Hello all,
I received an email today with a Facebook messenger screen shot where a woman was selling one of my Zazzle designs (and those I also recognise from other designers) that must have been screen shotted and taken directly off the site.
I was wondering if there’s anything I can do about this, as it’s not as easy as reporting an Etsy page etc where the stealing of images is obviously on display?
Thank you,
@LFL suggested blocking screenshots and only leaving the ability to screenshot products for the designers who made them when logged in. I think, it’s a good idea and as I don’t want to steal it, I ask @LFL please post it in Ideas and Suggestions because it’s not only me who noticed that the situation with image thievery is worsening, but other designers noticed that too.
@BeautBotanical may I ask what product(s) was that woman selling?
What’s being sold? Just the design? Is this a digital download?
Hello @WittyBetty @Windy ,
They were selling Baby Gender Reveal Party Invitations. The designs were taken directly from Zazzle as the product template text was identical to that in my store.
They told the potential customer to not worry about the text as they would edit it with their new details. I assume they were simply adding in customers details to Zazzle and then taking a screen shot to sell it on as a digital product.
Watermarks on my invitations would prevent this from happening. However, I’ve also read that watermarks can reduce the marketing you get and in turn sales. It’s tricky but something really needs to be done about this.
They could be resellers, ordering from Zazzle on their behalf. There are people who do this via Etsy, eBay etc. They charge extra of course to make it worth their while. I would message the seller and ask her/him directly what they’re doing. Taking a screenshot of the ‘design template’ is not going to produce good results as the image will be very small.
Hey @CreativeLeahG ,
Yes that did cross my mind. Unfortunately they weren’t ordering physical products from Zazzle as they say that it’s a digital product and they will require an email address. With regards with the screen shot quality, I think it depends on what you’re using, I have taken some good quality screen shots of my own Zazzle products using my phone.
If they are requesting an email, it well may be a scammer too because, to my knowledge, one can send images via FB so no need for an email. So the screenshots are merely a trap. Which doesn’t make it any better.
So they want your email and the names of the parents and the address and maybe a phone number, and the approximate due date of baby. Which is when parents may be leaving a house empty. I knew a person who posted on Facebook that she was going away for training for six weeks. When she came home, her apartment was empty. As in no furniture, no belongings, everything gone. There are people who sit and scrape data off the internet all day and sell it to thieves with trucks.
In which case, maybe contact her and then do what brides do in these situations and ‘make an announcement’ on various wedding groups. These types of ‘frauds’ tend to close themselves down once exposed.
It’s a nightmare the number of scams operating now. Never ending 
I would definitely report the user to Facebook. I know from other folks who have had Facebook accounts shut down over non-related misunderstandings, that Facebook has been known to take these things seriously. I mean, most likely they’ll just turn around and open up a new Facebook account with a different email, but at least it’s something.
Blocking screenshots for everyone but the designer is a great idea, but I don’t think it’s technically possible. The only thing that would be possible would be to put something on top of the image which the designer could close or remove but others couldn’t - basically like a watermark, or a moveable popup that covers part of the design. And that might have the same negative impact on sales as a watermark.
Why? I think, it’s a simple “if this than that” function. Same as “Edit Details” and other functionality only available for the designer of a product. *waiting nervously for @Scott to come and tell me how wrong I am*
A screen capture isn’t something that’s done within the confines of a program, webpage, or app - it’s handled at the operating system level. The device simply grabs an image of whatever is on its screen at the moment - whether it’s a webpage, program, desktop, chat screen, image, etc. Whatever is displayed on your screen is captured as a bitmap.
There are ways to disable the right click function within a webpage or app, and that can prevent the menu with the option to download an image from appearing, but unless there’s some way for an app to disable an operating system function (which I sincerely doubt) there’s no way to prevent a screenshot.
Ahhh thank you, you’re right, I didn’t think of that. Now I see how difficult it is if ever possible.
The biggest problem with disabling the right click is that it still won’t stop thieves. there are snipping tools and actually you get the images you view downloaded to your temp files automatically if you are on a computer. Phones don’t need a right click to screenshot and I can’t think of any way to stop a phone from taking one. Thankfully there are still honest people left in the world that will do the right thing because they have integrity. although they seem to be more rare than ever.
@BeautBotanical have you heard anymore re this? Are you able to share the details with any of us you believe may also be affected?
Hey @CreativeLeahG , a Zazzle community moderator got in touch with me and raised an incidence report. I have shared the screen shots and name of the Facebook account with them to investigate. The seller presented 5 designs to the potential buyer, one of which was mine, and while it’s incredibly rubbish, I don’t want to panic everyone into thinking their work has been taken.
Happens all the time, I even see my stuff on Amazon. The only downside to their stupidity is that I hope the buyer sends back the product due to low resolution and a lousy print.
I use watermarks, but they can easily be removed.