MicrostockGroup

I wonder why a crook would "waste" being nailed for credit card fraud over a bunch of images. How does one profit from such crime? Are there image fences out there? If so, perhaps it would be more lucrative dealing with them directly than taking the photographs myself. Have to look into that.

Got two of these reversed sales, lost US$2+3.

I wished BigStock also would show this differently in the summary page, because these in fact are not sales and that "adjustments" line is just a nuisance, and I did not earn those U$5 in December. I prefer to see the real figures.

Scott,
thanks for the information.

Is it possible to have you or Bigstockphoto release some sort of official statement about what exactly happened?

This has obviously affected quite a number of contributors and your company. I think we would all feel better knowing how somebody is able to commit such fraudulent actions.

Was this "attack" just some sort of new scam that couldn't be anticipated?

How come that such more aggressive fraud prevention measures haven't been implemented in the past?

I'm not just asking out of pure curiosity but also because it appears that my best sellers have been illegally downloaded (amongst many other images from Bigstock) and I feel very uneasy about how such criminals could ever be brought to justice.

I don't know if I'm alone with this feeling that such events affect me, as an individual contributor, more than the agency as the stream of new content keeps coming regardless, but my old and established best sellers suddenly become "worthless" and my income goes downhill.

Thanks Scott. Appreciate the rapid efforts of the team over the holiday period and also the timely information. Take a heart for your trouble!

I was in the same position too Warren but just had an adjustment of minus $1, which I assume was my image of Margaret Thatcher downloaded at 4.59am on December 31. It's not a big financial "loss" but it is sickening to think someone is making use (and money) out of my image. And will that affect legitimate future sales of the image? Possibly not I suppose as people buying dodgy CDs of stolen images probaly wouldn't have ever been legit buyers anyway.
I'll add my appreciation to Scott for coming on here and updating us (a good example to other agencies). I certainly wouldn't expect you to give details of your anti fraud measures or any new ones being implemented! I don't know if this is just in the UK but when I purchase online using my debit or credit card I get re-directed to the card issuer (e.g. my bank) and have to enter a password before the transaction completes. Seems pretty foolproof to me -short of someone hacking my password. No one wants to make it difficult for genuine buyers to download images but maybe a simple system like that would help (or is that already in place internationally?). Regards, David.