Blogging And Plagiarism Shame On You
I consider Winter Witch and myself honest and ethical bloggers. Our posts are just that, ours. Never someone else’s work.
I have browsed around other blogs as well, and none have sent my red flags waving like this one. I like reading other blogs.
Every word of my posts are my words, typed on my keyboard. Not copy and pasted. Next to a liar and a thief I can’t stand to come across someone so dishonest that they’ll copy and paste another person’s work. Wait, isn’t plagiarism a lie? Oh wait, I think it’s illegal. You know there is this thing I have heard some talk about in regards to copyright violations. Oopsy. *note sarcasm*
This extends beyond review blogging. If you’re going to put content on your site that is not yours, then by all means give credit where credit is due, don’t sit back and let it appear as though you did the leg finger work.
I have sat back and watched this gal – CoutureNerd, ich3ryl22 , x0_CBreezy, igillygill60 <- I think this is supposed to be her significant other, those are some of her twitter ID’s. Ha, maybe it’s some of the many faces of evil? There are at least 4 different ID’s, I know for a fact – seen with my own two eyes – that 2 of those accounts were in a twitter giveaway awhile back and pretended to be 2 different people.
Months back, I was watching a twitter giveaway and someone sent me a direct message that she was cheating (and won) using two different twitter id’s. I stayed on the fence at this point, I wasn’t quite sure. So I sat back, and watched. Waiting. Well now, what would make me wait and then post to you all now about this?
Her most recent posts. All of these celebrity interviews that she’s working on. Really?
Now what abut plagiarism? Take a look below. I’m NOT giving this gal any linky love. Or comment love, or any other kind of love. I’ll use screen shots just in case she suddenly decides that taking someone else’s work is a no-no. I’m a bit disgusted and she’s left a bad taste in my mouth.If she does update this particular post, then just browse around her site. They’re all copy and paste posts!
Her post “[Buzz] Justin Bieber will be in upcoming CSI”, is copy and pasted straight from Socialite Life “Gossip Is Served”
Take a look for yourself. The image below is from her site, go ahead – compare it to the Bieber Fever Hits CSI post over on Socialite Life.
Gosh, those two posts look a lot alike don’t they?
Her “Buzz” posts are not honest, so that leaves me to question the true ethics of her reviews, and the giveaways. There have been a lot of bloggers begin their adventure in blogging for the swag. Well they know who they are, and in my opinion there will be some blogs left standing, and those that are in it for the swag won’t be left standing. Some of us take what we do serious. We enjoy it for various reasons. I’m reasonably confident that other (honest) bloggers out there agree with me.
I know that Winter Witch and I work with MANY different PR Reps, and companies. You all enter our giveaways, you probably guessed that much. But am I the only one that doubts questions her huge giveaways? There are blogs far more established than hers, more established than ours as well, that don’t have giveaways that large.
The reviews and giveaways really don’t seem to go hand in hand, reviews for sinus irrigation, smelly washer and staphaseptic, among others. But the giveaways, wow nice giveaways. One giveaway in particular offers a total of $1,000 in prizes! Two grand prize winners valued at $500 each. That’s a long way from sinus irrigation.
Speaking of sinus irrigation, I smell something fishy. Do you?
I wonder where her winners are, the winners of these big dollar giveaways. But then again, I’m hesitant to believe that since there are so many twitter id’s involved, established. Premeditated twitter ids <insert a giggle here>!
I’ll update as I go with articles and resources that I find. Taking someone else’s content and calling it your own makes you kinda’ suck, and well it’s not nice. I’m off to add copyscape to our site, in the meantime why don’t you all enjoy this article that I found.
Online Plagiarism: How To Detect, Fight And Report The Unlicensed Republication Of Your Content
If your sinuses have been irrigated and you also smell something a little fishy – tweet this. Or RT this. I’m very interested in hearing other opinions.
Wow. Have you confronted her privately about this? It does seem like straightforward plagiarism, but there may be some explanation. I have no idea. You don’t say how you could tell that those twitter id’s are all from the same person. I’ve caught people using multiple identities on my blog giveaways before. It’s easy to catch them by IP, but that’s obviously not what happened here. How did you catch on?
