This past week it was brought to my attention that someone out there in cybertopia is stealing my family. Not only that, but they are stealing my memories and pretending to live my life. Seriously. Who does that? I have reported this person to Blogger and I ask that if you see this happening you will let me know immediately.
I am going to be adding a watermark to my pictures from now on. I hate the thought of it. Honestly, its hard enough for me to get a simple blog post done each day and now I have to add one extra step. It really, really makes me not happy. Anyone have any suggestions on which software I should use? I've never even tried this before.
Also, if you ever send a donation please make the check out to the Go Lucy Go Foundation. Our address is P.O. Box 448, Covington, TN 38019. I will NEVER ask that money be sent to anyone else or to another address.
Thank you to everyone who has kept up with our family and who genuinely cares for all of us. I hope you all remain a part of our "family" for years to come. But sir/m'am, if you are reading, please stop. Please don't pretend to know what's its like to have your family torn apart after a devastating childhood disease. Please don't mock the heartaches that we have suffered through and the joys that we begged and pleaded for. I promise, you don't want my life.
I cannot believe that. That sucks so badly. As if you (or anyone) needs this ever.
ReplyDeleteOh that's just sick! I'm so sorry this has happened to you Kate. You have enough to deal with, you really don't need this. Praying this person stops.
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Kate, I can't even believe you are having to deal with this. How in the world can someone do this? Baffles me. I enjoy hearing your family's story and I hope this doesn't deter you from blogging. BTW I am a photographer and I use the watermark feature in Photoshop. You can search online and probably find a free site to add a watermark to images.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness - this is crazy. Why on earth would anyone want to steal anyone else's story? I hate that you are having to deal with this and hope that whoever is doing it will stop it.
ReplyDeleteOh Kate! I'm so sorry to hear this! I can't fathom why someone would do this...horrible!
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with people?? Everyday we read more stories about people doing such thoughtless and hurtful things to others--I am so sorry you have become part of this. Keep staying strong--we are all keeping you and your family in our thoughts...
ReplyDeleteYou can put the copyright alert settings on your pictures, I have that for my blog (disable right click) http://nxwiki.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-disable-right-click-in-blogger.html#.UPd29SdEGSo
ReplyDeleteI would recommend contacting this group, they search online cancer scams. http://warriorelihoax.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteSo sorry. What a shame that someone feels the need to get attention through a scam. Please do not let one scam deter you from blogging. We love to hear your sweet family's story and pray with you along the way.
ReplyDeleteDo not use Disqus. I installed their software to find an anonymous commenter who was leaving very rude, hurtful comments but Disqus tookover all my comments (5000+) and downloaded them to their program. I hated it and felt they suddenly 'owned' me. Also, when I was finally able to remove their program after great stress and messing around, all comments that had been left on my blog during the time it was installed disappeared, never to be seen again.
ReplyDeletePlease DO NOT install Disqus!!!
I've been reading your blog for quite some time, but rarely commented. I'm so sorry to hear someone has been stealing your family's pictures. I just wanted to add that I believe there is a way to disable people from copying pictures off a blogger page (where you right click and save?). I'm not sure how to do it, but it might be something to look into.
ReplyDeleteOh that's aweful. I cannot imagine why anyone would do such a thing. i am sorry and I hope this person is caught.
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrible person and pathetic!!! Hope this person gets a BIG DOSE OF JESUS and stops this because that's what's right. If not, I hope they get a BIG DOSE OF JESUS and He stops them for making a mockery of His work in the life of your family.
ReplyDeleteHi Kate,
ReplyDeleteI have used "no right click" before on a blog I used to have. This prevents people from being able to copy and paste your photos or content. It might help. If you do a google search on no right click, you will find many hits on how to do it and the code to use. It was very easy. Hope this helps. People really amaze me sometimes at the things they will do to one another!
Kate, I think this has to be about as low as this person could possibly get. I have read that happen to another person that blogs and she had to also do a watermark. These people/person really has to much time and no conscience at all. I also feel sort of sad for these people that hurt others because they can not feel that they can do something good for themselves. You have such a great family and are so sweet to take the time to keep us all updated on your family for all who truley care. I am very aware that blogs usually start out as a journal for ourselves and then so many who read it really care for our blog/world families that it hurts all when you have a person like this. You don't deserve to have this on your plate. So sorry for one more thing that this person thinks that you need to deal with. Good Luck!!
ReplyDeletehttp://dollarsandroses.com/how-to-watermark-your-photos-with-your-logo/
ReplyDeleteThis site has an awesome link as to how to watermark your pics :) super easy too!! That is so awful, some people will never cease to amaze me.
