Hey guys, just a heads up. Two days ago I received an email from Dissolve representative to sign "providential documents" Link in the email directed to a website that looked like google official website with other major pass and username accounts, yahoo, bing etc. I accidentally look at the taskbar and it was some spanish decking website. I then checked the address the email from "dissolve" came and it was some [email protected] so I imidiately contacted Dissolve and they realized that the official email was hacked and sent out a newsletter to inform contributors.

Today I've received another email and I've engaged in conversation just to see how far will this scheme go. And the worst thing that my address came from [email protected].

Here is the copy paste and Leaf and the guys from videoblocks and other agencies should take notice.

HI!

        I am a Commercials Broker employee in a position of Search Team Leader. Since I am the one responsible for finding the most fitting product for us, I was also given the authority to use our financials for company purposes. But since
our company is BIG (http://stenda.lt/) and a little greedy - I come to you with an offer. I will send you a fixed amount and we split it 40% to my personal wallet and the other 60% is yours. I would like to use https://www.videoblocks.com/ as a bussiness ground. There is no prepay requierement, only after you get your money to account.
We will be a constant client!

        P.S. Don't hesitate to ask me anything!

Kind regards,
        Leader of Search Team, Jonas

For contacts e-mail me at [email protected]

My answer
Could you please explain a bit further how will I get my money and is this business proposal illegal in any way?

His answer
Hi, Mirko

No, it is not illegal at any given point. There could be a penalty for me and me.

You will get your money through VideoBlocks like a normal sale, i'm just asking 40% of the money you get

Kind regards, Jonas

------

And I've stopped there cause I realized that he wants me to give him 40% of money from the sales I get that will come from him but with a false credit card or something. I presume that this is the way it could go. So if you guys wonder from where are all the refunds amd stuff, there's the answer. Anyways, this the first time I get these kind of emails in just a few days. And these kind of proposals. My account was once hacked when we were in Vegas for the first Istock audiolypse in 2009. And by just a plain luck no harm was done to me. But this is a bit broader. Dissolve email with all the contacts hacked and now email from microstock group proposing a fraud.

Stay on your toes.
Mirko.

Hi to everyone here. My name is Mirko Pernjakovic aka Mirkic and I'm exclusive with Istock in video, audio and photo and I'm on a verge of a nervous breakdown cause of it. Here's my portfolio as an introduction and a bit more on myself.

http://www.istockphoto.com/search/portfolio/1104769/?facets=%7B%2225%22%3A%226%22%7D#142a61d5

Don't know how to shorten the link... sorry.

Anyways, I'm with Istock since 2006 and started out as a photographer mainly because there weren't audio or video at the time. When that kicked in, I stopped with photography and started with video and then audio. It was a healthy relationship until last year and now, I won't repeat everything regarding new RC stuff and sales slowing etc. But here's the deal - I depend on Istock's and Getty's income (getty footage) around 50% a month. I live in Serbia where a 1000-2000$ is a lot of money (well, it used to be and now it's a bit less but it's still serious money) and I cannot gamble loosing that amount of monthly income (much less than a 1000$ since summer 2011) but I cannot sit calmly and wait for a miracle to happen. I had a burst of uploads in summer/fall/winter and nothing happened with those. They tanked big time. Just my old files keep selling ("keep selling" is a relative term, remember, much less than a 1000$).
Anyways, I had a bad luck with my equipment three years ago (I was conned by a man that sold me my equpm. in the first place) and since than my uploads got thinner and so did the sales.
I picked up myself somehow and invested in new equipment, got a bank loan (very expensive one) and started working again and then Istock tanked even more for me.

I contacted every single person I know (video and audio, inspectors and managers)  including top, top, top contributors form audio and video mostly, asking them plain and simple about the future and telling them with most honest intent that I just don't know what to do anymore. I got various answers. Most contributors (top) told me the same story - we'll hang in there to see if it's a trend for another two, six, twelve months and after that we'll see... but they all report a down curve on sales. Pretty big one. And most of the management that I know told me that it's solely my decision to stay or go but they want me to stay off course. And don't get me wrong, I got an average portfolio and I'm a small fish...

Anyways, I was calmed to a point. Started thinking again to give them another chance... but that just varnished last night when Audio announced what they announced. That was over the top.
My video sales are horrid - if I'm lucky I'll get 20 sales a month...

Here's the last year numbers for video sales in 2011:
Jan 10
Feb 19
Mar 24
Apr 11
May 16
Jun 12
Jul 14
Aug 17
Sep 15
Oct 20
Nov 17
Dec 9

And just as an example, dl's for 2010 are 300% - 400% bigger and even more for 2009 depend's on the month. Audio's been more or less the same but dropping in the last months and the only thing that kept 2011 money the same were Getty footage sales that equaled the numbers from the past.

Sorry for such a big introduction and for the long reading but my question is down to this - from your experience, could I make more than 20 freaking dl's a month if spread my portfolio around? Got a 2000+ video clips. Not all on istock due to rejections. I'm considering to drop audio too but that's even more exotic story than this one...

Sorry again for the long reading and if there is any videographer reading this or anyone got something clever to say (everything right now is more clever than I can think of), please share your thoughts.
Thanks in advance.
Mirkic