4th of July Mugs Spam Attack

[MissPaperFarm]

I hate to report this but I was searching 4th of July mugs and on the first page it's spammed with tons of mugs that all have nothing on them but black. I already reported the design and the account doing it, but it was just so upsetting to see this because Zazzle failed to catch the spam. It also makes the whole website look cheap. If customers come here to search 4th of July mugs and see this, they will just click off. To note, they may have done this with AI. I know that with the paid AI program, you can have it log in and possibly created tons of products. 

[NigelSutherland]

How strange. On my search they're ALL black! 

[Sea-Change]

Wow, it looks like this account has 100s of items in black with 4th of July tags, with many items created in a 3-day  period in mid-May. There are a ton of mugs, but also all-black lamps, beach towels, clocks, and more, all with misleading tags.

I reported one of the items and noted the large number of black items with misleading tags in the notes.

[ColsCreations]

Yep it's a couple of different store names tied to Anonymous members with different join dates showing so multiple accounts as well. And it's not just mugs. 

And who knows what else. But oddly not t-shirts which is what they tag-spammed everything as. 🤔

Ironic that people strive often for years to make it even to the first page of results but junk accounts have figured out some loophole to immediately dominate results with all this spam that is surely a turn-off to customers, making them think Zazzle is just a bunch of unregulated junk

[NigelSutherland]

What might the loophole be? The tags all seem to be the same.

[CrazyMermaid]

It used to be if you tried just to do a background color and publish, it didn't let you publish. (Now apparently it lets you publish, so no need for loophole.) Before this unscrupulous designers made a big black or other color rectangle and placed it over the entire product and were able to publish. 

[MissPaperFarm]

Just based on what can be seen on the frontend, it looks like they used AI to take the first word of a popular search topic, for example "4th of July" holiday, and then they added the name of other popular products in the market place to create the title of the product. That appears to be all they did but they created so many products that it flooded the market pages. I thought Zazzle checked products before they went public, which is why it's so confusing that these have made it through. 

[Windy]

I have never been under the impression that Zazzle checks any designs before making them public. The number coming in per minute surely would overwhelm the system. Designs are checked upon sale. And that is the point at which some creators will find a product deleted (because this is when copyright violations may finally come to light).

[MissPaperFarm]

That's what is a gut punch to designers that follow the rules. I remember reading the new Zazzle Terms and they specifically said products with unrelated tags were not allowed. So, of course these spam accounts break all the rules and get to the front of search pages 😵‍💫 Even though these spammers are recking the public shopping experience, it's still an interesting case study. They put unrelated tags, yet their products still showed up based on the first word in the title. I was looking for 4th of July mugs and all the black mugs said "4th of July" at the beginning of the title but their tags said t-shirt and whatever else. I don't know how the Zazzle algorithm is programmed but based on this debacle it seems to just be focusing simply on the first word of a product's title. Granted we don't know what other kind of hacking the accounts know how to do, but I'm pretty sure they are using AI to create these listings. 

[Jadendreamer13]

I’m wondering if this is part of the glitch that happened on Friday.

[ColsCreations]

I wondered that, too, but I think the black ornaments were brought up by someone before when they ran into them searching and the one store name is familiar, I think I may have actually reported them a while back. 

[Windy]

There's another store where every single thing in the shop is just white. A white mug, a white t-shirt, a white card, a white clock, white wrapping paper. Every product is blank and the directions invite customers to fill in whatever design they like. The store is called something like Zazzle White. I would have thought it was on official Zazzle store, however, the location of the shop owner is given as Bangladesh. I can probably find a link to this all white shop full of blanks if a mod wants the info. Mods, please advise if you want further info.

[tamirazdesigns]

I sent Zazzle a long list of store names links via email January 2025, all having nothing but white blank items, some with different store owner names, and different cities (if that's what they're called) all from that same Bangladesh country to make it look like they're not the same people!   And noted some of those stores had Bronze Badge Level!  How is that possible?  And I said it's not hard to find them by Zazzle employees and am sure there's a lot more spam stores on Zazzle, but I did not have the time to find them all for them, as an employee would!   Nothing was ever done, as every one of those stores are still up.and running!  They were reported in the past also, and by other designers and who also reported the stores with all black items, and the stores that only have put your logo here items and who reached very high badge levels!  Don't understand why Zazzle never did anything about these spam shell type stores going on here for years! 

Yet designers have been hit with the terrible new TOS working against designers who put their hard work and own designs on Zazzle’s blank items, and now having marketing fees and tiered category tables all so convoluted and reducing our royalties down even further as if that was even possible!   It used to be years ago Zazzle encouraged designers to set their own royalties as low or high as they felt should be for their work!  Then years back we were hit with an excess fee if we set our royalties 15% or higher and suggested we set it at 10%.  And now it's recommended not to go over 10% or get excess fee, so guess they now suggest setting them at 5%!  How low does Zazzle expect designers to go for our royalties in exchange for designers hard work and of licensing and original works of art, photography, illustrations, etc.?  Was bad enough for years now the new carvevouts, changes to volume bonuses, enormous increase gaps inbetween reaching silver from Bronze level, etc. they changed in the past!  Now these new TOS and marketing fees reducing our payouts even further for our work as designers!  And wasn't it always supposed to be the company made their profits from the marked up base price and accounted for their marketing and overhead costs in that, and designers were paid the differences based upon their own royalties  prices set?  Always loved Zazzle for the most part all the years here, and love their design tool and with it getting better over time!   It's always been a great feature here!  But all the crazy fees are a reason didn't go to,  or stay active with other POD sites who went down this route and thereby taking advantage of their designers on their sites!  Very demotivating, devaluing and sad!  Hope somehow Zazzle sees the negatives of all these changes from the past and now with these new TOS, and realizes it's not good to pay pennies to their designers who have always been the backbone to the company as a POD platform (and came before the big brand names here, and have to wonder are they treated the same way?).  There must be close to a million designer stores on Zazzle’s site, right?  Someone else said that recently again too.  It is Zazzle's company, but without it's talented independent designers and their vastly unique designs being made and sold, what is really left nothing but blank white products.  