That is one reason why my blog is private to just certain readers though. I have no right clicking on my blog now too. Plus I put a copyright thing on my blog if I am posting pictures but since my blog is private now though it is not likely anyone will steal my pictures on there or anything I have on there.
ReplyDeleteAmy
All about the money probably. Greed. I watermarked for a while it does take time, I need to go back to doing it. I used dropbox, but not long after they wanted a fee, said it was full. I started using picasa, it was fairly easy. You don't usually post too many pictures so three or four will not take much time.
ReplyDeleteOh no, how terrible and strange! I have read articles about people assuming the identity of ill children and found it so sick and really hurtful to the real individuals who are truly battling childhood cancer. Greed and attention, I guess, is what they are looking for? The Warrior Eli Hoax group does uncover stolen identity and various Internet hoaxes. Maybe they can help you? Again, so sorry to hear! We follow your family and pray for sweet Lucy and genuinely support the cause of pediatric cancer. Go Lucy, Go!
ReplyDeletewow i honestly can not believe someone would do that. hopefully they will stop because its wrong but here lately its become very common. maybe i should start protecting my pictures as well
ReplyDeleteIt boggles my mind how pathetic people are. Kate, this makes me ill for you and your family. I know you don't take all your pics w/your phone, but there is a free app called iwatermark that you could use. Hope this helps.
ReplyDeleteWhat a heinous thing to do, as if you don't have enough stress in your life. I hope this doesn't stop you from sharing your life with us, think of you often. Take care.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry for you. I follow another blog where someone was stealing pictures and impersonating the family. Here are links to the blog where the REAL author describes ways to keep your blog safe from imposters, I hope this helps!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theurthmama.com/2010/01/things-i-learned-from-courtney-gate.html
and
http://www.theurthmama.com/2010/01/things-i-learned-from-courtney-gate_27.html
This is just infuriating. I'm so sorry you are having to endure this on top of everything else. I also hope this doesn't stop you sharing your sweet family with us. You all are such an inspiration and I think of you often. We've never even met! How cool is Jesus that through technology he has inspired so many people who have never even connected personally?
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a lot to take in---someone "faking" a situation is hard to understand! I am sorry you have to deal with this right now. I wanted to let you know, your honesty and your story and how you always lean on God really has inspired me, and I am keeping you all in my prayers! Go Lucy!!!!:) Especially praying the "fake" scenario is brought to light!!!
ReplyDeleteI saw this earlier this morning and wanted to come back and tell you that this same thing has been happening for a long time. Back in 2002, before "blogs" those of us that were adopting from China had Yahoo Groups and Group websites and I came across someone's "announcement" of their referral and I recognized the baby's referral picture! I immediately emailed the "real" mother-to-be as she was in our agency's referral group and that group of momma's came down HARD on that woman. Of course, she immediately pulled everything down and we never figured out who she was. We guessed that it was someone who perhaps wanted to adopt from China but for whatever reason, couldn't. You are extremely fortunate to have so many mamma's out there and watching your back. You have enough in your basket and shouldn't have to deal with someone like this. Ever since that happened back in 2002, I have been hyper aware...and though I don't know your family, I know your story...and if I ever see anything, you will be the first to know!
ReplyDelete:( So sorry.
ReplyDeleteWow, it's a sad world we live in when people do stuff like this.
ReplyDeleteAlthough disabling the right-click function will slow people down considerably, if they really want your pictures, they can simply use a screen-shot program to copy them, so I would recommend watermarking them. Here is a good article about it and copyright, which lists some watermarking programs: http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/watermarking-and-copyrighting-your-photographs.html#b You can use the excellent TinEye Reverse Image Search to see if your photos are being posted elsewhere on the Internet: http://www.tineye.com/
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry this has happened to you, although I have no problem believing it. I have seen people in chat rooms and forums create entire fake family groups, creating identities using photographs from other people's Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and any other photo sharing sites. Sometimes they alter the photos in small ways, which makes it a little harder to find them, but most times they just blatantly steal the original photos and post them. That is where TinEye can be really helpful.
Good luck with this, I hope the person stops using your information, and I hope that it doesn't cause you to stop sharing your and Lucy's story as it helps so many people.
