While I can certainly sympathize with your anger and subscribe to aggressively fighting the letters, I do not subscribe to your sweeping statement of just "ignore, ignore, ignore". The problem with your advice is that IF your case did escalate, you would not look good in either a court of law or court of public opinion.
So, it isn't "just Oscar" that is saying it. And he isn't just saying it because he wants to help Masterfile make money or line his own pockets. I am saying it also as a letter recipient myself. I take great peace in knowing I did respond and explaining my situation. I was also aggressive. Whatever they can say, they cannot say I ignored the situation or them. Oftentimes, ignoring problems inflames it more
Regarding HELPI, he may have stepped on a few toes along the way but I have no reason to believe that works for any of the stock photo companies. He seems to be someone who is interested in the subject matter. So, I wouldn't be overly paranoid about it.
It is certainly possible that the stock photo company employees could be secretly posting as "normal users" but I think that would be foolhardy. If they ever got caught, it would be very embarrassing for them. Look what happened to John MacDougall when he decided to have attorney Steven Weinberg send Oscar and I a "warning letter" on his behalf. Basically, John made a fool of himself by accusing one of our participants of defaming his name because of a copy of schoolyard name-calling. The offending statements were deleted but the outcome was he became a laughing stock for being an executive of MF who everyone agreed had thin skin and seemed to have his feelings hurt.
Essentially, he admitted to reading our forums AND how someone managed to offend/upset him. Steven Weinberg, while being respectful, didn't do himself any favors publicly but sticking his nose out further by arguing it could be construed as being defamatory if we led others to believe the letter was sent out simply because of hurt feelings. I put out that disclaimer for everyone to see.
Nevertheless, the net result is people snickering to themselves over the spectacle of it all. Long story short, any employees that would secretly post here would be terribly embarrassed if found out. So I don't think that is the case here.
Matthew
Katerina, thank you for your response. I hope that you are not getting paranoid about Masterfile and their threats.
Here is what I did:
Print all emails, letters, evidence of their extortions etc. and put them into a folder, then put that folder away and forget about it. Here is the strategy:
You get a letter from Masterfile --> delete images; ignore all payment requests
you get any more letters form Masterfile --> ignore
you get a letter/email from collection agency --> ignore
you get a call from collection agency --> get an answering machine and ignore
Ignore, ignore, ignore. never pay.
I have beter things to worry about than some croocks sending me some treats and responding to that crap. Masterfile sends 7000 letters per year! Remeber that. If you calculate the probablity of getting sued it will be similar to getting audited by the IRS or less.
Yes there are naive and paranoid people that pay them. That pays for their food to sit and send more letters. It also looks like their days are numbered. There have been several lawsuits lost by some of these crooks recently. They should now be more afraid to go after small people. Judges are about to start throwing this out of court. The climate is changing for this abuse.
The key is not getting paranoid and ignore, ignore and never pay. Some of the people here such as Helpi may even work for Masterfile or Getty and come here to scare people. Just ignore them. Oscar will tell you otherwise, but think about this. Most people ignore and never pay.
Ignore Masterfile. They will move on to the next paranoid victim. Just stop reading their letters and it will no longer affect you.
Ignore, ignore, ignore, never pay! LOL
Topic: Ken MacDonald of Masterfile trying to extort $4000 for a small image. BIG SCAM! (Read 5766 times)