a follow up from him: note the very funny comment at the end (that he googled my ebay ID which is rjsandiego and something about right and wrong...I had to google myself to see what he was talking about, LOL...what he saw was a link to a gay.com site...of course it's a 38 year old gay man with some hot looking abs, I had to inform him that I'm not a 38 year old gay man, but a 43 year old married woman, who would give anything for abs that looked like that ; ) here's his response: (oh and btw..I was never HOSTILE, not sure where that came from) this will be my last email to you as you are not choosing to discuss this without becoming hostile. Why don't I post that I am a charitable giver? because unless I use ebay's charity works program, then it is against ebay policy to state that I raising money for a charity. Why don't I used ebay's charity works? Because it makes you do a flat % with 10% being the minimum. I make $15 when I sell a greenhouse (NOTE HIS COMMENT EARLIER ABOUT NOT MAKING ONE SINGLE CENT). If I used their charity works program, I would be required to give $80. Not sure how that would work when my profit is only $15. Why don't I make reference to the GW site or provide a link? Once again, this is against ebay policy to provide links or direct ebay users to a 3rd party site. Again, as I stated before, if anyone had an issue with me using their publicly posted picture, then I immediately removed it without even asking them to verify ownership. this is just my opinion. *****Just like by doing a simple google search of your ebay ID helps me understand that we have differing opinions on what is right and wrong***** i am not out to judge and either should you.

As a web designer who specializes in horticultural websites, I have experience with this situation! This is a big issue with web designers. Images are very easy for thieves to find. All they have to do is search Google Images. It helps if you don't put the name of the plant near the picture because then the Google Image spider doesn't know its name. But a plant without a name? Very unlikely. You can complain to the company that hosts the offender's website and they should insist that the stolen image(s) be removed or they will cancel their hosting. I can't imagine that working very often. E-Bay has a host of workers who are working to keep up the reputation of E-Bay. So by all means complain to them!!!! Printing your name on the image would help, as it takes some effort to remove it. I use a "no right click" script on every webpage. It means that people cannot simply right click and save the image. However this only works for websites. I have noticed that there is at least one image hosting website that does not allow right clicks. At this moment I cannot think which one it is, but do a Google search for "image hosting" or "photo albums" and test for yourself. I am not sure, but I am under the impression that the "no right click" script stops the Google Image spider for grabbing the image for its index. Since I have set up pages with this script I no longer see the pics in Google Images. One of the reasons I stopped blogging is because there is no way to protect my images. An image-laden website that I do a lot of work for has had numerous images stolen before I put the "no right click" script in place. Since then none of the new images have been stolen. The worst thing about having images stolen is that if the viewer sees an image on two commercial sites, then how are they supposed to be able to determine who the thief is and who took the original? So both sites can potentially look bad. It would also be worth it for many of us to contact this forum and ask if images can be protected when placed on the forums here.

Sorry - I meant to post this in the Kitchen Table forum.

I was going to say what Mona said - tell her to be careful of the emails she receives that say they are from ebay - if she is going to get mail from ebay it will show on her ebay account in her messages as WELL as in her email. I wouldn't set up an ebay acct myself these days without Paypal, too much hassle without and too much time wasted waiting for cheques/money orders to arrive in the mail. I too have been ebaying for years and haven't had an issue with my bank acct or my credit card registered there - just have to pay attention to what's being billed and contact ebay right away if something odd shows up. I have received over the years probably 10 emails that say so and so has bid on your item such and such, where no item exists that I have listed. I have received over the years probably at least 10 fake emails saying please click here to update your ebay information. I always send the email (just forward it) to ebay first, they let me know if it's them or not. If it isn't them, they use their resources to track the sender. Another good ebay defense is to change your password regularly and make it tricky - I change mine about once a month and always use letters and numbers so it's harder for the hackers...never had a problem there either. The only problem I've ever had with scammers in my life was way back when we had dial up internet someone scammed my phone number off my modem, and made an $800 phone call to Africa - but the phone company was well aware of that scam and I didn't have to pay for it. Country, if your friend needs help that someone else can't answer about ebay, feel free to tell her she can contact me - i've sold hundreds of items all over the world (and bought a good number as well) - happy to help if she needs it. Suzan J