Author Topic: Account Frozen (Read 7441 times)

coolart · « **on:** August 13, 2008, 15:23 »

Hi I'm new to this site and find it a great resource!
Yesterday, I logged into my bigstock account and was excited to see that I'd sold $50+ in images. A couple of hours later I found my commissions down to $22 and notices of refund due to "fraudulent purchases." Today I tried to log in and I can't and my email address is no longer found in their records etc. I sent them a message asking what happened to my account and was told that due to a great deal of "fraudulent activity" going on in my account they had to freeze it until their investigation was complete. I was horrified. Does that mean they suspect ME of something fraudulent? Is my personal information at risk? How does this happen. I've emailed them asking all these questions but haven't had a reply. It worries me that I'm going to get in trouble for something I didn't do! Has this happened to anyone else?

Tomboy2290 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 13, 2008, 17:56 »

Hi coolart,

Early in July I had $2 deducted from my earnings at BigStock due to "attempted fraud". It showed up in my earnings log eight minutes after the purchase of the image. I didn't get any other explanation and just assumed that someone had been buying photos through another persons account, but they sure jumped on it quickly ... in 8 mins!

I'm not sure whats going on at BigStock, if there's a lot of fraudulent purchases going on its not good for any of us, but if you haven't done anything wrong then I would think you would have nothing to worry about. I hope it works out soon, please post and let us know what happens.

Cheers!

jsnover · « **Reply #2 on:** August 13, 2008, 19:46 »

I have never had this happen, but Tim and Dawn at BigStock are very reasonable and I'd expect that as soon as they figure out what's going on you'll be able to access your account again.

They may have suspected that someone (not you) would try to cash out your balance and the freeze is as much for your protection as theirs.

coolart · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2008, 07:33 »

Thankfully, after a thorough investigation, my bigstockphoto account has been reactivated. I spoke with one of the customer service people during that time and he was extremely helpful. I was concerned and a little anxious for a resolution and the staff at bigstockphoto took the time to send me personal emails to keep me up to date and reassure me that every possible measure was being taken to resolve the issue. Somehow, someone hacked into my account and was fraudulently purchasing my images so they could cash out. Nice. I felt a little violated! What kind of person does that?

stokfoto · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2008, 07:47 »

sorry to hear you experienced this but all lucky all seems to have settled down now.
do mind me asking if your password was a weak one I know that kind of people could crack almost any code or password but I am just trying to figure out how we can protect our accounts better.

jsnover · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2008, 10:37 »

Glad this got straightened out.

A while ago I realized that I was being very foolish to have the same password at each of the stock sites. That would mean that signing up somewhere that had a rogue employee or weak protections for the site would put all my other accounts at risk. At a minimum it's important to have a different password at each site - and make sure that your PayPal password (or Moneybookers) isn't the same as any of them.

lisafx · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2008, 11:27 »

What an upsetting experience!

Glad BigStock caught it early and managed to get it sorted out. This definitely sheds light on the 7 day waiting period they just instituted.

Nice to hear that BigStock was so helpful and proactive!

Magnum · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2008, 12:07 »

How about you files? The thief probably still have em!!!

Bateleur · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2008, 13:55 »

Quote from: jsnover on August 22, 2008, 10:37

Glad this got straightened out.

A while ago I realized that I was being very foolish to have the same password at each of the stock sites. That would mean that signing up somewhere that had a rogue employee or weak protections for the site would put all my other accounts at risk. At a minimum it's important to have a different password at each site - and make sure that your PayPal password (or Moneybookers) isn't the same as any of them.

Good point about the passwords.

Thanks for thinking of it. I'm checking mine right now, and changing them where necessary.

coolart · « **Reply #9 on:** August 22, 2008, 16:14 »

Well, my password could have been better. I have so many accounts I used to make them easier for me to remember. Now, I'm making new, hopefully more secure, passwords for all my accounts. You hear about things like this happening, but you rarely think it's going to happen to you. I'm just glad they were on top of it and it wasn't my Paypal or some other account like that! (I've changed those passwords too!) Sometimes it takes a couple tries to log on now, just trying to remember which password goes to which account, but lesson learned!!

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Author Topic: Account Frozen (Read 7441 times)

coolart

Tomboy2290

jsnover

coolart

stokfoto

jsnover

lisafx

Magnum

Bateleur

coolart

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