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Author Topic: Image Thieves targetting IS again?!!  (Read 29097 times)

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« Reply #50 on: January 11, 2011, 13:28 »
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I just don't understand why BigStockPhotos was able to put a lid on this so fast and it's still going on at iStock.

Me neither __ and nowhere else that we're aware of either.

Just remind me again how much we pay iStockphoto from our sales? No don't. It's not good for my blood pressure.


« Reply #51 on: January 11, 2011, 13:52 »
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I'm a software developer myself, and I also support a web site that sells products, so I go two ways on this.  On one hand I have some understanding of the real complexities of today's scam-infested online world.  On the other hand, I love a really big technology meltdown as much as anyone.  :)

I understand seeing the problem from both sides. For me, it's not that I particularly love the meltdown. I would have rather stayed at the % I was at and kept my images selling and making even more money, but that was just a pipe dream. I just can't, for the life of me, figure how all of this happens to this huge of an extent, to such a huge corporation, who by their own admission is making money.   

Quote
Ebay is a story with many parallels. On Ebay the big problem was scam sellers.  Things got so bad for so long that people stopped buying and Ebay was getting known as a bad part of town. Ebay eventually made big changes, basically transferring a lot of the risk from buyers to sellers by using PayPal (which they own) as a broker to hold up payment to sellers until buyers indicated satisfaction. Now Ebay has a lot of angry, frustrated sellers.

Funny you tell this story, I was one of those sellers. I sold my last imac on ebay. I understand the issues they were having and agree that a change needed to happen. But much like IS, when they instituted the change, it didn't work as it was supposed to. My item shipped, I had confirmation that the buyer received it. Days went by, the payment still did not get released. I managed to find some phone number somewhere to talk to support, and then they told me that I had to wait for the buyer to provide positive feedback before the pmt. would be released. So I contacted the buyer, they left positive feedback. I contacted support, still no release. Another week went by and I managed to get through to a supervisor, who immediately released the payment. By this time, 2 or 3 weeks had passed before I got paid. That's not right to treat the sellers that way, either.

Quote
It does seem like all sorts of things are going wrong at IS and their smarmy uber-coolness intersects perfectly with this unfolding disaster, making them look like a bunch of jerks.  It's fun to speculate on what might be happening inside IS, and if I find out that my images are being dumped on 'free' sites I'll be just as angry as any of you.

smarmy uber-coolness...too funny!  :D 

RT


« Reply #52 on: January 11, 2011, 14:06 »
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iStock appears to be a special target here. Why would someone attack them specifically?

I'd imagine that news about iStocks long running history of complete incompetence at being able to do anything regarding IT issues has a major factor as to why they're being targetted.

Their reputation of supplier and customer relations doesn't exactly paint a glowing picture of how they view business either, so any potential thief must be viewing iStock as a litteral 'free for all' gold mine right now.

It wouldn't surprise me to find out this was all the result of HQ giving out their log in details to a nigerian scam email thinking their long lost uncle had left them $17.5m in a freak car accident.

« Reply #53 on: January 11, 2011, 14:49 »
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Funny you tell this story, I was one of those sellers. I sold my last imac on ebay. I understand the issues they were having and agree that a change needed to happen. But much like IS, when they instituted the change, it didn't work as it was supposed to. My item shipped, I had confirmation that the buyer received it. Days went by, the payment still did not get released. I managed to find some phone number somewhere to talk to support, and then they told me that I had to wait for the buyer to provide positive feedback before the pmt. would be released. So I contacted the buyer, they left positive feedback. I contacted support, still no release. Another week went by and I managed to get through to a supervisor, who immediately released the payment. By this time, 2 or 3 weeks had passed before I got paid. That's not right to treat the sellers that way, either.

I think the intent of what they did was not to just clean up the action but to maximize the amount of money being held inside PayPal.  They no doubt draw interest on all that cash float.  If the buyer never leaves positive feedback they hold the money for a month - and then release it. Maybe. Or maybe not.

I had a bad seller experience too, waiting weeks for a payment - and I read some real horror stories on PayPal's forums - and decided to never again sell anything of value on Ebay.  Hope they're happy with that.

« Reply #54 on: January 11, 2011, 14:58 »
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snip
I had a bad seller experience too, waiting weeks for a payment - and I read some real horror stories on PayPal's forums - and decided to never again sell anything of value on Ebay.  Hope they're happy with that.

Ditto here.

Getting back to the topic at hand, I do hope the "stolen" images don't appear on free sites. I guess exclusives and folks with Vetta will likely only know. I don't have much hope that the rest of the contributors will be given any such courtesy.

lisafx

« Reply #55 on: January 11, 2011, 15:12 »
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Getting back to the topic at hand, I do hope the "stolen" images don't appear on free sites. I guess exclusives and folks with Vetta will likely only know. I don't have much hope that the rest of the contributors will be given any such courtesy.

As usual, we will all have to look out for ourselves and eachother without counting on our "agent" to give us any info.   ::)

« Reply #56 on: January 27, 2011, 10:03 »
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What ever happened with this? Have people had money taken away from them for the suspected fraudulent downloads? It seems people are still reporting suspicious activity. There is the expected silence from iStock.

« Reply #57 on: January 27, 2011, 10:50 »
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What ever happened with this? Have people had money taken away from them for the suspected fraudulent downloads? It seems people are still reporting suspicious activity. There is the expected silence from iStock.

