I just got informed that someone is stealing photos from my blog, and pretending to be me. Not only is this person taking my photographs, but claims to be the mother of violet and has a facebook account with over 500 contacts + a flickr account.
Not only do I feel completely violated, I'm just shaking I'm so mad. creepy.
Anyone have any suggestions of what to do from here?
HERE is the link to her facebook page. I (obviously) am not her friend, but someone *thank you someone*, got an invite from this person on facebook and sent me a screen shot of her homepage - which has all my photographs and says she's a mom to violet. I have reported her on facebook, but heard nothing back yet.
What do I do? What is wrong with people? and what's the motive? I just don't get it.
**to be clear, I do have a flickr account. It's under "allison c photography". This impostor's flickr account is under "allison carter 2009", which is linked from her facebook account.
WELCOME TO MY B L O G
website
contact
copyright notice
categories
- violet (50)
- weddings (47)
- personal work (43)
- us (31)
- families (20)
- children (19)
- announcements (18)
- portraits (17)
- travel (14)
- babies (10)
- engagements (10)
- bridals (8)
- inspirations (3)
- music (3)
Blog Archive
SUBSCRIBE
Posts
Comments
32 comments:
OH my gosh that's horrible! I had the same thing happen to me except they created a myspace page instead of a facebook one. I reported them to myspace and the account was deleted. I'm sure you can do the same thing about facebook.
I'm so surprised to see this kind of thing... yuck! Definitely report them to Facebook, and they will delete the account.
That's just weird?! What sort of satisfaction can one possibly get out of pretending to be somebody else?! What would cause somebody to even have a thought like that in the first place, let alone actually carry it out!? What a poor pathetic life! I'm so sorry!
AND what would make 500 people want to be friends with somebody that is obviously not real!?!
That is creepy Allison. I can't believe she has pictures of Violet. She needs to go down.
If you are a member of PPA you should contact them immediately I think they may be able to help you. Im so sorry this has happened to you :(
Allison- like I mentioned on Facebook, I really don't understand how people do not think they'll get caught for blatantly ripping you off! I think you were SO smart by linking to her Facebook page, so other people can see that she's a fake and a phony. YOU have to expose her for the fake she is, but I'm so sorry it happened to you- SO lame!
I'm sorry this happened to you! Blessings!
ick. people are so weird....and sad. I am so sorry! I hope they take down her page soon!!
Unfortunately facebook probably won't do anything. I had someone stalking me and threatening my life, the person knew my boyfriends name, where I went to college etcetc though my fbook account was completely private and I wasn't friends with this person. I would suggest contacting the PPA or asking the police how you can track the person and make sure she has consequences. I am so so so so sorry this has happened to you. The only reason I mention the police is bc she is claiming to be the mother of your daughter.
Oh no this is awful!!! Some people really needs a life. :( Sorry it happens to you! Hope this will be over soon!
this happened to another blogger!took a picture with a sign saying "im the real sofie han"and sent it to myspace and facebook , people are seriously weird. i hope everything goes okay!
You should talk to Sarah Q photography... She's been battling some crazy woman for the same thing. I'm not sure what she's done to solve the issue or tame it but she might have some good advice.
So weird! I'm just a random fan, but I know this happened to Amy Furstenau, so maybe she'd have some tips? Good luck!
gag. that makes me sick, allison!
let's all take her down.
good to post her facebook profile.
what a sicko. i'm sorry.
have you ever read dear cjane? she has a post about disabling the right click so that others can't take your pictures, im sorry that has happened to you.
http://dearcjane.blogspot.com/2009/08/to-disable-right-click.html
i don't know how to make that into a link but you could copy and paste it to go see how to disable it
hope that helps!
That is awful! who would ever do such a thing? ridiculous! i hope it gets all straightened out for you.
Allison this is the weirdest thing. I can't get over it. She is just jealous of your charm, skills and violet's beauty. I wonder how sad and low her life must be to have to claim yours. I sent her some hate mail for you and told her to watch her back. :) I would turn her into some authority. She is going down.
oh man... i wish so bad i could find this person.. I would turn into Danielson so fast they wouldn't know what! serious freaks out there.. you can still find stuff on google if you type allisoncarter2009.. jared's right, i guarantee its some guy with no life wishing he was a rad photographer woman with a cute daughter. Good luck with that douchebag.
this is so crazy. i don't get it either.. does she think she won't get caught for steeling your photos? and pretending to have a daughter named violet? i'm just sitting here staring at my screen dumbfounded. what the?
People are so weird and scary; I guess you never know what they are capable of. My best advice would be to either go to the police or seek the advice of an attorney (I am a law clerk so I will ask them for advice today). Also, you might want to start imbedding your logo onto all of your pictures. Good luck with everything and if any of the lawyers in my office know what to do I will let you know!
