The risks faced of credit card fraud online are similar to in a shop or restaurant. The card and its details are used for a payment and as a consumer you trust the vendor to keep your card details safe and secure. What can happen though is those details fall into the wrong hands, either through the fault of the retailer or the processes they use to store your details, and you can find your account is then used by the fraudster to spend your money elsewhere at your expense and their gain. Or your details would be used to open false bank accounts, credit cards or loans in your name, and again the funds spent at your expense, tarnishing your credit history.

Retail online in virtual worlds such as Second Life is booming. The growing niche audiences are increasingly using the 3D environment of the virtual world for e-commerce as an alternative to the two-dimensional websites most of us use. ‘Residents’ of virtual worlds buy themselves land, clothing to modify their avatar’s look, or gifts to give to contacts they talk you online.

This is where the extra level of identity management adds a layer of complexity to virtual worlds that is not present in traditional e-commerce and which will become an increasingly prevalent issue as commerce in virtual worlds becomes more mainstream.

Second Life residents have alter egos. They have make believe names and personas that enable them to act freely with multiple personalities. In the same way that Second Life lets you fly and teleport, it lets you have a persona and image not remotely resembling in shape or form to real life.

In real life a Second Life user’s name might be John Smith, and they are average height and build with brown hair and brown eyes. In second Life the resident would take up an alter ego with a different name and, as is most common, an outlandish look that is pure fantasy. A seven foot tall goth with a purple mohican would not be conspicuous in Second Life.

It’s the resident’s identity that’s most important in tomorrow’s online commerce environment. When a Second Life resident makes a purchase online in the virtual world, not only do their financial details and ID need to be safe and secure, they have to be kept secret also. As far as the retailer is concerned, the transaction is between a 3-D avatar with a fictional name, but the real world identity and credit details of the user sitting privately behind that identity are what will authorise the purchase. There are two levels of security in play.

To a resident of Second Life having their secure identity publicised either online to a fraudulent user or in the virtual world is as much an invasion of privacy as a case of ID theft would be on their real world selves. The two issues are intrinsically linked which compounds the issue.

So retailers in virtual worlds must deal increasingly with safety, security and secrecy issues in e-commerce through virtual worlds as a growing form of e-commerce. An example is the virtual store that Starfruit created for international online florist Fleurop-Interflora in Second Life.

At the Fleurop.com store in Second Life residents can purchase virtual flowers, jewellery or various other gifts which they use to modify their own or others’ avatars. They can also purchase the gifts and have them created and delivered in real life. The gift is then sent to its recipient through Fleurop.com as it would had it been ordered online through the traditional website. So what’s different is that users can see a virtual and 3D form of the gift before ordering it, and for regular users of Second Life this offers a way of purchasing without having to trawl the web. 

Virtual world avatars show huge amounts of creativity and personalisation. They also share their creativity with one another, through gifts, tips on where is best in the virtual world to customise their avatar, or something else. The growth of virtual worlds is based very much on creative self-expression, and this is the main driving force behind virtual world commerce.

The issue of ID management is a crucial one and at Starfruit we must make a guarantee to Fleurop.com that its consumers’ identities will remain safe, secure and secret, as well as the safety measures we must put in place to prevent ID or credit risks.

The lessons that retailers in second Life and virtual worlds are learning now will shape the future of e-commerce and with the foundations of safety, security and secrecy maintained, retail in virtual worlds will continue to flourish.