@Cindy No she didn’t…. which i’m a bit surprisedd
first off you should definitely come to us for that first i apologize if i did ANYTHING TO OFFEND YOU OR THE BLOGGING COMMUNITY ; I’m actually grieving the death of my nana so this bad PR comes at a bad time.
let me explain:
Twitter lets you have multiple account for different reasons / purposes that is explained in their RULES
Different Twitter Ids =
My @ich3ryl22 is for my contest account
my 0x0breezy is for my personal use
igillygill60 = my hubby n significant other
as for the posts
yes we do have people that we have interviewed i just never got around to post it hence you can talk to Gretchen real house wife of OC and i have the video of the other celeb interviews if you don’t believe me. as for saying my reviews are honest: yes i enjoy blogging as a hobby. I’m not in it for the “Swag” believe me ive seen Others do it for that and then quit. Believe me i do this because i love it if you don’t then thats fine. you can ask anyone i take pride in my blog i’m sorry you thought otherwise.
as for the giveaways:
my friend funds the giveaways shes an investor in my blog – her dad is nice enough to fund my blog i appreciate that. Her dad tries to get me interviews with celebs and most interviews are from LAFW last season i attended.
Again you shouldnt assume to quickly about things. I understand there are bloggers out there that have bad intentions totally get that but like i said not like that. I hope we can come to an understanding
No, but I know other’s have confronted her Cindy. I watched with MY eyes as cheated in that twitter giveaway. I watched as another entrant attempted to tell the sponsor she was cheating. I stayed on the fence, I wasn’t sure. Then bam, she updates the twitter ID’s with picture, etc,… you can see that they all now match one another.
That is when I started watching, others are watching also. Whether they want to come forward or not … that is their choice.
Look at her post -vs- the published entry on Socialite Life.
Privately funded review/giveaway blogger? Okay, if you say so.
Side note. Look at the typing style here, -vs- on her blog and twitter accounts. The styles don’t even compare to one another.
If you remember what Twitter contest was it? As one who enters contests I see that as major cheating. You might be able to have multiple Twitter IDs, but unless you’re a business (with all the proper credentials) your name would always be the same -you would still be you no matter how many IDs you own.
I am not a blogger myself, but if the above was going on, don’t you have to cite a source or something like you do when you write a paper ? Like it came from wherever? Can a blogger get in trouble from the original source?
As a regular reader of alot of blogs, I am always reminded why blogging wouldnt be for me- it’s hard work with alot of rules!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ellen Beck, Networking Witches. Networking Witches said: Blogging And Plagiarism Shame On You http://bit.ly/bwnCao [...]
@rose i didn’t cheat i dont believe in cheating it leads to bad karma. I don’t know what to tell you or you want to hear. I’m going through grieving right now with my nana passing. Like I said I don’t even contest anymore. whats the point so people like you and others blame me for things I don’t even do. I know god knows I didn’t do that and really thats all that matters.
AND FYI no one has confronted me about anything….
Cheryl, you never once addressed the issue of copying and pasting your posts.
I’m very sorry for your loss. I hope you’re able to come to peace with her passing.
However it still doesn’t justify plagiarism.
I’m not all sure about your video, I honestly couldn’t understand but a few words of it. But it still doesn’t address the posts.
First off just let me say that I have been on this girl for such a long time. I have seen other posts copied word for word from other sites.Like the one about Gary Coleman dying, as well as other stories. I have questioned why someone would just giveaway something so outrageously expensive? like someone just bought some $300 sunglasses they don’t want after the one time they wore them???? Well I wish I had those kind of friends! Thanks you so much Rose for finally doing what I have wanted to do for so long!
No thanks are needed Lisa. But what irks me is that there IS something fishy there. Those celebrity posts ARE copy and pasted. You can see it in my original post.
Who will pay the piper when it all comes crashing down? The rest of us that blog HONESTLY.
I’m still interested in her reasons for the copy and pasted posted that I pointed out.
As long as she keeps her postings here clean, I won’t ban her. But if it get’s nasty I’ll close comments or ban her.
Whichever mood strikes me first I guess. I have lingered a long time in the background, watching and wondering and today I just had all I could swallow.
Thanks for coming forward Lisa. And welcome to our cozy little corner of the blogosphere.
I have done the same. I have had private conversations about this with other bloggers. Bloggers like her make us all look bad and what is the point of making your blog a copy of something else??? IDK but thanks again for being so honest, I love it and am so excited to have found your blog!
OK- now I am gonna comment on this one…
“Like I said I don’t even contest anymore”
Please think before you type. Are you saying you didnt enter any contests today? Thats true almost. @RobertVerdi (begging for a honeymoon) @DellHomeOffers @dealsplus within past 24 hours- I am not even gonna list all your hubby entered- it is alot.
