Author Topic: Massive refunds at Dreamstime (Read 2600 times)

Daniel Dash · « **on:** August 02, 2022, 06:57 »

Hi there.

Are any of you guys experienced massive buyout and refunds after some time? In last 1-2 months I've sold video clips for over $2k at Dreamstime. All of them were refunded of course with their crappy automated message. I bet that all those files will land on some pirate site. This month started the same. Someone with stolen credit card "buiyng" and massive downloading clips.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #1 on:** August 02, 2022, 07:22 »

I have never allowed these sales on DT. I worry about annoying buyers who expect exclusive use. I doubt it is people stealing the videos, they could do that by downloading for a lot less money. More likely they didn't understand the terms or found them sold elsewhere with a cheaper license covering the usauge they need.

KimC · « **Reply #2 on:** August 02, 2022, 09:16 »

We had this on Kindle Direct Publish (Amazon) some years ago, massive purchases, and then refunds after some time. The problem was that Amazon back then allowed the refund o pe paid to another credit card as the one used for the purchase. It was simply money launder. It stopped when Amazon got attention to this.

If DT allows refunds to another source as the one used for the purchase, that is likely to be the issue.

JustAnImage · « **Reply #3 on:** August 02, 2022, 15:11 »

Quote from: Daniel Dash on August 02, 2022, 06:57

Are any of you guys experienced massive buyout and refunds after some time? In last 1-2 months I've sold video clips for over $2k at Dreamstime. All of them were refunded of course with their crappy automated message. I bet that all those files will land on some pirate site. This month started the same. Someone with stolen credit card "buiyng" and massive downloading clips.

I had this "sales and refund" with videos at the start of the year, somewhere around February and had a discussion with the support.
At the end they said "If someone uses stolen credit cards, they have downloaded the files but they are of course not allowed to use the videos."... ridiculous and useless as a contributor.

dbvirago · « **Reply #4 on:** August 11, 2022, 13:04 »

Not massive, and I don't do video, but I've had more refunds in the last week than in the last several years.

cypher · « **Reply #5 on:** August 16, 2022, 21:19 »

This post has me curious about a couple of things. First of all, Daniel, were these refunded sales from the same buyer(s)? Second, how much does Dreamstime pay for video compared with other agencies?

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #6 on:** August 17, 2022, 10:46 »

Quote from: KimC on August 02, 2022, 09:16

We had this on Kindle Direct Publish (Amazon) some years ago, massive purchases, and then refunds after some time. The problem was that Amazon back then allowed the refund o pe paid to another credit card as the one used for the purchase. It was simply money launder. It stopped when Amazon got attention to this.

If DT allows refunds to another source as the one used for the purchase, that is likely to be the issue.

Interesting, that explains how some of these schemes work