using my photo- but with a twist

soolin

Just doing a general trawl through ebay, seeing what is selling and what sort of prices my new stock will achieve and I see one of my photos on an item.

Obviously I check the auction and see that the seller has stated in the auction that they have a similar item (actually a collectable item that is sold with lots of variations, think along the lines of a series like flower fairies or beanie babies) and that the photo merely shows the sort of thing they are selling and their item is actually the xx one in the same condition.

So my auction photo, my description (including note of a very small bit of damage to base) but a completely different item for sale. I'm not even going to bother reporting it!

I'm surprised though as my photos are not that good.

i_love_freestuff

take it as a compliment but it is annoying that you have put the work in and someone comes along c+p and nicks your pic too. oh for the easy life, I seem to spend half my day trying to take decent pics

soolin

i_love_freestuff wrote: »

take it as a compliment but it is annoying that you have put the work in and someone comes along c+p and nicks your pic too. oh for the easy life, I seem to spend half my day trying to take decent pics

I don't take it as a compliment, I take it as theft of my photo.As a business I do not want my photos being used by other sellers as it may give buyers the impression I am somehow linked to that seller for dodgy purposes- or maybe reselling after a shill bid. There are a lot fo genuine reasons why I want my photos to remain with me.

However on this occasion I fear it will result in a great deal of hassle for the seller as the photo is not the same as the item they are selling, so i have not reported. Usually when I report the other auctions are deleted within hours.

This one had also used embedded photos (as I said they have taken description as well- even though their item is materially different from mine) and I have removed those embedded photos already, but cannot touch the main one.

A_new_Start_2

I also had another user "stealing" my photo this week and I did report them. The listing was removed in a few hours once Ebay had checked.
Surely the only way to stop this is to report so I am a bit puzzled why you wouldn't.?

Gleeful

I get my photos stolen all the time

soolin

A_new_Start wrote: »

I also had another user "stealing" my photo this week and I did report them. The listing was removed in a few hours once Ebay had checked.
Surely the only way to stop this is to report so I am a bit puzzled why you wouldn't.?

In this instance person is being extremely daft by using my entire description, including damage, to sell a completely different item. So when the buyer gets something completely different and caused seller some difficulties, I think that will be the quickest way of making sure they don't use other people's photos anymore.

Usually when I got other auctions pulled they just came back and did it again, so this time as the photo doesn't actually relate to the item they are selling I think it does more good to let it be.

NiallB

soolin wrote: »

This one had also used embedded photos (as I said they have taken description as well- even though their item is materially different from mine) and I have removed those embedded photos already, but cannot touch the main one.

If by embedded you mean hosted on photobucket etc, why not replace that photo with something nasty or a picture of the words 'Don't buy this I'm a thieving tw*t' ?

soolin

NiallB wrote: »

If by embedded you mean hosted on photobucket etc, why not replace that photo with something nasty or a picture of the words 'Don't buy this I'm a thieving tw*t' ?

I'd love to, but it is completely beyond my ability I have no technical ability at all, and all I do on photo bucket is upload my photos and embed them using HTML. All I could do was delete the photos and that seemed to delete them from the auction.

Item finished tonight without a sale anyway, so maybe buyers did read the auction terms and realise it made no sense as most of the description and the photo did not relate to the item being sold.

porto_bello

Rather like Soolin, I once found someone copying my listing and photos for something they didn't have - a painting... a one off that only I had!

They wrote the real name of their painting's artist in the title, and showed their own painting in the samll photo at the top of the listing... but then copied and pasted my entire description - including the wrong name ... and the wrong photos!

The title of their listing stated a portrait painting - the photos of my painting showed a landscape!

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

Rather like Soolin, I once found someone copying my listing and photos for something they didn't have - a painting... a one off that only I had!

They wrote the real name of their painting's artist in the title, and showed their own painting in the samll photo at the top of the listing... but then copied and pasted my entire description - including the wrong name ... and the wrong photos!

The title of their listing stated a portrait painting - the photos of my painting showed a landscape!

Then when it all goes wrong we get threads here or on the community boards telling us that ebay are useless and buyers don't bother reading anything and its 'NOT THEIR FAULT'.

I've even seen watermarked photos with a sellers user ID on them being used by a different seller!

forgotmyname

Ive seen that, But usually Chinese sellers. I assume they are the same people.

How many accounts can one person/company have?