At first I would like to tell you that I am an Egyptian and my English is not a prefect
And i'm sorry for that

My Shutterstock account has been disabled without any notice
Three years later I build a Vector Portfolio and after collecting for the first time $ 800 USD and after trying to withdraw the money for the first time, they sent me a message saying it was being processed

OK, that is nice but ...
I can not access my account and when I try to recover my password ...
I was surprised by a warning saying this account has been disabled

I do not know who I should ask him for help and who is responsible for this
After many attempts to send e-mail to [email protected]  for support and ...
Never respond

After a month of confusion, I received the first message from them, which is very frustrating
This is really unfair. Where are contributor rights ?

This is the message I received from [email protected]
"Hello,
 
As you can understand, we take account fraud very seriously at Shutterstock.

After careful review of activity within your account, we have determined that your account is linked to the fraudulent customer and therefore we will not be reactivating your account.

Paragraph 4 of the Submitter Terms & Conditions gives Shutterstock the right to terminate any existing account " . . . for fraud, intellectual property infringement, violation of a third party's rights including those of privacy or publicity, artificially inflating downloads, submission of material that is obscene in nature, violent or that might be construed as defamatory, failure to comply with Shutterstock's guidelines as may be amended from time to time, or for any breach of the terms of this or any other agreement that you have with Shutterstock.�

As a result of the foregoing, Shutterstock has terminated your account.

If you have earned commissions at the time of this closure, you are not entitled to these earnings per the Shutterstock Terms & Conditions you agreed upon when you became a Shutterstock contributor.

Paragraph 9(d) of the Submitter Terms & Conditions states that "If your account is terminated for a breach of the material terms of the TOS, in addition to its other rights at law or in equity, Shutterstock shall have the right to retain any royalties and/or other compensation otherwise payable to you hereunder as liquidated damages."

Your account will not be reinstated and you do not have permission to create a new account. If you try to open another account, our system will automatically reject you.

Consider this matter closed.

Regards,

Shutterstock Contributor Operations"

What ? Really ? Fraudulent Customer ? Who ? Why ?
Many E-mails from me and never respond from shutterstock again

I really do not know what they're talking about? And how it shape this ?
I do not understand, is I a fraudulent or someone else? Why punishment for me?
Why can not I defend myself and why can not I get my money?
And why did this happen when I just thought about withdrawing money?

I want your testimony, who the real fraudulent ?

I'm sorry Shutterstock I was not hope the end to be that way

Even if they are right, where are the evidence ?

In conclusion, I would like to thank you and sorry for my English again

And I want the advice from you.

Thank you

So you got banned and then you tried to circumvent that ban by creating a new account three years later? I'm assuming the just picked up on that and banned you again. It's you that's banned, not the account. Well, it's both, but you get the point. What were you banned for the first time around?

Are you registering using the same passport/ID or name or email or paypal account as your 1st account? If the answer to any one of these are yes, then it's very clear that you have violating their T&C. Once you get banned from SS, you are not able to register using the same ID/email/passport and upload the same portfolio as your first banned account. They have engine that can detect exact same image especially vector file, so eventually they will find you if you re-upload the same file that you uploaded in your first account. Hope this helps.

I don't know but my eyes zoomed in on this part, not about closed account or second account or being closed before.

After careful review of activity within your account, we have determined that your account is linked to the fraudulent customer and therefore we will not be reactivating your account.

Paragraph 4 of the Submitter Terms & Conditions gives Shutterstock the right to terminate any existing account " . . . for fraud, intellectual property infringement, violation of a third party's rights including those of privacy or publicity, artificially inflating downloads, submission of material that is obscene in nature, violent or that might be construed as defamatory, failure to comply with Shutterstock's guidelines as may be amended from time to time, or for any breach of the terms of this or any other agreement that you have with Shutterstock.�

Fraudulent customer and "artificially inflating downloads"? Sounds complicated or someone with same IP address or connections, bought a subscription, for example, and downloaded all his work. Just a guess. But it looks like the problem is something to do with the customer and downloading.

your account is linked to the fraudulent customer and therefore we will not be reactivating your account

I don't think this is a valid reason for closing the account unless found guilty. They might have received huge downloads from a same customer on your portfolio.
Usually ss emails the contributor for explanation which you have either not seen or ignored. Their team investigate things properly before taking any action.

