Warning ! The ebay russian archive photos are fakes

[hornetsfan]

Ok ...this is not news to most of us on this forum .
We are aware there are a good number of ebay sellers who are selling strange looking tea stained images on thick card . The story is always the same ..100% originals from the Russian Archives ..black light tested etc etc .
I briefly hunted around ebay and discovered half a dozen scum bag sellers in different nations ..all with the same story . I once fell for the scam myself ...the blooody photo stank of tea and coffee ..laughable ....I immediately contacted the seller and told him ...its a crap repro ...I know it, you know it ...money back please ...he immediately gave me my money back.
Now at the time I was cowardly , I should have given negative feedback to warn others , but I chose not to because I did not want to get hassle ....shamefully ,I have watched many people get ripped off ...some people are paying up to $50 each for this dross .
Well tonight things got personal ...I noticed that ebayer nlevental ( I wonder if he is a forum member ) , registered in Canada and ships from the Ukraine ...has done the old tea staining trick on MY images ....if you care to look at his offerings and then go to the fallschirmjager section of this forum ..thread "I know its not allowed but"...you will see images from a photo album which is in my personal collection . He is also selling some of my Kriegsmarine photos .
Ok ..many reading this will find it amusing ,idiot jim ripped off...Ha Ha .... it is quite funny that images so badly drenched in tea could be mistaken for originals ...but there are also those who will realise that they have been conned into buying repros when they thought they were buying originals .
I dare say a number of individuals will think it very big and clever to steal images from this site and sell them on as repros ...I guess its human nature to want something for nothing ...but theft is theft is theft ( thats 3 thefts )
I suspect some individuals reading this will find it amusing because perhaps they are dishonest themselves ...from experience and observation we know militaria has more than its fair share of cheats . The subject of fakes comes up so frequently on this forum. It is true that a fool and his money are easily parted .
Now I'm going to appeal to the decent and knowledgeable people of this forum to consider a combined effort to rid ebay of the lowlife that blatantly con individuals . They are also harming the business of genuine traders by undermining confidence .
I'm personally prepared to knock out all the sellers on ebay of the Russian archive fakes ...they are very easy to spot . I'm fully aware this will potentially send flak my way ,but I'm that cheesed off and angry . If anyone else in a more senior role on the forum is potentially prepared to back me up on this issue with regard to ebay ..I would appreciate you contacting me . Perhaps as a respected forum we could start some kind of campaign .
Rant over ( for now )
jim

Ps . how many days will nlevental be trading from this moment onwards ?
place your bets .... hes going to have to deal with the British bulldog spirit .

[W Petz]

Hello Jim,

I don't think many people on this forum are laughing at you. I for one sympathize with you as I and a few others on this forum were victims of a similar situation about two years ago! A member was stealing our photo images off the forum and selling them on Ebay. A Joint effort was made sending emails and going through ebay and the seller stopped selling them. I understand you anger but please do not make any assumptions or accusations of the membership at large. I'm sure others will be contacting you and making their comments. Post who this ebay seller is and send me a PM with your email address so we can talk off the forum

Bill

[hornetsfan]

Hello Bill , thanks for your support , it really means a lot to me as I suspect you are a highly respected forum member. I know we have not spoken previously ,but I have only been around a short while . I get the distinct impression we share a similar interest/ passion for the old wartime images .

I hope the forum in general does not misinterpret my comments , I was certainly not attacking the forum itself ...I was only trying to openly address those small band of lowlife that will swim these waters looking to steal images for commercial gain .

below one of many fraudulent ebay traders selling fake photos from the "Russian Archives "

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/nlevental/

this is the ebayer who I have particular issue with ...I bought a terrible ,low res , tea stained copy from him months back ..got an immediate refund , because I was assertive . regretably I was also cowardly as I did not leave neg feedback . Ok ,cheesed off that he was ripping the unsuspecting off , but I let it go .
Now I discover that the idiot fraudster is using my images ..all the fallschirmjager and u-boats he currently has listed are my images . The galling thing is he might get more money for these crappy repros than if I put up the originals for sale ....it is genuinely laughable

