Blogger Claims Company Swiped Her Weight-Loss Photos

cupcakes_and_cardio

Hi all. I thought some of you would be interested in reading this. I found it to be very helpful for if I ever post any "before" and "after" photos - I know I'll be on the look-out for sure! Scammers! Here's the link:

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/blogger-8217-8216-8217-photos-stolen-weight-loss-164400138.html



Wouldn't it be incredible if "fat melted off like butter" without diet or exercise? And all it took was just popping a natural daily supplement or two? Unfortunately, that's not how it works, as blogger Roni Noone knows very well. It took her 12 months to drop 70 pounds and, as she writes on her blog chronicling her weight loss and her effort to get off the yo-yo dieting cycle, "It was frickin' hard and sometimes I was HUNGRY but I kept at it."

Related: Company Recalls Weight-Loss Supplements

So Noone says she was surprised to spot her actual before and after photographs that she had posted on her blog — taken exactly one year apart — being used as a Facebook ad for supplements called "Garcinia Cambogia XT" and "Natural Cleanse Plus," which claimed that the pictures were taken over the course of just 30 days and that "New York blogger Jess" had lost nearly 30 pounds over five weeks while taking both pills.

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The ad, which is designed to look like an article in a women's magazine, even includes fake quotes attributed to Noone. The copy reads: "In the story on her blog she states, 'I couldn't believe how easy it was. I didn't change my diet or my daily routine, but the fat melted off like it [sic] butter. I love this stuff. Finally a diet that just works!" The website says it will send you a free sample of the supplements — but only after you provide your name, address, phone number, email, and credit card information.

"These companies have no shame," Noone told Yahoo! Shine. "They swipe a photo and claim that the person used their pill or device." As a full-time blogger who has been writing about weight loss and health-related issues for eight years, she's accustomed to sending out copyright violation notices. She contacted the company, which runs multiple websites that appear to be women's health and fitness magazines, through a Facebook fan page. While she received no response, she said she noticed the photo was taken down — and quickly replaced by similar before and after shots from another popular blogger, who has also written about her own weight-loss journey. The name and photos were changed, but otherwise, the copy and format remained exactly the same.

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As of Wednesday morning, Noone's photo is back up on one of the websites. A representative of the company selling the product did not respond to Yahoo! Shine's request for a comment. (And that's putting it mildly. In fact, the person who answered hung up on this reporter's phone call.)

Garcina cambogia extract is derived from a plant called Malabar tamarind or bridleberry, and is used for medicinal purposes in Indonesia. While it has been touted by Dr. Oz as an effective supplement, the National Cancer Institute reports that study results are mixed and that there is no conclusive evidence of its safety for human consumption.

Noone said that she hopes her story will make people more skeptical about using "miracle" weight-loss products. "Not only are people being duped by the photos, but they are taking a supplement with who knows what ingredients."

PunkinSpice79

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

ALittlePixieDust

Wow..that's crazy!

Crochetluvr

While (a plant called Malabar tamarind or bridleberry) has been touted by** Dr. Oz **as an effective supplement, the National Cancer Institute reports that study results are mixed and that there is no conclusive evidence of its safety for human consumption.

Why am I NOT surprised??

RedheadedSlattern

This isn't news for me unfortunately. It's really sad and actually really disgusting. A lot of ladies (and gents) on tumblr have had their photos swiped, including a lot of youtube personalities (lauramustloseweight) etc, some people have even claimed that they've gone as far as to photoshop visible watermarks, so no picture is entirely safe it seems. Herbalife seem to be the worst for it from what I've heard...

PriceK01

I have had my photo stolen and used for a banner ad once. Not a weight loss product, but a "meet nice girls here" type thing. Very upsetting, considering in was married at the time. A simple "cease and desist" letter took care of it, luckily.

Pixi_Rex

Roni actually posted the real way she lost her 70 pounds on her blog

http://ronisweigh.com/2013/08/how-i-lost-70-pounds-in-30-days.html

Unfortunately this happens all to , it is how they get people with their lose so many pounds in so many day schemes.

lexoxoc

OMG I remember this success story! It doesn't surprise me that a company would take these pictures and false advertise. Alas, anything we put on the internet is no longer "ours" it's out in the universe for anyone to use.

cupcakes_and_cardio

I have had my photo stolen and used for a banner ad once. Not a weight loss product, but a "meet nice girls here" type thing. Very upsetting, considering in was married at the time. A simple "cease and desist" letter took care of it, luckily.

And unfortunately it still happens because there's no actual consequences to the people/companies doing this; a letter that can be thrown right away is not a consequence IMO. I'm sorry this happened to you.

cupcakes_and_cardio

Roni actually posted the real way she lost her 70 pounds on her blog

http://ronisweigh.com/2013/08/how-i-lost-70-pounds-in-30-days.html

Unfortunately this happens all to , it is how they get people with their lose so many pounds in so many day schemes.

