Pond5 Curators judge whose ID is valid or not

Hi there Pond5 community,

I want to share you my short-life story in this website. I opened my account two weeks ago and uploaded my official goverment issued Turkish citizenship ID on Uploads section. Pond5 curators denied it saying "It is not a valid ID image". But it was a valid ID image of my valid ID. Then I contacted via chat and request. They said send it again. I sent my ID, driver's license, even my old passports first pages where they can see my ID. They denied again saying "It is not valid".

Now I want to ask you this Pond5's curators : Who are you to judge whether an official government issued ID, driver's license are valid or not and how? They have all stamps, cold stamps and all markings, signatures etc. When I contacted again today via chat a customer service guy told me he trust curators judgement, told me to send my ID again? For what really? To get denied a week later again? It is funny that you deny a real guy who's been selling lots of stuff via Audio Jungle and other platforms for ages with no reason at all. I bet you don't even know how a standart Turkish ID Card look like. So you can't judge it with your country's standards right? Then what the hell is the problem here? Either say "We don't accept Turkish citizens" or approve my ID for God's sake...

Or better, if you don't want anymore people in your website, just write it so instead of denying them with stupid "This is not valid", "This is not valid too", "This is not valid either" ...You are not valid and your approach on this matter is so amateur that I won't even try sending you my ID one more. Because you don't want to solve anything.

For the sake of two weeks I spent waiting here for a simple ID approval I wanted to share this issue with Pond5 community to make you realize you can have this kind of treatment too.

Have a nice day all

Hi morphed,

We actually have numerous international government documents, sample IDs and passports from around the world, and other resources that help us determine the validity of submitted identification. There can be lots of reasons we reject an ID, such as if the image is too blurry, or otherwise obscured to the point that we can't tell if it's a valid form of ID. Perhaps the expiration date isn't visible? If there is one, we need to be able to see it. But not all IDs expire, so if yours has no expiration date, then you don't need to worry about that.

I understand that you had a frustrating experience, and I do apologize for that. It's great if you're able to sell on other websites without proving to them that you are who you say you are. But at Pond5, we take the integrity of our marketplace very seriously. It's important for all of us that our sellers all be vetted and reliable. Fraudulent sellers hurt everyone, and there is no single, better way to scare off sellers like that than with solid ID and verification requirements.

Of course, there will still be some artists who try to subvert our efforts with things like fake IDs. I've seen several myself. Sometimes they're super obvious. Other times, not so much. If we ask for more or other forms of identification, don't take it personally. We're just doing our best to confirm your identity in order to protect the marketplace for all of us.

I have been with you guys awhile, do I have to submit an ID? How do I do it? Thanks!

Jonathan,

I don't care about providing you my ID. I feel the necessity and don't object it. This is not the case here. If you read carefully then you will understand I am frustrated about you didn't accept what I provided you saying only "This is invalid, this is invalid" without any reason other than they are not valid. For god's sake how can an American or whatever nationality guy can ever decide whether my Turkish government issued ID is valid or not? Fake or not? According to what really? Your own standards? Please explain this to me.

I have sent you scanned citizenship ID, driver's license both with front and back pages where you can clearly see my photo, ID info, government's stamps, signatures. I even sent my previous passport (which is expired now but my ID info is same) for you to compare ID info on Request #94463. Nothing was accepted. And it is frustrating to say the least.

You are emphasizing the importance of providing ID but this is not the issue here. Issue is you didn't accept valid government issued IDs in two uploads and 3 request I have sent for the previous two weeks. Of course I would like to work with your website too but you don't accept uploads without IDs and you don't accept my IDs too.

Turkey is not a member of European Union so our ID cards have no expiration date. But my scanned images are clearly seen. No logical reason were sent me about rejection. Even when I mention this in chat screen your customer service guy Lawrence, didnt even say anything other then he trust his curator's judgement, left the chat screen and marked it as SOLVED . I mean how funny is this? How is this even considered as professional? He even sent a poll about how your service is .... ROFL to that. He didn't serve anything, solve anything...

