Summary:A virtual banker sets up business in Second Life, extending credit and taking deposits. All is well, and business is growing until...the banker accidentally reveals that he´s actually only 15 years old.
A virtual banker sets up business in Second Life, extending credit and taking deposits. All is well, and business is growing until...the banker accidentally reveals that he´s actually only 15 years old. Now Second Life isn´t exactly known for having a lot of rules, but by an amazing stroke of fortune, a 15-year-old running a bank is actually in violation of one of them. What´s worse, it turns out our young entrepreneur got his start-up money from his mommy. He?d "borrowed" her credit card.
However, there´s more to this story, to be sure. The details are as below:
15-year-old gets into financial trouble on the adult grid
SUNSET BEACH -- Multiple branches of the Smartvest Investment and Savings shut down at the end of September, after a land scam involving two alleged teens went bad. SmartVest, run by 15-year-old Blazed Miles, billed itself as a full-service bank providing savings accounts, certificates of deposits accounts and portfolio management, with intent to eventually offer mortgages at an interest rate of 1.5%.
On Friday Sept. 28, A Smartvest customer, who wished to remain anonymous but will be referred to as John Smith, told SLNN.com that Miles had just asked him to withdraw his money from the bank. Miles confessed to Smith that he was fifteen, and in major trouble.
Miles explained that with Smartvests´ L700,000 in account deposits, he bought a sim and preordered another one for a month down the road, but the sim seller then demanded payment for the pre-ordered sim immediately. Rich Grainger, a member of Allenvest Development Group and a self-described "Financial transaction specialist moving money around the world via multiple methods and in all currencies," took the sim pre-order from Miles, and threatened to take away the sim Miles already owned outright if he did not pay right away.