Thanks for sharing the link

norahwynn

unbelievable! thanks for sharing...

smantha32

Sometimes they need a cease communication from an attorney.

zanyzana

Silly, irrelevant comment, but her surname is Noone. (no one). Just wanted to point it out because I'm mature like that.

theseus82

I would be so pissed if my likeness were used to hawk some magic bullet (read: dangerous and reckless) pill on banner ads all over the Internet!

Not surprised that sleazy companies are doing this, but it makes you worry about posting your progress pics for the weightloss community in general. I have a freewebs site I set up years ago for my progress pics, but I would feel violated if this happened to me personally.

What an outrage!

therealaubrey

I don't know if this is showing up for anyone else, but the supplement you'er talking about in quotes (Gxxx Cxxxx) now has an advertisement to the right of this thread. Sad and Scary!

itsjustdawn

I have a friend who lost her weight with a few rounds of P90X (almost 100lbs I think) and going vegan... BBV people keep taking it and posting it as BBV success. My advice to any of you who have amazing before/after photos - Add text to them. You worked hard to achieve the new body - own it.

FitterTerri

Wow. I've always thought the photos were just photoshopped. Can't believe they have the audacity to do that!

Rurouni_Kou

People are smarmy! But I would expect nothing less from people hawking fake and illegal weightloss bull**** anyhow.

For those who are interested, here's how to watermark your images (I'm using photoshop CS2). It doesn't always keep people from swiping them but it makes it much much harder, and the harder it is the less likely someone will swipe them when you don't want them used. Especially with this method, since the watermark isn't even, it makes it harder to remove.

Here's the resulting image (Image credit: freeimages.co.uk) :


Steps:
- Take your image into photoshop. Create a new text layer that says something like "Image copyright (c) FirstName LastName, Month Day, year." You can also add your website info or whatever.
- Make your text black or white, whatever shows up best.
- Click your text layer in your layers box. At the top left corner of the layers box is a drop down box with multiple options and is probably set to "normal" by default. Change it to "multiply".
- In the layers box right next to the drop down box with multiply in it, is an opacity setting. lower the opacity down to where the watermark is not so obtrusive. You're trying to make the watermark as unobtrusive as possible, while still showing your info and "marring" the image so that sleezy companies like this don't want to take the time to try and shop it out and use it for their ads. Use your judgement. For the above image I had it set to 60% opacity so it'd show up much clearer for this tutorial.
- In the layer box, right click your text layer and select "Blending Options". Under blending options click "Bevel and emboss" and "contour". Play with the settings till you're happy with the result.

Note: You may have to change your text color from black to white or vice versa once you change it to multiply to get it to show up, or sometimes it won't show up until you add your blending options. Also, if you like the watermark it gives by just setting your text to multiply, you don't need to add blending options and you can leave off the contour option if you like bevel and emboss by itself. I just add it because it think it makes it look sharper. Personal preference, do what you think looks good. I prefer bevel and embossing instead of just flat multiplying because it makes it harder to photoshop out the watermark.

That's it, it's easy. Just create text, set to multiply, tone down opacity and add blending options. Takes all of a minute once you know how and makes your images a little harder to swipe.

Edited for image size

luminajd

I LOVE Roni! Her blog at http://ronisweigh.com/ is great and she is a member on here!
Good Morning America is likely going to air a bit on her at 8am 8/22

ALW65

I'm glad you shared this for people who don't realize this and then think less of their own weight loss/healthy lifestyle changes.

This is so wrong, unacceptable, and totally rude. On the bright side, how cool is it that you look so amazing people want to steal pictures of you!

lacroyx

This isn't news for me unfortunately. It's really sad and actually really disgusting. A lot of ladies (and gents) on tumblr have had their photos swiped, including a lot of youtube personalities (lauramustloseweight) etc, some people have even claimed that they've gone as far as to photoshop visible watermarks, so no picture is entirely safe it seems. Herbalife seem to be the worst for it from what I've heard...

Happened to me a while back. I found a picture of mine I uploaded on before and after weight loss tumblr site. The face pic was taken and being advertised in a diet pill weight loss website. It had a review, fake name, the whole nine yards. I called and complained to the website, I was ignored. I contacted my state's attorney general via e-mail and hole lee sheet did they all of a sudden listened and took it down. I found it a day later on another website. Same people with contact info. I forwarded the link via the same email again to my state's attorney general and it got taken down again. I been checking every month now just to see where it'll pop up again. I will have to look into embedding water marks into my pictures now. Thankfully the few pics I have floating around here on MFP haven't shown up on any of these diet pill websites yet.

RoniNoone

Thanks for sharing the article! I'm Roni.

I can't believe how much this has resonated with people. It's happen to be many times but never at the scale of this last time. I pissed it they stole them but happy to expose that things like this happens ALL the time.

ttiiggzz

Not that I would've believed their claims without the swiped pics, but this makes the company's claims even more dubious!

Thanks for sharing the link!

Just_Wil

I've had one of my success/transformation videos ripped off of youtube and copied to another channel for views/ad imprints. I sent a copyright violation report to youtube about it and it came down.

My0WNinspiration

This is no surprise

annamc18

haha - while reading your post, an ad for that very same 'weight loss' pill was on the side bar - just without a before/after picture lol