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Why do images get stolen?
Dropshipping businesses and fraudulent sellers often use photos taken by original artists for marketing their brand and the items they sell. Instead of making high-quality products, they recreate them from the photo and sell them for a lower price. Creators who sell digital products, such as printable art, templates, or design files, face a similar risk when preview images are copied and reused in competing listings.
A real seller might take hours to produce high-quality clothing and take clear photos showing the full piece. Then, the fraudulent seller downloads the photo from the original website and posts it as their own, on their own page. When a buyer makes a purchase from the scammer’s website, they try to produce similar pieces as cheaply and quickly as possible. As a result, the buyer receives bad-quality clothing, and the real seller’s work goes to waste.
Sometimes, the clothes never get made. It might happen that the user purchases the piece, provides their card information and gets their money (or credit card information) stolen. The article they bought might never get to them.
Why is it so important to prevent your product photos from getting stolen?
Not only is it bad for the buyers when they purchase duped clothes, even for a lower price - it’s also bad for the business. The buyer can’t tell who was the first to take the photo, so they are likely to buy the cheapest option. Which, more often than not, is not the original piece. It might affect the seller’s whole business, taking away their revenue.
Best methods to find stolen product photos online
Here are some effective methods that will help you find the images that were stolen from your marketplace:
Reverse Image Search
Reverse Image Search websites are by far the best tools to use when looking for stolen images.
How to reverse image search your product photos?
- Visit a reverse image search website. We recommend lenso.ai, but you can choose from a few options, or even use multiple ones for best effects.
Check our list of all the best reverse image search websites and apps!
- Upload an image of your product to the website
- Check where it appears and if the websites you found are not infringing on your copyright
Tip: Use the Alerts feature on lenso.ai to set up automatic notifications whenever a photo of your product appears online.
Learn how to set up alerts on lenso.ai
Lenso.ai is a great reverse image search to look for copyrighted images. It offers alerts and advanced filters that help find, filter and protect your images online. You can get all the advanced filters in the Research Mode in Professional Plan on lenso.ai.
For finding just the copies and edited versions of your photos, remember to open the Duplicates category!
Learn how to use lenso.ai:
Search by product keywords plus image clues
Use Google with queries like:
- "your product name" + "your brand"
- "your product name" + "shop"
- "unique phrase from your product description"
- site:aliexpress.com "your product name"
- site:amazon.com "your brand"
- site:etsy.com "your product name"
This helps find listings where the image was copied but the filename or page text changed.
Check marketplaces manually
Many stolen product photos appear on marketplaces rather than regular websites. Check:
Amazon, eBay, Etsy, AliExpress, Temu, Shein, Facebook Marketplace, Pinterest, and Shopify stores.
Search by your product name, main visual features, and category keywords. For example: “green handmade ceramic mug gold handle” may work better than your exact product name.
How to Take Stolen Product Images Down
- Find the stolen image
Save the URL where your product photo is being used. Take a screenshot of the page and keep proof that the original image belongs to you.
- Contact the website or seller
Look for an email address, contact form, or social media profile. Ask them to remove the image.
Email example:
Hello,
I found my product image used on your website without permission: [URL]
The original image belongs to me and was published here: [Your original URL]
Please remove the image within 48 hours. If it is not removed, I may report it to your marketplace, hosting provider, or another relevant service.
Thank you,
[Your name]
- Report it to the marketplace
If the image is on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart Marketplace, Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, Pinterest, or another platform, use their copyright or intellectual property report form.
- Contact the hosting provider
If the website owner does not reply, find the website’s hosting provider and send them a copyright complaint.
Best ways to prevent product images from getting stolen
There are a few effective methods to prevent images from being stolen in the first place, but they don’t always deter fraudulent sellers. These include watermarks, low-resolution previews, disabled right-click downloads, clear copyright notices, metadata added to image files, and regular reverse image searches to monitor where your photos appear online.
Author
Kinga Jasinska
Marketing Specialist
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