[Jadendreamer13]

Designers deserve feedback from Zazzle regarding the TOS changes and acknowledgment about how these changes have negatively impacted designers’ royalties.

What are Zazzle’s plans to turn this situation around?

I realize that designers are not employees, but they are an integral part of your business.

[CrazyMermaid]

What a kick in the teeth to the Zazzle design community. It's bad enough that this stuff is even allowed, (I really thought there are rules against just doing a background color. Loopholes should not be permitted.) but to see them ranking so high - without cover photos or videos is completely demoralizing. Their tags are pure spam. The mugs I looked at were hawking t-shirts. Zazzle really owes us an explanation on this.

[Adam]

Hello MissPaperFarm! 
Thank you so much for reporting this! I have passed on the details and screenshots to our technical team so that we can look into this. 

Adam 

[Windy]

Thanks for jumping in to the thread Adam. Assuming you have read the entire thread, shall I assume that Zazzle is just fine with the Bangladesh based store which is called Zazzle White? I mentioned that a few frames above. I thought that Zazzle White might be  a new official Zazzle program, something like Zazzle Black, so maybe that store is exactly as intended, and no action needs to be taken. Let me know.

[MissPaperFarm]

Thank you Adam! I have confidence that Zazzle will fix this issue like they did the spam messages issue in the past. 

[MaggieA]

@Adam Can you please also ask for an explanation why this keeps happening? We report shops like these but they are still not taken down?

Should we just assume that Zazzle does not care if bad "designs" like these are pushed out to the marketplace for customers to see as long as they sell? 

[alissag]

Well, if customers are finding stuff like this every time they try searching Zazzle, that could definitely explain the decrease in sales that so many legitimate creators are complaining about. 

[CrazyMermaid]

4 of July mugs are looking better, but it here is another spam account that needs to go. Happy 4 July And Yes It's My 40th Birthday Since J Stainless Steel Water Bottle | Zazzle . It's products are still on the first page. Has anyone checked on Father's Day?

[LMGildersleeve]

My view still is filled with mostly on the first page. I've reported all those accounts back in February this year. Not via the snitch link but to Z'email. Like @AM above nothing was done about it.

[PAZP]

I just clicked the link you shared link and they are now gone. 

[Monet]

I think the entire Z site needs to be cleaned up.

I noticed those mugs when I started in 2021. I also received messages from a “Zazzle user” asking me to click on a link for account verification last year. I just reported and blocked them. Looking at my messages now, I don’t see them anymore, so I guess they’ve already been deleted.

[Sea-Change]

Here's another example from a store selling "blank" white and black items with misleading hashtags like minimalist and trendy. What's especially frustrating is that some of these items have had 100s of views, and the account has achieved bronze status.

It's likely that customers are confusing the store's blank items for blank Zazzle templates. I've reported these "blank" items to Zazzle.

[MissPaperFarm]

😱That's definitely a violation in the Zazzle terms: 

From the Designer License Agreement: "At the time you post Content or a Product for sale, you will be asked to provide information (title, description, and tags (collectively, "metadata"), and categories) about your Content so that visitors to the Site can search and find relevant Products. You will make best efforts to provide accurate, non-misleading, non-infringing information about your Designs and you agree not to submit unrelated information in connection with your Content for any purpose. If Zazzle determines that information is misleading or inaccurate or that it violates the rights of a third party, Zazzle may delete such information or your Content entirely, in its sole discretion."

"Zazzle asks that you do not engage in script writing or other unacceptable back door computing practices in an effort to post multiple products for sale. Zazzle also reserves the right to remove from the Site Products that are functionally similar to Products offered in the Zazzle Templates store (https://www.zazzle.com/store/zazzle_templates), including but not limited to (i) designs with text and/or imagery featuring "Your Design Here," "Your Image Here," or the like, and (ii) Products that employ titles and descriptions that either closely simulate or can be misrepresented as a Product offered in the Zazzle Templates Store."

[MaggieA]

Keep an eye on the store and see if Zazzle actually are taking action or not.

I have reported copyright issues on products in shops without seeing any products being taken down.

[Sea-Change]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it. In at least some of the products, the shop added a completely white or black background image to its products, possibly to avoid scrutiny from having nothing in the design area.

This shop has managed to publish more than 1,000 "blank" products and apparently make more than $1,000 in sales, based on its Bronze status.

[plumb4me]

I have reported products in the past and the present, that are blank, that say "Your Image Here" etc. and Zazzle did remove them. 

Effective April 1, 2025 "2.2.11. You may not upload or create Products that are functionally similar to Products offered in the Zazzle Templates store (https://www.zazzle.com/store/zazzle_templates), including but not limited to: (i) Content with text and/or imagery featuring "Your Design Here," "Your Image Here," or the like; and (ii) Products that employ titles and descriptions that either closely simulate or can be misrepresented as a Product offered in the Zazzle Templates Store. Zazzle reserves the right to remove any of your Products that fit this description from the Site."

[LMGildersleeve]

This is different. These spammers are posting solid colored blocks for designs and labeling them "Christmas" or "fathers day".