Have you ever been "threatend" by someone who likes your comic? :/

[shinepaw]

Hello guys!

I'm dealing with an art-thief lately on Instagram, no surprise here. But the thing is, the little girl is claiming to be me, and she don't want to give up. Instagram took down all my reposted comics with my DMCA reports and now I get this:

I won't edit out usernames, she changes them constantly anyway, I'm so annoyed, and I've reported them with abuse... :/ Really, even if you are a little girl, YOU DON'T DO THIS!

And what does she expect? I make a tutorial on how I draw some lines and then what? It's not how you learn to draw....

Have you ever dealt with something like that before? Beside reporting it, and hoping Instagram/Facebook will do the right thing, what should one do? I've tried to report her several times for impersonating me, but Insta only cares about real life identities, not online ones.

(here is my Instagram, before anyone claims to be me again: https://www.instagram.com/shinepaw/ )

[joannekwan]

That's awful!!!
Actually I have a friend who recently has been going through something similar to this. Some dude created an Instragram account impersonating him and trashing his designs and attacked him and his friends/family personally. All my friend could do was report and asked his true followers to report as well until the account was pulled. Won't stop the faker from making a new one though I imagine.

Hope there's a better solution to this and I wish you the best of luck!

[alensmile1997]

WHAT THE HECK? This seriously happens? Wow, that little girl sure is a pushover O_O

[shinepaw]

I'm glad it got resolved for your friend! (at least for now)

And thank you, I'm starting to believe Instagram is a gathering place for all art thieves, it's not my first time someone tried to impersonate me there :/

[Niles]

Send her a great big f***ing email and tell her you'll be taking legal action if she continues. That freaks everyone out. Find out more about this person and shame them everywhere, make her internet life hell. I hate people like this- Send her my way- I'll sort her right out, she'll have nightmares for months.

If you haven't already look into copy righting your work. Then if anything happens someone else can kick her for you without hassle.

Poor little baby isn't getting her bottle- Well tough shit. You carry on with what you are doing an ignore all this. But you need to sort it, hacking threat isn't something to ignore. Change your passwords/details and just keep her away. But really, advance on that cow and give her what's for. I'm sorry to hear you are going through a stressful time- Remember us artists are here to support.

[shinepaw]

Thank you, it's kind of you I'm just a little afraid to do anything beside reporting her, yeah, I've only posted this here, but I'm planning to take it to Tumblr... But I don't want to overdo it as well :S

And I'm not worried about her hacking me, I have a little insight on how that stuff works (my SO is an ethical hacker), she just said that to scare me. :/

[shazzbaa]

Hahaha holy crap. These messages are so desperate.

You can't stop people from being horrible on the internet, but there's nothing this person can REALLY do -- that's why they're so desperate to extort you and convince you they know how to hack your account ( haha what ), because reposting your art isn't sustainable for them. They are a headache trying desperately to be more scary than a headache. They want to believe they have a gun to your head, but it's just a kidsafe nerf gun.

You basically can either ignore this small child, or tell her calmly to stop messaging you. I don't know that you want to get in the mud with her and threaten legal action unless you know how to actually do so -- if you're bluffing, that might escalate this foolishness. I don't think there's anything wrong with telling your followers "so-and-so is impersonating me," if you think it's really necessary. But there's something to be said for giving her no attention for her trouble if it's not. Sending an artist 15 threatening messages and not even getting a mention on their page for your trouble has gotta be discouraging.

Basically, I think it depends on how much of an actual problem for you this person is in their thievery. If it's just obnoxious, then just report them. If it's actually a problem for your rep, then go ahead and let your followers know what's going on while you report them. That's all I would do.

[Niles]

Just remember that your followers will be able to tell the difference between you and a fake, all she can do is take recent material, she cannot contribute. So keep going and let her have a sulk and of course, report. Other than that, chin up

[shinepaw]

I know I can't, that's why I usually don't pay attention to these kind of people beside filling out a DMCA report. I don't want to give attention to art-thief, I never did, but when I get messages like these than it's an other thing :/

She reposted my comic all weekend, and I reported all, not giving a direct mention to her anywhere online, she doesn't deserve it. But she is so desperate, I just want her to stop finally, but she can make other accounts, like here and pretending to be her own friend and continue... I just want Instagram to finally delete all her accounts, maybe that'd solve some things...I've reported her several times, Insta blocked her actions, but it's not enough :/

[vonblinden22]

You should make a comic about this.
Seriously.

[eleoza]

damn, those messages are quite creepy too .-.
Sorry this is happening to you :< she probably likes your comic a little too much,you can partly see it as a 'compliment' that someone goes THIS far. But that doesn't take away the fact that this must be very frustrating. Like Niles said, your fans will always be able to tell the difference and support you I hope this gets resolved soon!

[thomassayle]

dont make the tutorial, and don't count on facebook saving you. You could start watermarking the heck out of your stuff for a while see how she reacts, but anyway don't give into her demands once she knows you'll cave once...then well you're screwed. Let me/us know how it goes

[shinepaw]

@thomassayle I won't do it, and it'd be pointless anyway, and all my work is already watermarked, or has a link to my sites, that's why I got a lot of message saying she impersonates me because she didn't remove my watermarks and links. She just went with it and claimed she is me :/

@Lucazu They sure are D: Yeah it looks like she likes my comics, but that much? Really? And I'm not worried she'll take away fans, but it's really annoying, specially when she thinks she'd do better with my comics than me...

[shinepaw]

I'm not sure about that o.o But first let's see how it ends.

[purrlpankras]

Well damn. I've never had this.
But if I did, I already have copy right to all my stuff. (creative commons does this) I highly suggest you do it if you haven't already.
Not really sure how instagram works, but you can report it to someone who works at instagram?
If nothing works, just let your followers know. They might become your own little army and help you with stuff like that. (I followed you btw)

Also if she's just a little brat, I'd just ignore all her messages.

[thomassayle]

ah good then, sounds like you know what you are doing goodluck

[KreativeConfusion]

Not gunna lie I had to read this, go drink of a cup of coffee and eat something then come back to re read to make sure this wasnt some half asleep hallucination. ...what? Thats a new one.

Just ignore them and silently report them. Its the best I can think of. Im sorry this is happening. Hopefully it stops soon!

[scythe]

I dunno. If this ever happened to me, I'd probably troll the living shit out of them. Seriously, as in, wrath of god, scorched earth shit. Biblical, ya hear.

[scythe]

No shame in punching down. Hard.

[PotooGryphon]

I agree with ignoring this person. I doubt, by how desperate her messages are, that she get a lot of attention online so whatever she might be able to re-post probably won't distract too much from your own post. Watermarks do help, you can even add your Instagram handle to further clear up only posts made by your handle is you.

I would send her one short response of I can see you like my comic but this isn't how you approach me, stop, before completely radio silencing her. Keep silently reporting her, and keep blocking/flagging all messages she sends.