Virtual rip-offs

Okay, this virtual world stuff has officially gotten ridiculous. Today's Wall Street Journal notes the Second Life creator Linden Lab has had to pull the plug on a number of virtual banks that were created in the online world. These banks were taking in deposits of Linden dollars and promising hefty interest rates. The bank owners were then using those deposits to fund virtual investments or to gamble on other Websites (since Linden dollars can be exchanged using PayPal).

According to the Journal: "Linden officials won't say how much money has been lost, but a run on another virtual bank in August may have cost Second Life depositors an estimated $750,000 in actual money."

Am I the only person left who hasn't figured out some get-rich-quick scheme? I didn't get on the Internet bubble, I haven't spammed people to buy penny stocks in a "pump-and-dump" scheme, I have yet to flip a house, I haven't created the e-mail chain letter claiming to be a foreign banker seeking to deposit the assets of some former dictator, and now I'm getting shut out of some virtual investments.

Darn it all.