Ok, so this is right up there with the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen in our past almost-three-years as bloggers. Recently a reader (thanks Sara!) wrote alerting us that she had seen photos of our living room and guest bedroom on a vacation rental site called Airbnb. And apparently the “landlord” was claiming that they were photos of their house in Pasadena- and charging $48 a night with priority to anyone who booked it for one or two weeks straight (to the tune of $336 to $672) since they “received so much interest.”
Isn’t that weird???? What happens when people get there and it doesn’t look like that? Or maybe it doesn’t get that far because it’s all a scam and this person takes the money and runs without providing an address? Either way we were adequately skeeved out. And of course we contacted both the webmaster of the site along with the “landlord” to let them know that those images were ours and they were firmly planted in Richmond and not for rent. Pretty soon thereafter they were removed. Whew. But so odd right?!
It ranked up there with the time that another reader (thanks Michael!) wrote to us shortly after our big bathroom reveal to tell us that they saw some girl named Amber on Rate My Space claiming our bathroom after photos as hers.
The good news is that it was getting great feedback. But the bad news was that it wasn’t her bathroom! The funniest thing about that situation was that Amber was answering questions about the paint color and where she got things (all of which were wrong, so we were totally confused to see her claim that our $100 Overstock sink was a $400 splurge from Kohler and that the walls were some shade called Cucumber Dream instead of the actual Dune Grass hue that we used). Isn’t that weird? Of course we just commented under the post with a link to our site saying “Wait- that’s actually our bathroom! You can see where we got everything and how it all came together by following this link.” Literally within a minute the post was removed.
Actually now that we think about it, the Rate My Space thing might have been stranger than the room rental incident because the room rental person seemed to be in it for the money, so the idea of a scammer stealing a photo and trying to make some loot with it kind of makes sense. But isn’t it odd that someone found a photo of our bathroom and thought it would somehow be rewarding to claim it as their own on Rate My Space (where there’s no dough on the line)? Maybe she didn’t feel like redoing her bathroom so she thought using our photos would be a shortcut? Or she thought it would be funny? Consider us stumped.
Thank goodness for all of our lovely readers who have eagle eyes and thoughtfully email us every time they see our casa somewhere that it doesn’t belong. We’re used to hearing that our pictures are on eBay or Craigslist when someone’s trying to sell an identical rug or duvet. And we even saw before and after photos of our front yard on some landscaping guy’s website in Texas (so crazy, right?!). But the latest Rate My Space and vacation rental listing have been the most odd by far. What do you guys think? Can you figure out some ulterior motive for the Rate My Space thing? Have you ever seen your photos somewhere they didn’t belong? Do tell.
Lindsay@Tell'erAllAboutIt says
Ummm….eww? What kind of creep-a-zoid would do that?! Just be thankful they didn’t come a’knockin’ on your door hoping to take pics for their random website.
Oddballs out there, I tell ya – odd!
xoxo,
Lindsay
Caitlin says
You know, in high school there was this girl who was so obsessed with me (I know that sounds vain; but it was the worst thing to happen to a girl at 15 years old!) that she stole and copied my artwork, my clothes, my habits… even my nickname! Eventually I got things mostly sorted out, but I now have no mercy for anyone copying someone else’s creative endeavors. (If I hear about them in person I get soo angry)
And if you two (plus baby and burger!) get so much attention from just your bathroom, why can’t she have that same attention with no effort, just by posting it up as her own?
I think most people who do things like that have terribly low self-esteem about their lives — they way they live it and the course it takes. Everyone can make something of themselves with just a little effort, but not everyone wants to actually make the effort.
Megan says
That is so creepy and wrong! I would keep the “watermark idea” on the back burner… it’s a good idea for creative people like yourselves and I’m sure you could come up with an unobtrusive and creative way to make it work if the time ever comes that you do need one.
Another suggestion… one of my photographer friends set his online portfolio so you can’t copy his photos at all. You can’t right click “save link as” or drag and copy to your desktop. That might be a possible solution for you guys, although it would take some research as I’m not sure how my friend did it… just a thought!
Love your site, your projects and tips… and the pics of little Clara (such a doll!)
Claudia says
I was going to say watermark it, too. You can do a very low-opacity mark that will be there but not be so intrusive – how rude of these people!
Christiana says
I have to say the watermarking idea is the best one- in the bottom corner or something.
k&b adventures in renovating says
ha! my favorite is “the good thing is it was getting great feedback” oh man, while that IS very scary, i guess it’s some form of flattery? so crazy.
Krissy says
Definitely watermark but there’s something else you should do too —
You can (somehow) put a block on your pictures so people can not copy/paste them. Unfortunately, I have no idea how this is done but I do know it can be done. Maybe a web design person could help you out??
So many creepy people out there – you can never be too safe!
Jessaca says
Wow. That amazes me what people would do. Honesty is really a virtue. I saw this website about “watermarking” options, weighing the pros and cons, including putting your pictures in Flash: http://www.watermarker.com/how-to-protect-digital-images.aspx
In the meantime, we’ll be your eyes and ears! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Hey everyone,
Thanks for the watermarking idea! We hate to put a big ugly YHL seal in the middle of our photos, and putting one in the bottom or the corner just means people will crop the photo to get rid of it. Boo! So for now we’ll just stick to retroactively asking the few-and-far-between scammers to remove our pics if they use them (since there are far more people who enjoy our photos without doing anything shady with them- thank goodness!).
