the seller as fraudulent and the funds I purchased in Second Life were stollen but it seems there is no method of reporting such a weird situation. Honestly I would hope PayPal would at least shutdown the scammers account and/or freeze the funds until Lindon Labs completes their investigation of the scam.

I hate to think these scammers get away with this.

I would love if PayPal would meet me half way. I have no problem providing any information they might need to help resolve the issue.

If I end up losing the money over my own stupidity so be it. But I wish they would shut down the scammers or help put them in jail for their activities.

Maybe block their IP addresses permanently from PayPal for scamming others.

I have the scammers PayPal email address and information from the transactions on Second Life. 

My friends account that was hacked she luckily did not have her money stollen for the funds. Apparently they only used her account to mask the original accounts info by passing the lindons to her account where then the hacker on her account gave me a sob story that I bought and then purchased funds to help my friend out. I know I **bleep** up...but a little help from PayPal would go a long way to making some headway at stopping these scammers. 

So if anyone who reads this thread has some pull with PayPal...a little help would go a long way. I hate that I might be out the cash. But I want so badly to shut these scammers down.

[kernowlass]

@CharlesERL 

How did you send the money ie goods/services or friends/family?

How did you fund the paypal payment?

[CharlesERL]

I sent the funds via friends and family. After all I thought I was sending money to a friend even if she was giving me in game funds for the transaction. 

It was funded through my existing account balance.

UPDATE:

Second Life has since contacted me and taken back the lindons in question. So I no longer have the in game funds. Honestly once I found out my friends account was hacked I figured the lindons were likely to be stolen and they would likely be removed from my account.

So at this point I am out cash and scammers got away with funds. I wish PayPal would have at least frozen the funds until we heard back from Second Life.

I have sent a ticket to Second Life and begged for them to contact PayPal in my behalf but I dont have much hope of recovering my funds. But I would love for PayPal to at least take action against the PayPal account I sent the funds too. Like shut it down.

[CharlesERL]

UPDATE: Lindon Labs did recover the lindons my friend (scammers) sold me for PayPal cash. So now I do not have any value for what I paid for. I just wished someone would at least shutdown the scammers PayPal account.

[PurpleSweetTart]

If I may advise you as a former Second Life user...

I used SL for a while and stopped, and a friend said she wanted to try it and needed help so I logged in again. I was absolutely aghast at what I saw. Places I had visited were gone and all the people I had fun with were gone and there was nothing but scams and fraud and debauchery. It is NOT a place for law abiding people to have fun in anymore. The Linden Dollar has no monetary value and ALL of the land has been bought by companies so you can really only rent and even then, you will pay over inflated prices. There aren't enough new users for them to "release" new islands or land. The only people they make money on these days are people who have been on it since it began who they know aren't going to leave because they have met a significant other through SL. I honestly wonder how that company can afford to continue its upkeep.