I still want to know what exactly they mean by saying "account is linked to the fraudulent customer"

Quote

your account is linked to the fraudulent customer and therefore we will not be reactivating your account

I don't think this is a valid reason for closing the account unless found guilty.

The only thing that matters is whether SS thinks it is valid.  Nobody is found guilty - there is no trial involved, SS can do whatever they want.

Over the years we've had lots of people complaining about why SS or other agencies mysteriously closed their accounts.  In my recollection - and please correct me if I'm wrong -  once more information came out it was clear that the agency almost always did the right thing and made the right decision.  I have no idea about the present situation, but it most likely had to do with fraudulent sales as SS stated.

And I guess if you don't fill in the payment info then thy have no way of sending you the money whether you want it or not.

Thank you all, let's put the dots above the letters
As I mentioned that my English is very Basic

But I think they call me a Contributor, either the buyer calls him a Customer, please correct if that is wrong

In this case the fraudster could be another person and they think he is my partner

Well, I was have a little portfolio, 140 Images, and my works is very modest
But I got a help from E-Marketer for sharing my linkes
What is my guilt if the earnings was unexpected?
The $ 800 is nothing compared to the rate they get

Well if there was a fraudster, what did he do? , There is no case and no trial here
They just made the quick decision

If the fraudster is another person, why am I being punished?

If I is a fraudulent?
Why did not they warn me early on that something was wrong?
Why did they let me collect the money and did not move an eyelid until I wanted to withdraw the money?
And do I have to tracking all who downloads from my portfolio?

I have a customer or buyer account but it is empty of money
This means I never download from my portfolio

All my submissions is Vectors I designed it with adobe Illustrator and SS review team approved it

There are no previous reports about me, and I had no previous account, and I not was banned before

I was will withdraw the money to Skrill

For IP I do not have a static IP, I using the IP automatically generated from the router and I think the ISP shared it with all the people in my country alternately

I thank you for your time

The E marketer tells you he can get you sales, you pay him, you get sales and you pay him more.  He buys your images, you pay him more.  Why would Shutterstock not think something is amiss here, if you are paying more than you are getting why would you not think that there was something wrong?

I do not really know if SS would refuse this or not
But I do not think this is contrary, he only shares my linkes and he has confidence in himself
He did not download anything himself or else he would lose a lot of money
I paid him only a very little because I wanted to collect earnings

obj owl, All respect for you of course
I really want to know the guilt I committed so as not to fall again in it with any other microstock site in the future

So do you really think the reason for my account being disabled is just because I asked someone other to share my photo links?
Only this ?

The "E-marketer" you paid was using your account to launder money.

 You are lucky all that happened to you was losing your Shutterstock account.  Interpol objects to that sort of thing.

How while I paid him a very little price

I used several operating systems on my Computer, Linux and two Windows
In Linux, I used the spoofing mac address But not In windows
Does this have anything with my Issue

... So, I've got a question ... Why the Mac spoofing and everything? Something seems fishy here, I'm not sure we're getting the full story.

Not saying you did this but the way money is made is that a stolen credit card number is used. Then you cash out and, bam, laundered money. That is what SS is worried about, that op and buyer are the same person.

Well it might be, maybe somehow they detected something fishy going on with your mac adresses and it raised a red flag for them, so they just disabled the account. I doubt they even elaborated, they just play safe and don't have time to investigate every such event, hence the paragraph in their tos about account disabling with no questions asked. I think...

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 04:54

Well it might be, maybe somehow they detected something fishy going on with your mac adresses and it raised a red flag for them, so they just disabled the account. I doubt they even elaborated, they just play safe and don't have time to investigate every such event, hence the paragraph in their tos about account disabling with no questions asked. I think...

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

As far as I know mac addresses aren't communicated unless there is an app installed on the client mac. Do mac users have to download an app from SS to communicate with the site? If it's just through browser, unless it's IE supposedly there isn't anything providing SS with this info.

You are right. I thought it's not usually done but possible to extract mac if wanted.

Quote from: DallasP on December 24, 2017, 19:04

Quote from: mohamed on December 24, 2017, 17:35

I used several operating systems on my Computer, Linux and two Windows
In Linux, I used the spoofing mac address But not In windows
Does this have anything with my Issue

... So, I've got a question ... Why the Mac spoofing and everything? Something seems fishy here, I'm not sure we're getting the full story.

