Victim Location 28411
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
This website, TeeAwesome.com, uses dummy Facebook and Instagram pages to sell counterfeit artwork, including but not limited to posters, t shirts, and other merchandise.
The company hides behind fake shell pages (no posts on the page or anything; they’re solely used to run ads) and they steal the intellectual property of artists and sell bootleg copies of it. Here’s an example of one – https://www.facebook.com/Widespread-Panic-Fans-1771977229782643/
TeeAwesome.com and it’s affiliate websites seem to be the type of website where "anyone" can post a design for sale, and get paid when the item is purchased (and I am assuming that TeeAwesome and affiliates take care of printing and shipping, keeping some of the revenue for themselves). Essentially, the website aides and abets the sale of counterfeit items by not thoroughly vetting the designs that are posted on their website before making them available to the public.
So, the website TeeAwesome.com and their affiliates host these counterfeit items for sale, but only the artists themselves are allowed to call the company to claim their intellectual property, at which point it gets taken down (but they then typically pop right back up). TeeAwesome.com has some clause in their agreement with the people that post the items for sale on their website, that basically makes them state "I promise this is my intellectual property" but there is no penalty once they find out otherwise….so basically, TeeAwesome.com turns the other cheek to artists getting scammed on their website, but they then continue to print the posters / shirts / whatever and make money off it. And what’s the artist supposed to do? Spend their whole day scouring social media for infringements on their work?
I can reference multiple artists that have been scammed by this website and it’s affiliates, and give you their contact information if you would like. I am sure they would be happy to talk to you. Please see the attached image for an example, and I will provide links below to some of these counterfeit items.
<span title="https://www.facebook.com/1771977229782643/photos/p.1771980959782270/1771980959782270/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/1771977229782643/photos/p.1771980959782270/177198095978…⇄ />
^^ The artist posted on this page yesterday, saying "this is my artwork, please take this down immediately" and his comment was removed, with the Facebook ad still running. The hyperlink in the image links to this website, whose customer service phone line is (844) 900-0887, the same as TeeAwesome.com <span title="https://gltee.info/wpposter1?s=poster-16×24-vertical&c=White&p=FRONT&c=White&p=FRONT
https://gltee.info/wpposter1?s=poster-16×24-vertical&c=White&p=FRONT&…⇄ />
Here’s another one from a Facebook ad – <span title="https://www.facebook.com/966294303507831/photos/p.966299140174014/966299140174014/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/966294303507831/photos/p.966299140174014/96629914017401…⇄ />
The website links to this page –
https://awstees.com/hc6?s=poster-16×24-vertical&c=White&p=FRONT
….whose customer service phone number is the same, again – (844) 900-0887 (TeeAwesome.com)
These counterfeit artwork advertisements are getting more prevalent by the day. Please contact me once you receive this so that we can work on saving these artists the hassle and financial loss that they deal with on a daily basis.