Fraud Alert

The ONLY authorized seller of Stonekettle Station Merchandise is ME via my Etsy Store.

There are two exceptions to this:

1. Rich Fizzell at Prairie Art Metal (on Etsy), who is authorized to sell certain products using my logo and designs.

2. Shawn Riley at Rounds By Riley (also on Etsy) who is my business partner and the guy who does the lion's share of our pen manufacturing).

The following screenshots are fraudulent products:

These sites and manufacturers are not authorized to sell products with my intellectual property, likeness, or logos.

This is blatant theft of my intellectual property.

I'm in the process of trying to get these sites taken down, but they are foreign based somewhere in Indonesia and it's a slow and cumbersome process. Some of the sites have California based contact information. That's a front, working through fake email addresses, proxies, and rerouted phone numbers.

The attached screenshots are only a few of the sites I've managed to run down, there are likely more (and if you come across one, please let me know). It's all the same outfit, despite the various fronts, operating via anonymous PayPal accounts and using various falsified social media profiles to target my audience. So far, they are operating mostly on Twitter, but I do see accounts active on Facebook and elsewhere (and if you think social media sites like Twitter and PayPal are at all helpful in policing this kind of crime on their platforms, I've got a T-shirt to sell you). They have also attempted to hack my various accounts, but since I use 2-factor authentication on every site, they have so far been unable to do so. It also appears that when I reported these various sites to Twitter last night, the operators of the sites began reporting me in an attempt to get my Twitter account suspended. I'm not sure, but they may have attempted to do this to my Facebook account as well. As of this morning, the fraudulent accounts are still active and Twitter has, unsurprisingly, taken no action.

Repeat, this con is SPECIFICALLY TARGETING MY AUDIENCE.

If you get a message or see a post purporting to be me advertising this stuff for sale, it's not me. You are being targeted by thieves using my image and brand.

This is a fraud.

It's not cute or funny or flattering or fair use. It's theft. It's a crime. These people are stealing from me (and from thousands of other businesses and artists).

If you attempt to buy from this outfit, you may or may not actually receive a product, and that product will be significantly inferior to what I sell, with a poorly printed copy of my material. I can't stop you from doing it, but if I see you on the street wearing knockoff Stonekettle apparel, you and I are going have some words.

Snark aside, moreover and more importantly, in order to save yourself a (very) few bucks, you will have given a foreign criminal enterprise your personal information and PayPal/Credit Card information. You might want to think about that before you buy this stuff.

If you want to support me, then buy ONLY from my store. This one: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Stonekettle.

If you see pirated versions of my products or what you think might be unauthorized reproductions of my my written material, I always appreciate a heads up. Please given me a link and as much info on the miscreant as you can and I'll take it from there.

Thank you.