It's just a traditional way to use a PC, is this important?
Spoof Mac address its like used several devices together, and I think SS can't read my mac address, it is a privacy

This is the full story
But as proverbs say, I'm still looking at my old book to understand what's going on
I mean, this has nothing to do with the story
But I am distracted. I do not know where I should start and what to look for

And If you have a question ask me
Thank you very much

How long did you have an account to get up to $800 in sales?

Mohamad, if you are using e-marketer services and he is so successful at selling your images, why don't you do all the sales from your own website? I mean, why would you want to give more than half of your money to an agency? If you made $800 over SS, then you could make almost $2000 playing solo.

Sent from my F5 using Tapatalk

This was the start I thought it was good

Quote from: niktol on December 25, 2017, 05:00

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 04:54

Well it might be, maybe somehow they detected something fishy going on with your mac adresses and it raised a red flag for them, so they just disabled the account. I doubt they even elaborated, they just play safe and don't have time to investigate every such event, hence the paragraph in their tos about account disabling with no questions asked. I think...

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

As far as I know mac addresses aren't communicated unless there is an app installed on the client mac. Do mac users have to download an app from SS to communicate with the site? If it's just through browser, unless it's IE supposedly there isn't anything providing SS with this info.

You are right. I thought it's not usually done but possible to extract mac if wanted.

Is it important?
Is this possibly the reason for my account being disabled?

Well it might be, maybe somehow they detected something fishy going on with your mac adresses and it raised a red flag for them, so they just disabled the account. I doubt they even elaborated, they just play safe and don't have time to investigate every such event, hence the paragraph in their tos about account disabling with no questions asked. I think...

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

They can not even know that I changed it
Even if they read my Mac address, it's like I've accessed their site from another computer

And another view that says maybe your suggestion is true, maybe

Quote from: mohamed on December 24, 2017, 17:35

I used several operating systems on my Computer, Linux and two Windows
In Linux, I used the spoofing mac address But not In windows
Does this have anything with my Issue

As far as I know this shouldn't be a problem. SS shouldn't see your mac address anyway, only the IP. Unless there is something else going on. Does anyone else have access to your account?

Lots of possibilities on the scene 
No one has the password, but what if my account is hacked and I do not know
If SS just gave me some details! Gosh 

Well there you go, you get $100 for 3 years, you pay some e-marketer, you get $700 in one month, I doubt that e-marketer is that good.
Were those $700 like 2800 subs or some fancy licenses? 

Well there you go, you get $100 for 3 years, you pay some e-marketer, you get $700 in one month, I doubt that e-marketer is that good.
Were those $700 like 2800 subs or some fancy licenses?

I did not understand well what you meant
But it was $ 700 the on demand and enhanced downloads

Perhaps this person was evil, in all cases I think the issue was necessary to discuss it or even a warning not to repeat it, not kick me

Something else @leremy
I understand well, the portfolio and money never return again

I'm just looking for a bug so I can learn the lesson and do not make the mistake twice

Let me Thank you and sorry for my English forgive me

Quote from: mohamed on December 25, 2017, 21:37

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 21:18

Well there you go, you get $100 for 3 years, you pay some e-marketer, you get $700 in one month, I doubt that e-marketer is that good.
Were those $700 like 2800 subs or some fancy licenses?

I did not understand well what you meant
But it was $ 700 the on demand and enhanced downloads

Perhaps this person was evil, in all cases I think the issue was necessary to discuss it or even a warning not to repeat it, not kick me

Was your e-marketer using stolen credit cards or fake accounts?

Maybe
But he told me that he just shared links in some way adsense, ads, groups and pages such things drew people's attention to my images, just

It's like buying a stolen car, you might be innocent but police still takes away the car. SS is not going to waste their resources at worldwide investigation and trial of what actually happened, they just cut their ties with suspicious contributor and carry on. Maybe if it was some really high profile contributor they would calculate if it would payoff to investigate.

As with anything, buy goods and services only from reputable sellers and providers.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

The OP started out sounding innocent and confused and then gradually told us all the things he did to launder money through Shutterstock.

It's good to know SS shuts this sort of thing down relatively quickly, otherwise all of us would lose our sales to fraudulent money launderers who create a small, barely selling ports and then get their buddies to buy their images with stolen credit cards.

