Back in the days of Fotolia, there was a forum moderator who was banned for a long time because he had been caught buying his own new images via another account in order to push these images up the rankings. In this case, I think a block is fine.

But: in dubio pro reo! If someone buys a large package of images from a contributor, you can't just block the account. It can't be right that a contributor is punished for something he can't do anything about!

From my point of view, Adobe has to prove that there was fraud.

Hello, thank you for updating us. It�s unbelievable that you haven�t received any response from Adobe. This is not how to treat a long time supplier. Have you tried to contact Matt directly or discuss this on Discord?

@cobalt - i sent him a message here on the forum but he didn't answered

Thanks, Mat. I hope I will never need to send you an email 

Thank you so much for your attention Mat.

I Will send you an email then.

cheers

Guys, I have some bad news. Several authors who were previously blocked due to irregular sales activity have been blocked again. This time, someone bought a large number of images from their portfolios, leading to their accounts being permanently deactivated for violating clause 8.1. This is very unfair, as authors have no control over fraudulent transactions, yet Adobe holds them responsible.

While it is possible that some authors might have exploited this scheme, punishing all authors for the actions of a few is unjust. Perhaps we should write a petition or a collective letter to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Let's suppose that an author with 10 years of experience bought some of their own images and was then blocked by Adobe. After being unblocked, they received a warning from Adobe that next time their portfolio would be permanently blocked.Why would the author risk repeating the same action?  I'm not sure, but it looks like eliminating competitors.Any ideas?

Quote from: rod-09 on July 31, 2024, 08:49

@cobalt - i sent him a message here on the forum but he didn't answered

Hi all,

I am not able to provide support through private messages here in MSG. I have communicated this many times in the past and I have shared my direct email. Rod, in your PM you did not share your full name, or your account information. Even if I could provide you with support here, I wouldn't be able to look up your account since you are anonymous in MSG. You can send me an email to [email protected]. I cannot make any promises that I will be able to make any changes, but I will look at your account.

I will never speculate or comment on blocked accounts in a public forum. For anyone else with a blocked account, your first step is to reach out via the contact us form in the contributor portal. When you hear back, be sure to follow the procedures outlined in the communication you receive on how to file a formal appeal.

Thank you,

Mat Hayward

Hello Mat, I see that you are trying to help some participants here voluntarily, which I find to be great and commendable.

As for me, I don't want help in recovering my account. In fact, the last message I sent them was aggressive, but they deserved it. I just want to know what happened and what is happening with the team responsible for accounts.

Why is Adobe capable of detecting fraud as most people say, or that no account is closed unjustly, but it is unable to provide conclusive evidence to silence the contributor! Why, if we assume that someone suddenly buys many files from my account, would Adobe consider us partners even if one of us is innocent! And if we report the incident in advance, it won't help us! And if they re-activate the account miraculously (with a full profit deduction) and the incident repeats, the account is closed again. Why would someone risk their well-regarded account after years of contributing by tampering with sales! If we say you become greedy, we go back to the beginning, which is why they are unable to provide conclusive evidence... And why did someone from Adobe Artist Relations tell me in one of their replies that there is nothing you can do about suspicious sales! So in this case, anyone can close any account by buying many files from it in a short period either using a fake card or any other method. Not to mention the long time it takes to investigate or get a logical response.

There's definitely something hidden that they can't disclose, unless we consider that the matter is simply that the investigation team cannot definitively determine that this contributor truly violated the terms and manipulated the sales, but they can determine that suspicious sales have occurred in his account and that's it.

I am so relieved that you have your account back.

But you have a severe financial loss because of the criminal activity.

How can we protect ourselves against this abuse?

No other agency does that.

This can even be used to get rid of a competitor for a few months. Just pay someone to download files with a fraudulent card, then happily watch your own sales soar while the competition has been taken out.

Mat,

is there really no other solution?

Do we all have to continue to live in fear?

Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.

The cause was "highly irregular sales activity", as I suspected. A buyer bought ~50 photos from my portfolio, all of the same topic. He even contacted me directly to ask if I have more.
This is the reason why I have been blocked for weeks now. How can I defend myself against such situations?

Oh, needless to say, of course I don�t get to keep the money for the sales...."We have now deducted the irregularly earned credits from your account".

Ridiculous.

I am happy to see you got your account back.

I still wonder, who's going compensate for the losses he faced in the down-time?
It is hard to see a happy moment of good downloads changed to a moment of fear... when you did nothing wrong.

Quote from: Robert_Ruidl on August 07, 2024, 07:17

Hi, I just got an email that my account will be unblocked.

The cause was "highly irregular sales activity", as I suspected. A buyer bought ~50 photos from my portfolio, all of the same topic. He even contacted me directly to ask if I have more.
This is the reason why I have been blocked for weeks now. ...."We have now deducted the irregularly earned credits from your account"....

Happy to hear your account is unblocked.

Adobe's deduction of the "irregularly earned" credits defies logic.

If the activity is something violating the rules, your account should still be blocked. If it doesn't violate the rules, you get the royalties you earned by licensing those items. What reason justifies confiscating contributor earnings like that?

This is really unsettling news for contributors IMO.

I'm agree, this really seems a nonsense.
Why Adobe don't change this situation, simply deducting the irregular sales without blocking the accounts?
This way anyone will be no more tempted to push irregular sales for himeself, as there would be no money to pick.
At the same time the "regular" contributors with no fault would have their accounts still alive, only with with reasonable deductions, if in case.

I think this is the way in which other agencies do the job, I'm sure that "irregular sales" happen everywhere