So you tied my hands here. Can I send you my ID personally then. I can even send you my own photo holding my ID card lol ! If nothing really convince you about my ID then you really should apply Turkish Government about its validity.

Don't ever tell me that I am one of those fakers. I don't believe there are stupid people who will create 1x fake ıD , 1 x driver's license , 1x passport scan just to scam you. Sorry but it doesn't even seem worth it. Even if it was a scammer wouldn't even react about rejection of his fake ID. This is not the case here. I am obviously a real person trying to be customer and seller in this website but you don't allow me.

So what is your solution then? I need a way to let you approve my ID or a way to send my IDs personally to you too. Otherwise I can't change the appereance of my IDs on my own since it is illegal in my country. Please don't even suggest me to send same IDs in upload section or requests. I already tried those ways for the past two weeks. Sorry but I am doing everything I can here , I sent you everything I got. I feel so right about being frustrated here since you wasted my two week time waiting for a single approval. I really feel hard-done by and wanted to mention here in forums. Because I didn't get any solution or a logical explanation in requests and upload section notes. I am a real person living in Turkey and I am so tired of trying to prove this to you guys. Now it is your turn really. I am waiting for a solution here. If there is none, nothing can be done to convince you that my IDs are real then please do what I write in my last request and erase my account so I will move on.

PS: Jonathan, please investigate Request #94463. I have provided all my IDs there as attachments.

@PureAmbientDrone - You'll find instructions on how to do that right on your uploads page, if it's necessary for your account.

@morphed - You asked in your first message how we determine the validity of submitted IDs, and I explained that we have numerous international government documents, sample IDs and passports from around the world, and other resources that help us determine that.

You are applying to sell in OUR marketplace, so my good sir it is OUR standards that you must meet and US you must convince.

I'm terribly sorry that our efforts to secure our marketplace have upset your so severely. Please know that was not our intention. It sounds like your experiences with our representatives haven't been great, and I do apologize for that as well. I can see that in issue #94463, we did indeed ask you for multiple versions of your ID for additional verification. I don't see anywhere that anyone called you a "faker" or accused you of anything. If we say that a particular ID isn't valid, or that we aren't able to validate you with it, all that means is that we need to see more from you. We asked you to submit additional ID, and you did, so I can see that my colleague has now marked your issue as solved because your account is verified.

If you would still like to close your account, just reply to issue #94463 again stating that, and we'll take care of it for you.

@Jonathan

First of all thanks for finally validating my ID. Really this was all about. I am willing to cooperate with any rules you have to secure this place.

Secondly please let me clear this, because you are still saying that you are terribly sorry that your efforts to secure your marketplace offended me or whatsoever. Don't be because I wasn't offended by your security measures. I certainly support them. That is why I tried even harder for you to validate my ID, sent them several times. I was offended because all official documents I provided out of my respect to your security measures were seen invalid. Because my friend in my opinion any official document can and should only be validated perfectly by contacting relevant person's government, not with looking it and comparing it with other IDs. I am perfectly aware of Turkish standart ID or drivers license doesn't look professional or anywhere near good as yours or any European Union IDs. We are not a fully grown and developed, perfect so to say country at all. With all terrorist activities and wars around us it is hard to improve a lot. Believe me I really understand your side of things. :) But please understand me too. You can't select where you are gonna live when you are born to t his world. There left nothing for me to send you to validate my ID there. I am a 35 year old guy and first time I failed to prove somebody else whether my ID is valid and when someone repeatedly reject you where you are indeed valid you got mad. I opened this message only for this and out of frustration. And I see that it worked out well even if we argued a bit, you have taken care of things. There is no problem for me, no need to close my account. What is done is done, no hard feelings. As I said I am and will always be willing to obey any security measures and rules. I respect them, I respect you and YOUR marketplace (or OUR marketplace since I am accepted now :) ) . Thanks for dealing this issue. Cheers