A rented place I did was listed by someone else too. They used my photos. It felt like a shock. I did all the hard work, photos, writing, and even got reviews. I feel robbed. It’s like someone broke into my home, took a picture of my couch.
Sometimes mistakes happen. Once I was fixing my calendar late at night. The app had a glitch. I could see two listings online for the same apartment. I panicked about booking. I found it hard to use the app sometimes too.
Some people copy on purpose. There was this other person with the same title, description, and even my photo but a lower price. I reported it. I waited for days without response. It hurt me mostly more than money lost. It was like they were stealing my work.
Handy tools exist for duplicate spotting. I searched some pictures online once in a while. So hard work and too much worry. Watermarks would lessen the quality of my photos. I hated that thought. Was there any way around it?
When I find images of my own being used without permission on Airbnb, I have to report them using their official means. This entails taking screenshots of everything and noting down URLs with timestamps. However, responses from them typically take quite a long time to come. Sometimes they disappear quickly in just twenty-four hours. Other times it can take as long as one week without any communication, whilst the imposter gets to book guests happily. Speaking to the support team is no help – they are just polite robots who seem unaware of my anxiety here. Where should I report such a concern again?
I now subtly show my real address in certain pictures. What more could scrappers do? For instance, I put a small plaque on the door with the house number, and framed prints showing the name of the street adorn the walls. This may appear quite desperate but it feels like taking back ownership of the digital mess going on.
It hurts always being worried about replicants. That takes away the joy from what you do. You doubt every photo clicked: Is this sunset stunning enough? Or will they copy me? Should I deliberately make this unappealing? This is crazy. Hosting guests online is already a hard task – cleaning, odd requests. The constant fear of being robbed makes it feel all more daunting; sometimes you just want to quit everything altogether.
When someone is indeed a crook, it becomes worse still; “Samantha K” faked identity used my pictures for an account that existed for eight days and booked two stays. I discovered this by searching again and found good comments on a suspicious site; it was like chasing phantoms. Airbnb later disposed off that counterfeit account without giving any reason nor an apology afterwards. The feelings lingered on I could no longer hold onto what I used to think about the system. I started having worries about trusting others as well. You build something yet the ground no longer feels secure.
Prevention methods exist but they are only half-hearted strategies. Watermarks are unappealing; tracking down copycat images is a laborious task; putting signs into images; using Google Alerts for monitoring titles or unique phrases found on draft works elsewhere online; Management requires a combination of patience, persistence and luck. These are not won easily but rather over long periods of time. Currently, we are fighting against digital thieves. There�s no soft option – staying alert is key to spotting such thefts happening. Is it ideal? No. But given today, this is something necessary in order to live like everyone else in this odd sharing economy. The hope here would be for tougher penalties imposed against anyone brazen enough to steal from us. Have some strong coffee ready please.