Unfortunately , ebay is littered with people selling the same style of images..all tea stained ,low res , thick card ..Russian archive story .blah ,blah , blah ( I'm not allowed to swear , but some very naughty words want to leave my fingers ) ..
Questions arise ... is this one individual seller with many ebay identities in many countries ? ..or are they being produced centrally and offered "wholesale" ?
I have just been on the phone to ebay for over an hour ...damned frustrating , but a nice chap on end of phone ....I'm not only gunning for this one individual seller , I'm on a crusade to knock out the lot ....ebay really needs to tidy up its act ...they behave like pimps allowing lowlife fraudsters to con people .
According to ebay , my only real option is to bring the police in ...I will show them the magnitude of the fake sellers on ebay and they can deal with it in tandem with ebay if they so desire . This is a lucrative business and I'm concerned it is organised criminal activity . There is no point in knocking out just one dodgy seller ..he would only start up again ...this nasty little scam has to be dealt with thoroughly.
I may be seeking forum members support in presenting evidence to the police . I'm not really so much bothered about my images being stolen in this way ...I'm more angry that fraudsters are robbing unsuspecting buyers and tarnishing this whole collecting field .
I'm fully aware grief is going to come my way in exposing this ..but I'm seeking protection for my fledgling business interests from both ebay and the Police .
So lowlife scum sellers of ebay ...Please listen up , your days of selling the tea stained cards on ebay are numbered .
jim

[Todd Gylsen]

I, too, can relate to what you are going through. There is a seller on eBay who is selling disks of copied images from this forum and from elsewhere on the net. He is copying our images, poorly removing our watermarks and selling the images on CD's. I e-mailed him a couple times and he removed the disks which I could prove were my images from this forum (you could easily see where he poorly tried to remove the watermarks on the images). However, he is still selling these disks of various images.

It would be nice to see these type of sellers disappear from eBay.

[hornetsfan]

Hello Todd ...I dare say my orignal cds have been copied far and wide against my wishes ... Can you kindly let me know if my images are on the cds ? and if they are , while I'm livid ( steam blowing from ears ) ..please give me the id of the seller and I will deal with him also .
My website http://www.throughtheireyes2.co.uk/
many thanks
jim

[hornetsfan]

Advise please ....what is the best way to scupper the copy and paste merchants ? what is the optimium resolution / size for making the images usless for the cheats but still of value for those who want to view the images on screen for forum use ?
..and is the overwriting that I do... and many others use pointless ?
I will personally stop posting my images if fraudsters are just going to copy and resell them .
jim

[Admiraal]

I just put a watermark (my alias in red) on the picture.

[hornetsfan]

Thanks mousey and Rick ...I have to date overwritten in red but now will also get the little spray can out and mess it up just a little bit more , its a shame because it spoils the image but alas seemingly necessary ...
Any thoughts on dpi ?

[Gesundheit]

With the proliferation of fairly advanced photographic reproduction equipment available at relatively low costs, this scenario was inevitable.

Best safeguard is to use opaque, conspicuous, multiple watermarks on images.
"see through" marks" have the advantages of not obstruction detail too much, while making it very difficult for any potential forgers to remove.

[Mil-Archive]

If you use multiple repeating watermarks it removes any element of enjoyment from anyone looking at the picture - if that is the case it's hard to see the point of posting it to begin with. Some of them are obnoxious and completely over the top. Unless it's a very valuable picture to begin with I wouldn't bother with multiple repeating watermarks. I think ebay is the source of these sellers so the thing to do is maybe keep a master thread of ebay scumbag sellers - ie if they sell one single copied/stolen pic redflag them and keep it in a searchable thread. I know they can re-register but they have to then build up feedback etc and it puts a crimp in their day if they are flagged and reported etc.

[mambo]

the transparent watermarks work very well
try really lowering the dpi of the images you post a resolution of 800x600 is a good size for posting a picture on a forum and no matter how low you take the dpi it will still look the same
but if you try to print the image it will be totally useless

regards

[mambo]

o and on on a similar note maybe jokers like this need to be removed from ebay while your at it



fakemongeous

[Mithrandir]

Thanks for the headup.
It's important for all of us to know.

[hornetsfan]

I think permanant and prominant halls of shame to tackle the menace of criminal ebay dealers, for each catorgory , is an excellent suggestion . What do the moderators / forum top brass think ? ....it certainly would be a very important contribution the forum could make ....they have no chance of getting away with their nasty little schemes for any length of time .
Some good advice re images ...
many thanks
jim

[hornetsfan]

Oh dear ! I think I may have stepped into a vipers nest .
Once you start looking its easy to spot fake photos sold as originals everywhere on ebay ....I also think I have encountered the murky world of bidding syndicates ...perhaps only a percentage of the buyers on these sellers records are genuine buyers ...doing a brief tour of dodgy dealers the same buyers are turning up and often paying mega money surely they cannot be that stupid ?
I'm personally fast beginning to lose confidence the whole ebay militaria experience . They need to take action sometime soon .