Wow, I just cannot believe people sometimes. I hope this person takes down the posts/pictures they have taken and never do this again. That's just horrible. As far as the watermark goes, picmonkey.com is an easy site to add text like your blog adrs or something like that. You can also add a watermark stamp on top and just select the level of translucency.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that you posted on this topic today. I just watched a news program on this last Friday and was appalled that this sort of identity theft exists. It truly is sad that someone doesn't feel that their life is complicated enough so they must borrow someone else's problems. On a positive note, I am quite impressed by the number of solutions that people have posted. I'm going to make another suggestion. As a former network administrator, file security was something that I took very seriously and worked daily to achieve. While removing the right-click option is definitely some I would recommend, I would also still include the copyright and the watermark on photos. It's a couple of extra steps but even with the right-click option removed, it's easy to just do a Print Screen, then crop to the size of the photo and save it as a .jpeg image. Then it's just a matter of uploading the stolen photo to their blog. Unfortunately, if someone wants to steal your photos, they will figure out a way, but I sure wouldn't make it easy for them. I'm so sorry that this is happening to your precious family. I can't imagine how violated you must feel. I love reading your blog and I will continue to pray for your family. I will also pray for the poor soul who thinks it's ok to steal memories from someone else. May God have pity on your soul. Go Lucy Go!! You rock girl!!
ReplyDeleteOh, Kate. So sorry, girl. We see this quite often I the heart defect world. So sad and pathetic. Some people are just desperate. Others just don't care. God forbid they have to walk in 'real' childhood illness shoes. I'm looking into the right click and watermark stuff today!
ReplyDeleteLisa Schaffer
Http://lisaschaffer.blogspot.com
*IN the heart defect world. I hate typing on this tablet.
DeleteThat is terrible! They should be ashamed! Please know that there are a lot of us out here that continue to pray for your sweet girl and all of your family!
ReplyDeleteSo sad & I hope they are ashamed of their selves. Karma will come back around and get them, but it still doesn't make it any more easy feeling on you & your family. A sense of violation is probably something I'd feel. We are still praying for you & your family and you guys are in our thoughts so very often!! You have a beautiful family that has proven to be so very strong! Big hugs to you!
ReplyDeletehttp://fernavenueblog.blogspot.com/
I read about this happening to a friend of Hope F's, and I was really hoping it wasn't you, but I had a feeling it was. (Not that it would be any less terrible for anyone else, though). I have seen this happen a few times, with children I've been following, and I just can't fathom what would give a person the idea to do such a thing. I wish I had a suggestion for software for you, I'm just not that savy. Still praying for Lucy, and the rest of you.
ReplyDeleteOh girl, that sucks. I can't believe how people can have the guts to do such a thing.
ReplyDeleteIf you do watermark, but the watermark NOT in the bottom or top of the photo, but close to the center of it, otherwise it will be too easy to just crop the picture to remove the watermark.
Also, no-right-click is quite useless because it's way too easy to go around it and people will be able to steal your pictures anyway. Plus it's really frustrating if someone wants to open any of your other links in another tab.
It sounds like you managed to find out who it was at least - which is a good thing. Some people should just disappear from the internet because they obviously have no idea how to use it decently.
I'm sorry you are having to go through this. Unfortunately, this happens far too often. Here is a website devoted to exactly this type of fraud. They may be able to help you. http://warriorelihoax.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteThis happened to a dear friend who had adopted a child. They used her child's picture to raise money telling everyone they had adopted her. They would search for images on google.com and bing.com for "african children" or "african american girl in red dress" specific to photos they knew they had posted. Finally they found them on the blog of the person that had stolen them. The person was arrested.
ReplyDeleteSorry that this has happened to you and your family. I really enjoy keeping up with how Lucy is doing and how the other kids are doing. I hope you don't have to stop your blog because of all this.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry this has happened to you! You can use picmonkey.com to watermark your photos. That is what I use and it is really really simple. I can walk you through the easy steps if you want to email me back. :) How did you find out about your pictures?
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! I don't have any solutions for you, but I truly hope that somehow the person who's doing this can be found and dealt with appropriately.
ReplyDeletePeople are absolutely insane! I am so sorry you have to go through this!
ReplyDeleteThere are no words to describe how horrible this is! We have friends in common which is how I started following your blog - your thoughts and insights have made me a stronger person - I am so sorry an evil person took advantage of your honesty and openness. I pray for you and all of your family daily!
ReplyDeleteOh my. I am so sorry that someone would think to do this? Really who does this?? I pray for the soul of the individual whom would do this to a family that has already been thru so much. May God convict their heart to realize just what they are doing. Praying for your family as always.
ReplyDeleteI have never posted a comment before, but this is just awful! I did just recently find out that you can perform a google image search. If you go to google and click on images, in the search bar you can upload a picture of your family or yourself and hit search. It will search the internet, and show you everywhere it has been uploaded (i.e., facebook, instagram, or if someone has used it without your permission). This may help you in the future.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. That has to be the most dishonest thing I've ever heard. Someone steals your photos and identity and pretends to be you.....for money?? I am so sorry this has / is happening to you. I have felt that being able to read your blog and follow your story, as well as pray for Lucy and you family, is nothing but a privilege. You are open, honest and trusting when you share your heart and emotions with all of us. We've witnessed a miracle through this blog by being able to see JESUS work in Lucy's life. I have been reading and commenting and praying for all of you for awhile now. I can't imagine how horrible and invasive this feels to you. I really am sorry and in shock about this. UGH!
