News

News has circulated all week of a Russian-based website (WallPart.com) stealing images from unsuspecting underwater photographers and selling them as posters. But what you may not know is that it’s all just a tactic to capture enraged photogs in a phishing snare.

Photographers whose images have appeared in the site's "Poster Shop" after being lifted from Google Images, quickly become upset and run to fill out a contact form to demand reparations for this felonious copyright infringement. Unfortunately, according to website Fstoppers.com, this is the main goal.

“The contact form is a phishing platform that is used to spam the user and potentially infect their computer with malware and who knows what other nasty adware and spyware,” writes Fstopper’s Patrick Hall.

Ironically, it seems that the ecommerce part of the site – actually selling your images – doesn’t work and the entirety of its existence is to scam distraught photographers. So, whatever you do—don’t fill out their contact form or copyright violation form. Instead, take action by signing a petition on Change.org to have the site shut down for good.