The Tale of Teresa Part 3 : Back again!
If you have not caught up to the story yet here is Part One and Part Two.
I would also like to thank the Anonymous people and one person in particular that contributed their time and effort to the timeline, and the sourcing of the names of all of the photographers she has ripped off. I could not have done all of this on my own!
The news and depth of Teresa’s theft originally broke here on StopStealingPhotos.com, a blog dedicated to documenting and outing people who steal photos and claim them as theirs.
On my last blog about Teresa, I predicted that this might not be the end to the story.
Well it’s most definitely not!
Teresa came back doing the SAME EXACT THING that she did last time, on her favored social networking platform: Instagram. Her modus operandi: Steal gorgeous photos from various, incredibly talented photographers, mix a couple of hers in here and there, claim them all as her own…. and then (gobsmackingly enough) tag people that were REALLY involved with the stolen photos, such as the make-up artist, or the model.
Oh, and she also claimed to have designed a couple of the clothing articles that some of the models she most certainly did not photograph were wearing. At least we didn’t find any plagiarism this time!
Unlike the last time this happened, Teresa deleted the IG account rather fast, as opposed to the mess of “sock puppets" and excuses, renaming the accounts, etc……. and of course, keeping good, concerned individuals up all night to get the cops out to her house because she was faking suicide threats!
Perhaps because she had taken it to the furthest extremes last time, she knew that attempting to pull crap like that was simply not going to work, and it was better to just delete it?
Another question too….. “did FIT ever take any action against her?” They did after all, issue a public statement that they “take it seriously”.
She not only broke their student code of ethics, but posted frequently from IP’s coming from FIT, which I am sure breaks at least some rules of their computer usage.
Oh, and she’s been stealing other people’s intellectual property for quite sometime before the first time she was busted too!
9/6/14 Teresa Rebrands:
http://instagram.com/charlottejane_photography goes up on instagram, and is not long after this that it becomes jam-packed with stolen images, mixed with a handful of ones that were actually taken by Teresa. (None of which were to the quality of the ones that Teresa had stolen.)
It should also be noted that there are other, legitimate “Charlotte Jane Photographers” out there that are NOT affiliated with Teresa!!
The first image that appears on this new blog, on the day of it’s creation is this one, with the intimation that she is getting a “job interview” where ever this room is:
What is Marchesa? Well it is a fashion and design label in NY. Pretty damn good for a STUDENT, class of 2016, right?
I am wondering if they required a portfolio for their job interview?
If they do I hope they reverse Image search it! Either way, if they did consider Teresa for employment, or even for an internship or job shadowing, and they based it on a portfolio of stolen images, they would just be another victim to add to the list.
9/17/14 StopSteaingPhotos is tipped off:
A post by “JD” is left in the SSP comment section, and her Instagram is quickly investigated, thoroughly screen-capped, sourced, and all of the photographers that can be found are notified. At the point she was busted, she had only acquired 179 followers thankfully!
9/18/14 Page is down:
Sometime around 10am, the page was removed, but not after it had already been thoroughly documented and logged.
There is no indication as to wether or not Teresa herself removed the page, or if the volume of reports caused Instagram to take it down.
9/21/14 Teresa goes VIRAL:
Not only is “The Tale of Teresa” picked up on Reddit, Peta Pixel, and various other sites, some in countries far removed from the US, and NYC! PhotoStealers also reaches 10,000 fans on facebook!
The Recent Record:
…..which is not complete on this page, or else it would be a little too long, but I’ve added as many photos as I can that show either the original photographers telling her to take them down, or people otherwise pointing out that she is stealing them, and from whom. The images themselves are cropped in a way that you can tell where they come from, but that would discourage someone from stealing them again.
Oh look, photographic evidence of her loading someone else’s photo into Photoshop to edit. Excuse me while I facepalm.
In this one she claims not only to have SHOT the photo, but to have designed the dress! Twofer!
Notice how someone tagged @luckymakeup in this photo… @luckymakeup (if you remember) was one of the people calling Teresa out the FIRST time she did this!
That said if she ever DOES want to release those emails, I will be MORE than willing to update these blogs and add them!
….and yes, AGAIN she claims to not only have taken the photo, but also made the dress!
I think you probably get the picture now huh?
THE VICTIMS:
Alice & Olivia(?):
Teresa was hired(?) to photograph their Fashion Week show. Some of the photos that were actually hers on her latest “IG of Thievery”. I hope that the hiring wasn’t based on a stolen portfolio. The (?) is because I cannot say for sure wether or not that was the case, or wether or not she as even hired by them, or if that is just another lie, but given the evidence, I will consider them to be in the “victim” category.
Sponsors:
(When you own a social media page, be it Tumblr, facebook, or Instagram, you have the opportunity to gain “sponsorship” from various companies related to the underlying theme on your site. In exchange for free products, cross promotion, and even money, the owner of the site rates, promotes, hashtags, etc, the company’s products. . It’s a low-cost, win-win marketing technique for social media owner, and company.)
I need to make it 100% CLEAR that I do NOT believe that these sponsors either condoned, or knew about Teresa’s theft, and it is doubtful that any of them would have had ANYTHING to do with her had they known.