That is scary! I have to admit I thought I was following you on flickr and will definitely remove that contact! Thanks for the work YOU produce, Its lovely.
I know this photographer had the same problem: http://happyfullmers.blogspot.com/
Oh my gosh Allison, I am so sorry. Something like this recently happened to me. Someone was stealing my personal blog images and posting them as their own, on their own blog. They changed our names, but stole my pictures and text, pretending to be me. They had a particular interest in my pregnancy, only posting pregnancy-related topics. A friend stumbled across it and forwarded me the link. I couldn't believe it, I was sick about it for weeks. It was obviously not an automated internet thing, but clearly planned. (strangely, however, they had no readers, so sending an entourage of people to her blog as a scare tactic wouldn't help). My husband, a computer engineer, did a lot of investigating on the back end. We also started researching my hits on google analytics and site meter. We contacted google numerous times, but heard nothing in return. We didn't want to point her out right away since we wanted to catch her before she stopped and started blogging about me somewhere else. We tried everything. I disabled right-click (which does nothing since people can still save your picture in reader, take a screen shot, or drag your image to their desktop, but it was worth a shot), and started watermarking my images. She continued to post, but with only my old non-watermarked images. Apparently, the watermark helped. But since she continued to post, I started taking screen shots of her blog and continued to contact google. I finally left her a 'cease and desist' comment with a separate blogger account, which sent her to a made-up blog, which had a sitemeter and analytics. We eventually caught her and found her IP address and location. Right before my baby was due (perfect timing), Google finally got the memo and shut her blog down. Even so, I eventually moved my blog to a new URL. I asked everyone to email me if they wanted the address, and this person actually contacted me. To make a long story short, we tricked her into thinking I was located somewhere else (and just in case she finds this comment, lol, I will end the story!) ;). We since haven't had any hits from her IP address or location, but I continue to watermark my images, I keep them web-sized, I disable right-click, and I post fewer personal pictures. I honestly hate watermarking, I know how it looks. But it was the only thing that stopped her from stealing my pictures.
So in your case, I would definitely do what you can to contact facebook, research the friends that this person is with (do you have any friends in common?), and although a watermark wouldn't stop this person from pretending to be you, it's worth a shot? And since you own a business, you have legal rights as well. You should contact her with a 'cease and desist' letter, and if she refuses to stop, you can 'press charges' so to speak, since your images are copyrighted. (google "cease and desist" for more information). Anyway, I am so sorry! And this comment is so poorly written, I apologize! Since my blog isn't attached to this account, I'll send you an email. Much love! Good luck!
Wow that is extra extra creepy. Whenever I read stories like this I wonder if I should have made up a "nickname" for my son before I plastered my blog with his pictures! I hope everything works out.
k so I have been thinking about it.. and the only thing this person could possibly gain from this is... maybe she is trying to take people's pictures and tells them that your work is hers. maybe she advertises through her facebook and leads people to believe that she takes all of those pics??? I am just stumped, but that is the only thing I can think of. Sorry allie... love ya.
OMG. i am so sickened by this. i actually am one of her 'friends' even though i have never met her. i thought she was a fan of my photography and/or blog. i have people that want to be my friend and find me on facebook because of that.
i am horrified that she not only would steal your pictures, but pretend to have your life?
i am so SO sorry you have to deal with this. i am a fan of YOUR WORK allison, not of your imposters actions.
hugs.
oh and i'm UNFRIENDING right NOW.
Maybe if Facebook gets a lot of reports and we all leave her a message (right below Violet's picture) FB will do something about it! So crazy!
I don't know how far you want to go with this, but if you really wanted to, you could press charges against the person for "stealing," your images since they are yours and are copyrighted.
Also, this is more or less a case of identity theft, only without the financial part of it (though you could argue the financial side since this person could be taking away from your business) and I'm sure if it came down to it you could use this against this creepy weirdo.
I say, take 'em down!!!
Whatever you do, good luck!
Sad world we live in at times...
I'm so sorry it happened to you Allison. I'm a big fan of your blog and your work and I can't imagine why somebody would do that. It's really sick. Wish you all the best.
Oh and if you want to meet me closer here is the link to my Picasa albums http://picasaweb.google.ca/monikaz369
I just wrote this sicko a mean message on facebook. I also noticed that we have a mutual friend so I informed my friend of who she really is. I am disturbed that this happened to you! I am so disgusted that she is lazy enough to steal your hard work and creativity and your life. It really creeps me out! Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Oh my goodness, I am just fan and check in every so often and just read this post tonight. This is terrible and scary and I'm so glad there has been some resolution for you! How could someone ever feel ok about doing something like that?? I am completely baffled.
Post a Comment