Not totally photo related, not just a journal. A bit of both.

Monday, July 23, 2007

F is for Fraud


It was brought to my attention last night by Violet and Mary that a seller on eBay was using several of my images of models wearing corsets (like this one here of Michelle A) to sell items that the seller (in Hong Kong) supposedly had.

I contacted eBay with a specific example and actually got an email back in a few hours. It was a canned response from Mario. Basically saying I should join their VeRo program. And fax them some information from a PDF - which I could just provide in an email. I found that process quite annoying. Not even an attachment I could fill out n send back. A fax. Some 20th century artifact.Neither phone call. Neither email...

And through searching, I found that the seller - this ass clown here had multiple auctions using my pics. I sent a reply to Mario at eBay (or perhaps their outsourced CSR company) linking the individual auctions. And outlining the information that would have otherwise been included in the PDF. Should be interesting to see whether I need to do that faxing thing, and find a fax machine. I don't wanna pay no convenience store fax machine costs to remove the pics.

This is the second time Violet's pics have been used by eBay sellers in this manner. Might even be the same person using a different seller profile. And this time it seems that the seller is ripping off her designs in some cases. Flattering I suppose, but still not really cool. I wonder if and when the pics will be taken down or the items for sale will be pulled. Will keep you posted.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

did you contact the seller and tell them they are breaking copy right laws? Let them know you are contacting ebay to.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike, if you need access to a fax machine, I can help you out. Cell phone + data cable + cheap long distance :)

Good luck