So, if the credit card authorized the purchase, and they don't take the money back from IS (that's how it works), why would people have royalty money taken back?  The cost of covering fraudulent use is just a business expense for the credit card companies. 

« Reply #58 on: January 27, 2011, 21:32 »
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What ever happened with this? Have people had money taken away from them for the suspected fraudulent downloads? It seems people are still reporting suspicious activity. There is the expected silence from iStock.

So, if the credit card authorized the purchase, and they don't take the money back from IS (that's how it works), why would people have royalty money taken back?  The cost of covering fraudulent use is just a business expense for the credit card companies. 

iStock said they were giving people the RCs, but the money was a different story. I was just wondering if anyone affected has cashed out or had money taken back from them for any of the suspicious purchases.

« Reply #59 on: January 27, 2011, 21:50 »
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I've cashed out several times, and no money has been removed from my account.  At this point, I'm going to assume the money will stay in my account for the fraudulent sales.

« Reply #60 on: January 28, 2011, 10:13 »
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I've cashed out several times, and no money has been removed from my account.  At this point, I'm going to assume the money will stay in my account for the fraudulent sales.

That's great. I'm glad that people are being allowed to keep the money. It's not your fault that the images were fraudulently downloaded. iStock is doing the right thing. Should make for a BME, right? :D

« Reply #61 on: January 28, 2011, 10:59 »
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But credit card companies guarantee payment with an authorization even if fraudulent?  If not, nobody would accept credit cards.  So, why wouldn't iStock get to keep the money?  The loser is the credit card company.

What ever happened with this? Have people had money taken away from them for the suspected fraudulent downloads? It seems people are still reporting suspicious activity. There is the expected silence from iStock.

So, if the credit card authorized the purchase, and they don't take the money back from IS (that's how it works), why would people have royalty money taken back?  The cost of covering fraudulent use is just a business expense for the credit card companies. 

iStock said they were giving people the RCs, but the money was a different story. I was just wondering if anyone affected has cashed out or had money taken back from them for any of the suspicious purchases.

lisafx

« Reply #62 on: January 28, 2011, 13:33 »
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I've cashed out several times, and no money has been removed from my account.  At this point, I'm going to assume the money will stay in my account for the fraudulent sales.

Likewise.  I certainly hope the money won't be removed down the line.  I wonder if Istock even knows for sure which sales were fraudulent at this point. 

My sales at IS in January have been so low, I shudder to think how low they would have been if you remove the fraud sales. 

« Reply #63 on: January 28, 2011, 13:34 »
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But credit card companies guarantee payment with an authorization even if fraudulent?  If not, nobody would accept credit cards.  So, why wouldn't iStock get to keep the money?  The loser is the credit card company.

Someone who seemed to know about these things said credit card companies could take back the money on the grounds that istock would be held not to have verified the card holder properly (no signature check or something like that). I don't believe iS would just keep the money. I'll believe many bad things about them but not that.

« Reply #64 on: January 31, 2011, 18:11 »
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I've cashed out several times, and no money has been removed from my account.  At this point, I'm going to assume the money will stay in my account for the fraudulent sales.


Uh oh. You may end up owing iStock.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=298482&page=1

nruboc

« Reply #65 on: January 31, 2011, 18:14 »
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I've cashed out several times, and no money has been removed from my account.  At this point, I'm going to assume the money will stay in my account for the fraudulent sales.


Uh oh. You may end up owing iStock.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=298482&page=1



Yikes!!!!

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #66 on: January 31, 2011, 18:18 »
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Uh oh. You may end up owing iStock.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=298482&page=1


(Amended post) As you were. Nothing to see here.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2011, 18:20 by ShadySue »

« Reply #67 on: January 31, 2011, 18:21 »
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Uh oh. You may end up owing iStock.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=298482&page=1


(Amended post) As you were. Nothing to see here.


I think it was a false alarm.

« Reply #68 on: January 31, 2011, 21:36 »
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Big sigh of relief, eh?  ;)

« Reply #69 on: February 02, 2011, 18:01 »
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Uh oh. Amounts are getting deducted now. For real.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=299212

I wonder how many of those reporting BME will have a different story to tell after all the royalties are taken back. What a shame.

« Reply #70 on: February 02, 2011, 18:08 »
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I cashed out yesterday. Now I am at -0,60.
Suckers.

« Reply #71 on: February 02, 2011, 18:14 »
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I've cashed out several times, and no money has been removed from my account.  At this point, I'm going to assume the money will stay in my account for the fraudulent sales.

Guess I was wrong :( .

« Reply #72 on: February 02, 2011, 18:17 »
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shouldn't they have insurance to cover this?  I mean really.  now that the images have been stolen, what is the contributor's compensation for that?

« Reply #73 on: February 02, 2011, 18:21 »
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I dont understand why this happens.. Ok all agencies do this but I have never payed because of a stolen card or other.. the bank always take all responsability.. got two sales from December 24 and 25th (5$ total)

fritz

  • I love Tom and Jerry music

« Reply #74 on: February 02, 2011, 18:31 »
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 Today iStock email me that they removed 15  fraud sales from my account.
All fraud sales are from December a month ago? Strange, it takes to long to find fraud sales. Not good at all!


 

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