Like all of the people that Teresa has plagiarized, stolen images from, or who’s names she used in her “tales”…. these people, and their companies are VICTIMS of her deception, so consider “liking” “adding” or perhaps purchasing from them! Her lies should NOT harm any more people!
MOD by Morgan
She also advertised “bookings” for models under the rebranded name, as well as with the stolen portfolio. While models would presumably be paid for their work, I can imagine (or hope) that most models are at least somewhat picky about who they will work with, and presenting herself as a “professional” using STOLEN images is not representing herself or her capabilities truthfully!
That said I DO consider anyone who worked for her, or hired her under her false image, as a victim of her lies.
Theft List:
The list of photographers she was found to have stolen from is huge, and I am not sure that it is entirely complete yet!
Julio Galdo/Cody Cloud
Taya Snow
Eduardo Izquierdo
Zang Jingna
Ingrid Endel
Carol Persons
Laura Zalenga
Daniel Sannwald
Taya Iv
Monica Barreneche
Nick Hudson
Michelle Young
Ivonne Carlo
Camilla Akrans
Rony Shram
Victor Del Toro
Sebastian Faena
Damien Bao
Cecy Young
Dominic Clarke
Amber Asaly
Hannes Caspar
Roni Ahn
Nona Limmen
Daniel Sannwald
Linno Chou
Stephen Maycock
Juan Queirolo
Stockton Johnson
Jumbo Tsui
Bernard Michael Gueit
Adamo de Pax
Nicole Heiniger
Warren du Preez
Lior Susana
Sølve Sundsbø
katie Rodgers
Praya Lundberg
Terry Richardson
Erin Fetherston
Jasper Abels
Lissy Laricchia
Edric Chen (Oddly it seems that Teresa actually worked with Chen on a shoot in the Phillipenes at one point.)
If you wish to see a PDF version of Teresa’s entire IG page before it was deleted, PhotoStealers has it preserved here.
Unfortunately it only saves the images and the now dead links, none of the comments.
A past of intellectual property theft:
I mentioned above, how the first time getting busted on PhotoSteaers was NOT Teresa’s first time taking things that were not hers. She has quite the history of it actually….
2009 Fashion Institute of the Philippines board:
Oh look, a stolen profile picture….
2009 Alpha&Omega site:
Plagiarized photos:
2010 Deviant Art Site:
Tons of stolen art, a lot of it from other D/A members:
2010 Model Mayhem:
Featured this photo with HER watermark, that can be found here.
(Teresa also had a blog account for several years, where she stole text and photos about anorexia and being anorexic. She also claimed to be a ballerina in this blog…. a hobby or career she seems to have dropped from the new incarnations of her public persona.)
2013 One of her Papers:
Written in 2013 for Prof. Alexander Rich
Heavily and almost entirely plagiarized, I apologize for the block of text. Google Cache darkened the page for some reason, it has been lightened in Photoshop.
You don’t have to read far to tell immediately where the stolen text starts:
(I wonder if the Prof. either noticed or cared wether or not this whole paper was basically stolen?)
The worst part of all of this?
Teresa actually HAS done design and photography.
She had potential, and she tossed it in the trash, because she would rather steal than work hard for what she wants. These were taken in 2010, at a time when she was stealing images. She is credited as the skirt designer.
What does FIT have to say about this?
As was stated in the previous blog, FIT DID release a statement, that was vague, and not really indicating it was about Teresa perse. Other action by them is unknown.
While Teresa may not be telling the truth about her status as a student at FIT, and of course FIT is probably bound by law to not divulge student information, do they care about intellectual property theft at all?
As we saw in the other parts of the “Tale of Teresa” not only did “Student” claim that his/her complaints were swept under the rug due to “her connections” but more than one student has stated that complaints to FIT fall on deaf ears:
While this could mean nothing, and just be the grumblings of random strangers, I feel it is important to preserve “for the record”.
Turns out copyright infringement scandals are NOT new to FIT:
Diana Rubio a former student to FIT, is suing both the school and Barns & Noble, for mass producing her “Everything Backpack" and giving her no compensation for what is clearly a big hit. (I would even consider getting one myself if the designer was getting fairly compensated!)
The news story is HERE.
FIT was MORE than happy to proudly promote that such a great bag was created by one of it’s students by the way:
Since the suit is unfortunately still ongoing, there is not much information to offer about the details of the case, who is at fault, what sort of contracts existed, etc…
….but TWO infringement scandals in one year?
Random Fact: I was sent a message suggesting I check out the schooling history of both Teresa’s Mother in-law, and Joyce Brown, the head of FIT. They both attended NYU for a few years in the late 70’s early 80’s at the same time, though one was for law, the other (according to wikipedia) Psychiatric Counseling. NYU is a cluster of buildings, so perhaps there is a chance that the two have never met.
Also, searches for Teresa Chong in some countries pulls up this notice, some thing that the sender tells me is new:
However, it could be nothing. Coincidences happen, and there are a LOT of people with the last name Chong out there, lots of people that are in the same place or area at the same time and never meet….. it could mean nothing……
…….but you never know……