Warning about scam sites selling stolen knitting patterns from independent designers

[PatternsStolen]

Morning everyone, I'm a knitting pattern designer and I am active on MN but under a different name as I like to keep my general waffle away from my design work - so I've changed name to complain about this.

I discovered some of my knitting patterns had been purchased from Etsy and put on a scam site. They've changed the title of the pattern and AI'd the photos but the ultimate PDF they sell is my original pattern.

I just wanted to warn fellow pattern buyers to not trust these sites that advertise on social media and you click links to take you through to bogus sites. They are selling independent designers work. It is so frustrating!

I see these sites come up on my own feed and they name change every so often to keep one step ahead, but they are digital pirates!!

A lot of patterns stealing is happening. I'm noticing every sponsored advert on Facebook is full of stolen patterns and Facebook do nothing about it when you report them

So sorry, it's crap isn't it? and sadly it's rife. Several of my favourite pattern designers have been victim to this.

Make sure you watermark all your photos and patterns and let all your followers know to spread the word.

I'm not a knitter but that's diabolical and hope you can find a way to stop it.

Brilliant idea to watermark photos.
I've seen Facebook sites promoting designs I recognise from ravelry.com with no mention of designer name. Bloody cheek. It takes so much effort to create these patterns

Thank you everyone for your kind words - plus I am going through my pictures and watermarking them all, great advice.

I'm so sorry this happend to you. It seems to be unfortunatly common. Last year a woman who made a mushroom amigurumi pattern had hers stolen too 😞

I remember when a failed magazine proprietor launched a new company and a bookazine full of stolen patterns. This was about 15 years ago. AI has just made it even easier :/

I think most knitters do pride themselves in buying genuine patterns so hopefully your stolen ones won't be sold on to many people. I have stopped posting photos of my FO's on FB/Instagram though as I end up inundated with 'can you share the pattern' requests it drives me nuts and people don't like my suggestion of buying their own copy 🙄.

Do you sell on Ravelry as I wouldn't trust Etsy and wouldn't buy patterns from there?

I sell on both Ravelry and Etsy. The scammer bought 4 of mine in one go off Etsy and placed them on 2 notorious sites within 48 hours.

A couple of years ago I bought a pattern off Etsy with a Santa motif on the front and they was selling it cheap - only £1.99 which considering the Etsy fees is cheap. Alarm bells should've rang but I wasn't as aware of AI back then. It was only when I started knitting I noticed the picture did not match the pattern. It was so confusing, but even more confusing, all their feedback for this pattern was positive and knitted up beautifully!!

I'm wiser now and can see these are fake reviews and they are stolen patterns. This one looked like a Sirdar written pattern.

I'm weighing up whether to come off Etsy.

Etsy is absolutely swamped with AI patterns in all crafts. It's become a junk platform.