Wouldn't it be great if sharing links to your port increased your sales 10,000% overnight? I'd share a couple links and retire to the tropics.

In fact I do not know this marketer and did not find he
Actually he is who found me

You have to imagine, someone sends you a message on Facebook and tells you that he can change the situation
The earnings will multiply and he's seems sure, Wow great deal is not it  when the price is too little?
He says to me he has a great skill in marketing

And now I am in a state of confusion, so I do not exaggerate when I ask myself who I should believe, and who I should lie?

Was he is a quorum? Was he a criminal? Or is there only a misunderstanding? What is going on in this life?

He showed me some downloads on the first day. he show me he is serious, I do not have marketing experience but I am impressed

What makes me refuse? Maybe life is not complicated just for those who understand it and he provides support for me, why should I refuse?

He did not ask for passwords and did not give me any links to click on it and did not ask for personal data
It seems like no risk? If you were my place would you refuse?

He showed me some downloads on the first day. he show me he is serious, I do not have marketing experience but I am impressed

What makes me refuse? Maybe life is not complicated just for those who understand it and he provides support for me, why should I refuse?

He did not ask for passwords and did not give me any links to click on it and did not ask for personal data
It seems like no risk? If you were my place would you refuse?

Some good rules of thumb:
1. If it seems too good to be true, it is. Especially in microstock.
2. Stay away from people contacting you on/from the internet. Chances are they are scammers. If you can't meet with them or talk to them in person, or can't verify recommendations, steer clear
3. In your place, yes, I would refuse. In fact, I have gotten quite a few emails from such people, and would NEVER trust anyone whom I did not know personally, or came recommended by someone I knew.
4. Just because they don't ask for passwords, doesn't mean they can't scam. Somehow this person managed to connect himself to your SS account, and now you are screwed.


Yes, you have learned the hard way.

  I'd share a couple links and retire to the tropics.

Brazil?  don't forget the sunscreen! 

I've been trying to work out this scam - it can't be that the scammer wants some small payment to generate all the Enhanced License downloads. It can't be that they want the images themselves (as they could get them from our favorite free site). It can't be that these specific images or illustrations are fantastic. It must be that they are going to download lots of images with a high payout with a stolen credit card AND have a way to get at the money being paid for the downloads. That seems to be the only way to defraud Shutterstock in a way where you end up with cash, not a few lousy image files.

So the fraud must work by making an arrangement with the contributor to share the revenue that the image sales generate. How else could it work?

I wouldn't think its an agreement so much as its just the same people doing the uploading and the buying.

Credit card numbers cost next to nothing. Any way they can find to get any cash off them is ideal for a criminal or criminal gang. Even if they only get 20-30% like in this case.

Normally they have to buy items and sell them on cheap, or even try buying vouchers and selling them on at lower than face value. Much easier and less risky to open an account with an image library and upload a load of images you have stolen off the internet, buy some licenses with the credit cards then cash out. They could probably set up a program to do it all automatically, another advantage as apparently criminals usually buy huge lists of credit card numbers only some of which work.

Set up a computer to run through the list of stolen credit card numbers and set up buyer accounts spoofing a new internet address for each. Then the account also automatically makes some random purchases plus a few big ones from your own contributor account, done.

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on December 28, 2017, 11:54

Quote from: steheap on December 28, 2017, 09:49

I've been trying to work out this scam - it can't be that the scammer wants some small payment to generate all the Enhanced License downloads. It can't be that they want the images themselves (as they could get them from our favorite free site). It can't be that these specific images or illustrations are fantastic. It must be that they are going to download lots of images with a high payout with a stolen credit card AND have a way to get at the money being paid for the downloads. That seems to be the only way to defraud Shutterstock in a way where you end up with cash, not a few lousy image files.

So the fraud must work by making an arrangement with the contributor to share the revenue that the image sales generate. How else could it work?

I wouldn't think its an agreement so much as its just the same people doing the uploading and the buying.

Credit card numbers cost next to nothing. Any way they can find to get any cash off them is ideal for a criminal or criminal gang. Even if they only get 20-30% like in this case.

Normally they have to buy items and sell them on cheap, or even try buying vouchers and selling them on at lower than face value. Much easier and less risky to open an account with an image library and upload a load of images you have stolen off the internet, buy some licenses with the credit cards then cash out. They could probably set up a program to do it all automatically, another advantage as apparently criminals usually buy huge lists of credit card numbers only some of which work.