ReplyDeleteSo sad! :( Sorry to hear!
ReplyDeleteKate, I am so so sorry you had to write your post today. My heart hurts for you. My heart also hurts for whoever is doing this to you and your beautiful family. I just can't begin to imagine what would drive someone to do something so horrid. I will pray that they wake up to themselves and learn the difference between wrong and right. God Bless you all.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry there are people in the world that would do that. I love your blog and read it daily.
ReplyDeleteThis just makes me sad. To know there are people in this world who do things like this is so disturbing. I'm sorry you have to deal with somrthing like this and hope it doesn't deter you from sharing Lucys progress with us in the future. I find your blog truely inspiring. God bless.
ReplyDeleteThis just breaks my heart. I'm so sorry y'all have been violated like this. Praying this does not hinder the outreach you have built thru your blog and also praying for conviction to whomever has done this. That they will be led to stop this horrible, unkind act. God has used you and precious Lucy to touch so many people's hearts thru your blog. It really is a shame this has happened. :(
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear this. frommrstomama.com has watermarks on her pictures. She might be a resource for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry. Praying this person changes their heart, and deletes what they've stolen. <3
ReplyDeleteHow awful! So sorry you have to go through this :( prayers for you & yours!
ReplyDeleteAmazing--this is one more indicator of the depravity of humankind. Come Lord Jesus.
ReplyDeleteHi Kate I can't read the other comments so I don't know if this is repeatious. I used Picasso but I have seen many photo programs and if they have text capability they will have watermarks. Not hard but yes one more step. Sounds like someone is solicitating donations by stealing your info. I hate that. You have been so open and loving. We will keep your family in prayer even thru this.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry this is happening to you. I can't imagine how maddening this must be.
ReplyDeleteWhat is wrong with people?! Sad.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I read this Kate & tears came to my eyes....NOT b/c I'm sad but b/c I'm so ANGRY!!! WTH?!?!? You're right!!! WHAT LOSER DOES SUCH A THING!??! You & your family have been through so much drama....who would want to even pretend to go through that kind of PROFOUND HURT & SUFFERING!!!! Last yr a friend of mine receieved an e-mail from England. She was told a sex offender had a picture of her BABY who passed away at the age of 17 months old. PEOPLE CAN BE SICK!!!! I hope they find the person. I'm so sorry Kate. You and your family are so sweet & innocent....how can ANYONE want to hurt you is totally beyound me and too be honest....IT MAKES ME SICK!!!! Sending you hugs and support!!! God Bless You Sweetie!!! xo
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteI know this won't make it better at all but please know that this is a (sadly) very common occurrence. Especially to families like yours that have a serious illness or something catastrophic happen. I can't say why or explain it and it's far from all right, but maybe there's some solace in knowing you aren't the only one who's been targeted? Specifically, there's another family who's blog I follow that have a beautiful little boy who's been fighting his own cancer battle - and some time last year I remember checking in with that blog and finding pretty much the exact same post. Someone had taken all of her photos and passed them off, etc. etc.. She has tried to solve it the same way you mentioned, she now watermarks all of her photos. Which, by the way, will become fairly simple once you get used to it. It's just the way of the world these days I guess. I'm a photographer but I still don't watermark my photos even tho I know they're being stolen. Just can't find the energy to care - but mine are not of my family and we have not been thru the same hell you've been through.
So again, please know I find this absolutely awful and I'm not condoning it in any way, I just wanted to let you know that it's an epidemic. I love following your family and think about you all all the time - so please don't let this garbage keep you from sharing. I'm sure you have lots of us out here who are genuinely invested in Lucy and your family and would be just heartbroken to no longer be able to keep up with what's going on. You are such an amazing mother and person. Always an inspiration. Lots of love from Las Vegas!
Kate, I am so very sorry that you now have endure another devastating event in your life. The world has turned so evil to prey on ill children and thier families. With God, this too shall pass. I cry much more readily now than I use to but this breaks my heart. I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteIronically I saw where this happened to another blogger (The Klonopin Chronicals on Facebook). You may want to contact her to see what all she did to combat such an idiot. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI have a blog on blogspot and just followed these instructions - it works - no one can right click and copy photos from my blog now.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beinggeeks.com/2009/02/how-to-disable-right-click-in-blogger-blogspot.html
Hope this helps. It was very easy to do, and free!
Contact http://warriorelihoax.com/
ReplyDelete