(Submitted)A month and a half later, Ralph received a notification that his chair had arrived in the community mailbox of his suburban neighbourhood. Hadland's group looks at patterns in online ads to reveal networks of sellers who "scrape" artwork, images and ad copy from legitimate businesses, then manufacture miniature or counterfeit versions at little cost. Revenant and his partner make zombie-themed "horror gnomes" that they sell mainly on Etsy, but last month noticed their creations and accompanying copy popping up in dozens of bogus online ads. Revenant FX discovered dozens of online ads for its hand-painted 'horror gnomes,' using its photos. (Submitted by Casper Revenant)They've also watched helplessly as a steady stream of customers complain online about the tiny, poor-quality counterfeits.

Source: CBC News June 02, 2021 08:00 UTC