Set up a computer to run through the list of stolen credit card numbers and set up buyer accounts spoofing a new internet address for each. Then the account also automatically makes some random purchases plus a few big ones from your own contributor account, done.

Only one problem, your theories do not work with microstock given the delay between accepting payment and payout.  The contributor did not cash out.

Probably made it too obvious by buying too many images at too high a price in one month. Must have raised red flags.

You lost nothing, because the sales were fraudulent. They weren't real. Also, you don't have to request payout from SS; it happens automatically. Your entire story smells fishy.

I lost my portfolio and lost Shutterstock buyers forever, and I do not know if there are any other hidden risks!

SS approved my personal data, passport photo and tax form
How can I be suspicious if I am honest?

All that the marketer got from me was the link to my portfolio then did something I do not know
ِAnd here are people who think about me a fishy
So how to publish any links in the Public ?

I lost my portfolio and lost Shutterstock buyers forever...

You said you had 140 vectors. Created during 3 years. You didnt put much work in it, did you?.... And your sales were minimal before the mysterious "e-marketer" stepped in, so the Shutterstock buyers you lost were not interested in your images anyway. You didnt have any sales before, you lost nothing. Why didnt you earn the money through normal sales? You had the whole 3 years for it. I dont know what you keep complaining about, you tried to cheat, you got caught, end of story.

Unless I'm missing something, I'm not getting the impression that this guy was in on the scam. He just seems to be very naive. I mean the following statement proves that...

"When you start your own business it is like your son, raise it on your hands and see it grow up in front of your eyes, you should think like all people to get an e-marketer. The future is going to them?"

I think I'll pass on that one, based on the results! Or if I did get one... I'll seek out a marketer myself, qualify them, check case studies, testimonials, check those testimonials are real by real people and real companies, check the address isn't some virtual mailbox or a shed in the middle of nowhere etc etc. I'm not going to accept the services of somebody who comes out of the blue.

It's the same reason I don't have cupboards full of penis pumps and Viagra... I don't accept every offer that comes into my mailbox. If you're not from an officially recognised guild of penis pump craftsmen, you're not getting my business.
 

While it's possible that Mohamed was an innocent contributor caught up by an internet scammer, it still sounds fishy to me.  To go from less than $100 in three years to $700 in a month with the same portfolio by getting lots of ELs and high-value SODs by only providing a small payment and a link to your portfolio seems highly unlikely.  How does the scammer make their money?  How much were they paid?  What kind of contract did you sign?  Were you supposed to pay them a percentage of future profits?  Who is the scammer, exactly?  I don't see why anyone would run a scam like this - it makes no sense how they can make money at it if you only paid them a little bit upfront.  Clearly whatever they did resulted in lots of increased sales.  If it was possible to do that solely by increased advertizing then everybody would be doing it.  If it was a personal vendetta and all they needed was a portfolio link, they wouldn't need to contact you for that.  The whole thing makes no sense.

Mohamed, as you can see the people here tend to be very skeptical and many have analytical minds that will try to figure out exactly what is going on - both to try to help you sort it out and also to protect themselves and others from the same type of scam.  If you really want to get to the bottom of it, please provide more detailed information - any e-mails from the scammer and your responses, exactly what was said, promised and paid.  My prediction is that if we see the whole communication thread then the situation will not be as innocent as it seems, but the only way to know for certain is to see the whole story.  Full disclosure is the key to exoneration.  Or not.

And in the future, remember that old adage already mentioned by others, "anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is".

The OP may, of course, be blameless, but just think about this from the scammer's point of view. First, the scam must have included getting away with a significant portion of the download earnings - use a stolen card to buy a lot of stuff and get away with the payments before the credit card is refused. So either they are in league with the contributor or they have access to his Paypal account. Is there another way to make money on this scam?

Then this scammer must be pretty new at the game because they didn't seem to know that SS waits a month before paying out and most credit card fraud is detected in days, or hours, so the chance of a payout before the payments are questioned is very small. Seems a pretty poorly organized scammer if that was the plan. Then, no-one thought about SS having fraud controls of their own - like a massive run of EDs on an account that has been a very low earner.

Sounds like whoever was doing this scam hadn't actually done it before! A naive beginner?

