WARNING!!!

Hello there!

The title of my post is indicative of something that happened to me this week. Last week, I warned on reading ingredients lists and labels BEFORE buying a product. This week, I want to warn you to be cautious on where you buy products from - especially online. The internet has been a great tool for the world, especially in bringing businesses to customers and spreading awareness of brands. Being online has certainly helped African Naturalistas spread the word about having beautiful natural African hair. People can't say that it's only African Americans that have nice natural hair - we have been at the forefront of those pushing our great African hair.

The downside of the internet though is that disreputable people and companies can use it to their advantage. If you're going to buy anything online, use caution. During this week, I found out that my photos were stolen used on a hair company's Facebook page. This was done without my permission and I didn't even know my photos had been lifted from my Instagram page. I was alerted by a blog reader and my husband's friend, after which I contacted the owner of the page and told them to take my photos down.



They did so, but I thought to check their website and saw photos of other hair bloggers, whose names I unfortunately don't remember. The funny thing is that the website had a disclaimer that all photos were owned by them, and that anyone who took them without written permission would face maximum penalties and fines according to law.

This experience alerted me to the fact that if you don't know much about a company, you might believe anything they tell you. Someone was actually about to buy this product because she saw my photos and thought it was legitimate.

Of course, it can be hard when a new business is starting out - not having photos to showcase your products or services - but this doesn't give them a right to steal someone else's photos.

The point of this post is to tell you to be wise online when buying products. If you check out the African Naturalistas store, you will see reviews made by customers. And of course, you can always Google reviews.

Berry Dakara.

6 comments

  1. Thanks for the reminder Berry...also makes me want to get serious about watermarking. I've become so lazy with that of late.

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  2. I think a lot of people become creative when it comes to stealing other peoples hard work and ideas.

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  3. They were even bold enough to put that disclaimer after taking other people's pictures without their permission.

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  4. Wow. They need to be stopped. I understand it's hard for new companies but you cannot build your business on theft. If they're bold enough to do this, they should be bold enough to face a campaign against their activities. Company name please?

    ReplyDelete

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