MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Selling Stock Direct => Topic started by: Leo on March 17, 2016, 15:34
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Its common on agencies to have sales reversed for fraud.
I think I'm on 5 years of selling direct now, and I *think* I've only seen one fraud occur from the buyer (I use paypal exclusively).
Has anyone experienced any sort of customer fraud on their sell-direct site?
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Yep, credit card fraud, so its not as uncommon as you make it out to be. Sorry to rain on your parade but fraud is everywhere, no one is excluded and neither is Symbiostock.
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My site attracted more hackers than buyers. They didn't succeed but it was one of the reasons I gave up on it.
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Yep, credit card fraud, so its not as uncommon as you make it out to be. Sorry to rain on your parade but fraud is everywhere, no one is excluded and neither is Symbiostock.
Why do you mention Symbiostock? I use GRFX... (https://github.com/orangeman555/grfx)
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Yep, credit card fraud, so its not as uncommon as you make it out to be. Sorry to rain on your parade but fraud is everywhere, no one is excluded and neither is Symbiostock.
Why do you mention Symbiostock? I use GRFX... (https://github.com/orangeman555/grfx)
For the benefit of new people, you should explain your history with Symbiostock.
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For the benefit of new people, you should explain your history with Symbiostock.
I'm guessing that guy is not new. :)
"Experienced Fraud on Your Sell-Direct Site?"
This I am asking because I'm attempting to gain an idea of the frequency and nature of such things while I continue to work on my current project. This answer could apply to photoshelter, sellmedia, graphpaperpress, random-indi-shop, etc.
What you answered: "No fraud, but hack attempts" was the type of input I seek and appreciate.
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If you are looking for replies on hacking why ask about customer fraud? I told you I have experienced credit card fraud on my Symbio site.
"No fraud, but hack attempts" was the type of input I seek and appreciate.
"Yep, credit card fraud, so its not as uncommon as you make it out to be. Sorry to rain on your parade but fraud is everywhere, no one is excluded and neither is Symbiostock." was the type of input I do not seek and dont appreciate.
Something like that? :o
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Yep, credit card fraud, so its not as uncommon as you make it out to be. Sorry to rain on your parade but fraud is everywhere, no one is excluded and neither is Symbiostock.
no one is immuned from credit card fraud or hacking; banks, govt, military,etc.. only that they do not tell you about it. the problem is these ppl are as large as the banks, govt, military... they have even their own telemarketing, relay,... companies that have another telemarketing company running the scam
i once had an IT guy relate to me of how he worked for some nigerian type firm (based in california or texas or some canadian cities, or even central america, etc...)
who had a relay company with another company of telemarketing clerks calling moms and pops store to buy lots of things. one anecdote included them calling a cancer society and when told
they do not sell encyclopedias, the person on the other end asked, "so what do you sell,
we want to give you a lot of business".
by the time he realised what was going on, the company had replaced the whole center
and went off-shore , to continue the scam elsewhere, ...
selling baseball cards, or calculator rolls B2B, etc..no doubt.
all this while receiving new foreign startup govt subsidy . needless to say, these companies
are no longer in existence in california, texas, canadian cities, central am,etc...
it's like that foreign movie , i can't recall the title of it, where this clever bunch ran a credit card
scheme in an ideal money-laundering scheme, or something. i am sure there is microstock agency somewhere doing that too. perfect environment.
i am sure they come to symbiostock too..
or worse, actually run some microstock agencies to the right...
where only their "top sellers" making 6 digit sales monthly... while the rest sell nada in years.
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I've been with Photoshelter selling direct for nearly 10 years now and have not had a problem with any sales there. If they're local I will take a check (I often license local images to local businesses) but I mostly use PayPal and knock wood it's been fine. While some buyers are established magazines, a lot are just individuals looking for very limited uses which is why I mostly license RM there and I like the ability to adjust my pricing to fit a client's needs. I doubt I have anywhere the volume of sales you do with your vectors/renders, Leo as my portfolio primarily RM photos. I have some repeat buyers, and some local people I know, but most of my sales are to complete strangers who just found an image they liked on the web.
The nice thing for me with Photoshelter is it gets me stock license sales (which are the only ones I share in the poll as self-hosted) as well as portrait, advertising and editorial assignments.
I do however get some funky emails and when they seem scammy I just respond in a way to cut off further contact.
I thought that using PayPal helped you avoid fraud.
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card fraud happens on paypal as well and for digital products its tough luck but theyll take your money, theres no seller protection for digital products, but its coming
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From the comments I get the impression its a little more rare, but still an issue. I have experienced a lot of hack attempts and spam emails though, since the first days of my running a site. I'm grateful I haven't been struck yet.