Quote from: mohamed on December 29, 2017, 23:19

When you start your own business it is like your son,

Please promise your future children (daughters also matter) that you will not under any circumstances allow them to be looked after by some random stranger who approaches you in person or online and offers to look after them.

You put your hand on the wound
I have behaved really reckless behavior, I hope this is the end of trouble

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 06:18

Quote from: niktol on December 25, 2017, 05:00

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 04:54

Well it might be, maybe somehow they detected something fishy going on with your mac adresses and it raised a red flag for them, so they just disabled the account. I doubt they even elaborated, they just play safe and don't have time to investigate every such event, hence the paragraph in their tos about account disabling with no questions asked. I think...

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

As far as I know mac addresses aren't communicated unless there is an app installed on the client mac. Do mac users have to download an app from SS to communicate with the site? If it's just through browser, unless it's IE supposedly there isn't anything providing SS with this info.

You are right. I thought it's not usually done but possible to extract mac if wanted.

Is it important?
Is this possibly the reason for my account being disabled?

I'm not suggesting that them extracting the mac address has anything to do with that but, why would you change it? I'm suggesting that if you're going through the trouble to change that, you're probably going through the trouble to use a proxy server or any other number of confusing questionable actions as well.

As for what you should do in the future, just create new profiles at other sites (shutterstock will close it again if they find out it's you) and share your stuff the way the rest of us do. It's really that easy ... No "marketer" is just going to show up one day and increase sales 1000% but, if you just share your new files and new sales and whatever sometimes you'll catch an extra customer or two from your followers. It seems like most of them have a way to pretty much share them automatically ... if not try IFTTT or something.

Good luck, don't cheat the system too badly.

Is there another way to make money on this scam?

Getting the OP to pay them!

Quote from: mohamed on December 25, 2017, 20:06

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 06:18

Quote from: niktol on December 25, 2017, 05:00

Quote from: qunamax on December 25, 2017, 04:54

Well it might be, maybe somehow they detected something fishy going on with your mac adresses and it raised a red flag for them, so they just disabled the account. I doubt they even elaborated, they just play safe and don't have time to investigate every such event, hence the paragraph in their tos about account disabling with no questions asked. I think...

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

As far as I know mac addresses aren't communicated unless there is an app installed on the client mac. Do mac users have to download an app from SS to communicate with the site? If it's just through browser, unless it's IE supposedly there isn't anything providing SS with this info.

You are right. I thought it's not usually done but possible to extract mac if wanted.

Is it important?
Is this possibly the reason for my account being disabled?

I'm not suggesting that them extracting the mac address has anything to do with that but, why would you change it? I'm suggesting that if you're going through the trouble to change that, you're probably going through the trouble to use a proxy server or any other number of confusing questionable actions as well.

As for what you should do in the future, just create new profiles at other sites (shutterstock will close it again if they find out it's you) and share your stuff the way the rest of us do. It's really that easy ... No "marketer" is just going to show up one day and increase sales 1000% but, if you just share your new files and new sales and whatever sometimes you'll catch an extra customer or two from your followers. It seems like most of them have a way to pretty much share them automatically ... if not try IFTTT or something.

Good luck, don't cheat the system too badly.

Eventually the my pen's tooth has broken
But do not worry about that, that will not push me to suicide or join to ISIS

There is a wisdom that says who make the miracle once he can make more
And another wisdom says not to cry over spilled milk
...
The sun will shine tomorrow, just should to wait

But also let me to admit that I was reckless in dealing with someone I did not know
Thanks for all Happy New Year
                  I am sorry for my English

I know this isn't necessarily what happened here but as a related FYI, Shutterstock does have many ways of detecting suspicious activity and will close accounts without warning. I started out on SS as a vector contributor but later wanted to purchase a subscription to license photos for various design projects. I reached out to SS about it just to make sure I wasn't crossing any lines by being a contributor and a buyer at the same time. They warned me then that if I used my subscription to download any of my own images, my account would be closed.

They take this stuff very seriously. There's too much real fraud going on every day, so their zero-tolerance policy may seem harsh but it is there for a reason.

When in doubt about anything you're doing, just reach out to them and ask before you do something that could jeopardize your account. SS is very willing to answer questions before you do anything risky, but they won't be forgiving if you just go ahead with some scheme to increase sales without checking with them first to see if it's ok to do.