LandBaron Merlin Getting His Just Rewards?

Remember Landbaron Merlin? You know - that landbot owner who has been taking advantage of glitches and user error and making money while Linden Lab makes this gurgling sound:

[12:28] Jeska Linden shouts: Chaos Mohr: What is being done to address land database issues which result in things such as parcels being paid for and not transferring, parcels being sold to multiple people etc? This seems to be a major technical issue which keeps cropping up and hasn’t been fixed yet.
[12:28] Cory Linden shouts: These are likely symtpoms of the broader stresses on the central db and transactions..
[12:29] Cory Linden shouts: as I mentioned int he blog post, we are attacking these problems in two ways, to first identity weak spots in the current system and to build a better transaction system as well.

All that money being lost, and not even a warning to users on the SecondLife blog - but apparently someone found a way to get their money back. Remember Seargent Crossair losing 80,000 Linden Dollars (roughly $289 US)? Allegedly, he's been getting the nefarious Landbaron Merlin back where it counts - in the wallet.

With a setup which apparently uses a modified or scripted SecondLife viewer, he's been flipping prices between 1 Linden and 100,000 Linden ($361 US) and allegedly snagging everyone's favorite 'Poor Little Rich Landbot' for $361 US at a time - for a 512 m² plot. Poor little Landbaron Merlin. Seargent wasn't available for comment, and for somewhat obvious reasons I have Landbaron Merlin and his minions on my mute list - including Bot Hax (prominently displayed in his profile).

It would be nice if some of that money went back to where it came from, of course, but it is hard to say who should get what. I suppose with threats of legal action in the air, someone may have found a quicker and less financially depleting way to deal with Merlin. While it could pose a risk to casual buyers, so does Merlin.

The technology arms race is apparently on the upswing in SecondLife. Meanwhile, Linden Lab effectively does nothing. At least this round, I got a bit of a chuckle at Landbaron Merlin's expense and am heavily amused.

Let's all take a moment and giggle, shall we? The message should be clear... if Linden Lab won't do anything, the community finds ways to deal with things... and because they haven't done anything, it will continue to rage on. Try not to get caught in the crossfire. Apparently, crying over collateral damage is not permitted.