And as for the suggestion to keep our photos from being copy & pasted, we definitely could add that feature to our pics, but anyone can just take a screen grab anyway. So we’re pretty sure we’ll just keep things as is and occasionally ask people to remove our photos if they’re being used in any creepy ways. We hate to change anything for those very few incidents that are so easy to resolve with a quick little email. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Melanie Beth says
Ok I get the Ebay/Craigslist thing… and I can at least see the reasoning behind the bnb thing (how ever crazy it is!)… but I just can’t understand doing it on Rate My Space! So strange. At least you have enough friends out there who have your back!
April in CT says
Supah creep, supah creep, that’s supah creep-eh. (Go ahead and sing it out loud, it’ll be fun.)
Seriously, what the heck is wrong with people?!
TellaLuca says
Hmmmmmmmmmm, with so many followers, MANY nice and a few strange, this would cause me to limit photos of Clara. Though, personally I would miss them.
I have two kids of my own, just a thought!!
Karla@ {The Classy Woman} says
Super CRAZY! The problem with even watermarking these days is you can still crop off the top/side/bottom wherever it is. It’s hard to keep your own images. I use a lot of images online for my blog but ALWAYS am sure to give a link underneath for credit, since it’s someone else’s work.
The rate my space thing is super weird. Last year I started seeing my writing and similar articles that I’ve written on other sites. One lady (another Author, mind you) had taken my article, changed a couple words and posted it as her own work with her listed as the writer-what nerve! She was just getting ready to launch a new book and I showed her where she could find the version of my article that I published 3 years prior. I also let her know that I’d be happy to blog about her plagiarism of my article and do a little press release that would let everyone know what kind of author she really was if she chose not to remove it. I don’t mess around-I play hardball. ;) Needless to say, it came down in literally minutes. That has happened to me more than once and despite what people say, it’s not flattering-just extremely maddening and sometimes time consuming for me.
Glad your readers found the photos! I’d know your photos anywhere so I’ll tell you if I see something fishy.
~Karla
Lori says
Creepy!!!
In high school I had Senior Pictures taken and then received an advertisement postcard from the company with my big picture smiling back at me. It was weird because I felt like I should have been able to approve my pic for advertising, but I didn’t approve anything.
I know that’s not as crazy as claiming someone else’s bathroom as my own, but it sure did creep me out!
Natalie G says
In addition to the watermark suggestions, you may want to limit access to photos of Clara. I’ve seen craziness on the interwebs of people claiming pics of cute babies to be their own. Talk about weird and demented.
Jeannine @ Small & Chic says
Wouldn’t it be even creepier if some couple had meticulously read your tutorials and source lists to recreate your rooms in their home? What if their names were Don and Kerry? What if they had a dog named Fries?
Sorry, that was too far, wasn’t it?
The Rate My Space thing…I think there are a lot of nutty people (teenagers, perhaps?) on there who are just trying to get attention. There have been plenty of times when I’ve seen pictures from magazines or inspiration websites like Houzz or DecorPad on there. Someone always calls the people out and the posts always get deleted.
Begoña says
DOnt keep your photos from being copy & pasted, and do that a lot on your blogs and other decoration blogs to save ideas for when the moment to do a makeover comes. I would just take as somethin weird or/and fun. No big deal, it happens everyday to thousands people all around the world. Check out this link, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/11/smith-family-photo-czech-advertisement
Shannon B. says
Yes, do beware. I have on 3 separate occasions had people email me and say they saw someone else using my child’s photo and was claiming it was their own. You might want to start using a watermark.
Alicia says
My mom is an amateur photographer and takes AMAZING pictures. She had been posting them online on her facebook account when one of her friends actually took one of her photos and used it as their own! She was so offended, especially since she tries to sell some of them as gift cards on my parents website… http://www.neartisansstudio.com/html/val_van_meier_photos.html
karen says
All I have to say is: CREEPY!!
Jessie (Bites and Pieces) says
People are so weird! I have seen this happen a few times on food blogs too. Once a girl set up a tumblr account with photos of a blogger that I read all the time, claiming to be her. I guess there is no real way to prevent stuff like this from happening though. At least your loyal readers will know it’s you!
Brittany says
This happens a lot in the photography business. If you use a photo program like Lightroom or Photoshop there’s a way to put your copyright and info into the metadata then you can periodically do an image search on google using the keywords and names you used in your metadata to see where else your images are showing up. You’d be surprised where they do. (Just go under the help section in whatever photo program you use and type in metadata, info should come up if the program has a way to add it.)
Anna S. says
That is crazy! I feel violated for you. Wait, that may not have made sense. I think you know what I mean…
Michelle says
This post made my day. I laughed so hard about the lady trying to claim the bathroom as her own. It’s good to know you have so many readers that can alert you to the crazies!
candace says
CREEPY!! I’m sorry to hear that this happened!!
