Photographer Tries to Buy His Own Photograph from a Person Who Stole It

Steve Arklay from Australia discovered that his photo of an ocean wave was put up for sale on the Facebook page of the other photographer, and posed as a buyer, trying to buy a print of his own photo, PetaPixel writes.

Arklay supposed that the photo was stolen from Instagram, where only low-resolution images are available, arklay tried to purchase the print of the photo of a larger size — 60 x 90cm. This way, the photographer wanted to make sure that the fraudster doesn’t have the original image.

“I am really sorry, but the biggest size I can do is 30 x 20cm, — the fraudster replied. He also said the print would cost $30.

After Arklay agreed and forwarded him his personal information, the man realized he was talking to the real author of the photograph, and and immediately stopped the conversation and deleted the stolen photo from his page.

Arklay says he is not going to sue him, and did the experiment purely out of the ‘professional curiosity’.