Snickrsnack Katie says
Hasn’t happened to me, but friends of mine have had people steal their CHILDREN’S pictures. Like, took the pics and pretended they were their own children on some social networking site. This is a great reason to watermark all pictures of Clara. People are freaky!
Jennifer says
I often like to drag your photos to my desktop as future reminders/inspiration, so I’d be sad if you blocked that. And since I’m a PC – the screen grab thing isn’t as pretty. So anyway – thanks for keeping as-is.
Caitie says
OMG that is too creepy! Gosh people have some serious issues!
Christi says
When we moved to New Mexico we were looking to rent a home and went on craigslist – well the home we LOVED the picture was stolen from MLS and the people were based out of Nigeria. Its a HUGE scam for people to send a deposit and never get their keys!
Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog says
What creeps! I suppose dealing with them comes along with the whole blogging thing. I’ve actually found a few of my posts copied and pasted word for word on random sites :(.
Betsy says
That is just W.E.I.R.D.!!!
Travis says
You know…this ranks right up their with Al Gore claiming that he invented the internet, when everyone knows it was my idea!
Seriously, really odd. But I guess you guys have to come to expect that being celebrities and all!
dinah says
:O the rate my space thing is weird but the rental thing? That person should be prosecuted or something!
Thank goodness for the people that told you about it! I will definitely keep an eye out as well.
Amber V. says
Very strange! I hope this doesn’t give all of us faithful followers named Amber a bad name.
Perhaps I should start commenting using an alias to be safe =0).
Are you at least a little flattered? I know the saying isn’t “thievery is the highest form of flattery,” but it still says a lot about the beauty of your home!
Drew says
We had a similar situation, but instead of our photos, a real estate agent actually took a picture of our garden and posted it with her listing. Our next door neighbor was putting her house up for sale and when we went to look at the listing, there was a wonderful picture of our flower garden, labeled: “Garden”. Well um… yes it IS a garden. You just don’t get it when you buy the house! We told our neighbor (who was horrified) and she had the photo promptly removed. Irresponsible agent, because when someone does show up to see it and there is no flower garden, it looks deceptive right from the start.
Alyzande says
Can we rent Burger too? How much is he per hour? *giggle*
Tara Haner says
That is so weird and creepy.
Babs says
wow, that’s both creepy and funny that somebody thought they would get away with it!
Ann says
Wow, that’s unbelievable. I’m speechless.
jaymee says
I’m a professional photographer by trade and I had a client notify me that another photographer had posted pictures from my blog on her blog claiming to be hers. This wasn’t that odd to me at first (people are shallow and weird sometimes) so I went to her blog to notify her, ask her to remove them, etc and I saw that my client was correct, my pictures were in fact on her blog but the weird part was that my watermark was still on them! (my watermark is my name btw) I had no idea anyone was THAT lazy. She stole photos, passed them off as hers and didn’t even take the time to try and hide the watermark. WOW. I can’t find her blog anymore btw. : )
angela says
I see your response that you don’t want to do watermarks, but I would! It’d save you a headache and we readers don’t mind! Watermark away – wow, there are some truly unbelievably creepy lowlifes out there!
Jennifer says
There’s all kinds of people, aren’t there? It’s flattery, right… creepy flattery… but flattery all the same? I love reading your blog and that you share pics of your two wee ones. Clara’s expressions are HILARIOUS and it’s always fun to see what Burger is up to! I hope you two don’t change the way you do things cause then the creep-a-zoids will win! Boo for sure!
Megan says
Holy moly, this story just cracks me up. Even though it would drive me NUTS if someone pirated pictures of MY hard work, I guess you should stay Zen about it and take it as a compliment! Ha!
Jessica says
I’m sorry, I just had to LOL at “Cucumber Dream.” That CAN’T be a real shade….although I’m afraid to google that phrase at work for fear of the some of the images I might get (and the red flags that would pop up in our IT department!!)
Amy G. says
There was an article in The Washington Post Travel section this past Sunday about craigslist vacation home scammers and how they post fake pictures, give fake addresses, etc.:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061103901.html
Allison B says
I agree with TellaLuca, I have many friends that have chosen to take pictures of their kids off facebook and off their blogs. Anybody can see them, they feel safer sharing them over email with family and friends. Your daughter is so beautiful. I would be nervous about creeps out there. Just a thought! I love your blog! It keeps me sane during the work day!
Christine says
The rate my space one is kinda funny. Maybe she was hoping to be a inspiration room or something but I would love to see how she would show off her bathroom when HGTV comes knocking on the door.
Sarah says
That is just awful.
Emily says
Aa! Totally creepy and bizarre. I foresee claiming ownership of Burger & Clara is next– yuck! So sad… But I’m sure y’all are already all over ways to protect your privacy and Clara’s safety. It’s so funny, but I have this warm feeling knowing that you have an alarm system.
Bethany says
That happened to us when we were selling our house. Our photos showed up on a house rental site saying our house was for rent for $700/month. So I’m guessing the scammer gets someone to mail a deposit and then takes the money? Not quite sure how that works. We had to contact them to take the photos down too.
Yaya says
I also saw your furniture on craigslist san antonio