Just happened to be here entering a contest… saw that and wondered what you meant by not entering contests?
Why blatantly lie? You’ve entered contests today on your personal account. I don’t know what the official rules say but I see no harm in having one account to enter contests and one to conduct business. That being said, I myself have seen you win the same contest on ich3ryl22 and your other one (breezy). You won a Staples gift card on one and a Calvin Klein on the other as part of a @shopcybermonday giveaway a while back. It was a one day contest and you entered on both accounts one after the other. It’s also odd that when you are on Tweet Deck one second your husband is too on his account. The minute you switch to another client so does he. That’s pretty sketchy.
Meeting celebrities and/or going to their concerts doesn’t exactly mean you interviewed them (I.e. Drake or the Jonas Brothers). Also, I really hope you take this more as constructive criticism more than a slam, but your blog is laden with spelling and grammatical errors (I know we all make an occasional typo here and there, I’m not referring to that). Almost every other sentence has at least one error. I’m not your English teacher, but I wanted to bring that to your attention and possibly offer a suggestion as to why people would think some of those posts didn’t come from you entirely. Big companies also look into the quality of posts and would be reluctant to working with a person with subpar writing.
Like I said, I’m not here to attack you. I just read this post and it struck me. Just wanted to put in my two cents. Sorry about your loss.
Amazing. I never really read her stuff before. So I went and read some random post on her site. 1st) People tend to have the same writing style when they post as when they comment. The comments are like a 5th grader is writing them and the posts are very professional. 2nd) I entered the titles of those random posts in google. Imagine my surprise when those posts always popped up on another site almost verbatim.
http://www.couture-nerd.com/2010/07/food-pizza-hut-slashes-menu-prices.html
is the same as:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/sets-tone-pizza-category,1402510.html
or this one:
http://www.couture-nerd.com/2010/07/tech-apple-updates-imac-line.html
is the same as:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Apple-Updates-iMac-prnews-2748124962.html?x=0&.v=1
I don’t mind quotes or even blocks of info copied and pasted if the source is given credit. Nothing is mentioned about sources. As a matter of a fact the Author is listed as Cheryl and no credit is give to anyone else. Seems a tad hinky to me
Wow! This is a shocking post, I never thought bloggers would cheat. I’m glad I haven’t wasted my time entering any of her contests, it’s a shame though.
I loved that site… the giveaways were so huge, the design was so nice… I’m in shock. I tried to find a winner’s list and can’t… I’ve spent so much effort and time entering their giveaways, I feel … upset. Wow.
FWIW she sent me the link to the winner’s list: http://www.couture-nerd.com/search/label/winners
And the articles all have Source Credit: socialitelife.celebuzz.com that were “plagiarised” (I put quotes because I’m not accusing anyone of anything, not my place as I didn’t do any research)
I’m digging a little deeper on the winner’s page, comparing the different winners of the giveaways that were hosted by the site itself – the big ones – and shady isn’t the word to describe. I’ll post more when I have more proof.
Spamgirl FYI the source credit was NOT there the other day.
I am happy it was added tho as it show she went back and corrected a mistake.
@shopcybermonday that was the one! Couldnt remember for the life of me! I didnt know at the time both IDs were hers
That is for sure bad karma.
Now I wonder just how many IDs people have- it is kinda of sad to need to cheat…
Everything good is from one of these two people:
“One of My Best Friends Cynthia was nice enough to donate these Authentic Chanel Sun Glasses she longer wants”
http://www.couture-nerd.com/2010/04/giveaway-authentic-chanel-sunglasses.html
Her friend with the rich Dad?
“With Couture Nerd Growing Immensely in the past couple of months, my FABULOUS PR agent and his agency were really nice and pitched in do to this great $200 Nordstroms Gift Card Giveaway.”
http://www.couture-nerd.com/2010/03/giveaway-200-nordstroms-gift-card.html
Her friend’s Dad, I guess. That’s a lie saying he’s an agent when he’s not.
–
I went through many of the giveaways from March to today. In the giveaways that the prizes are from her, NEVER did the winner provide ANY identifying information (facebook name, twitter ID, etc.) in their winning comment OR any other comments they made. That reeks of fishiness to me.
Also the winners:
- write the same
- have “generic” names
- only comment one time (with a group of entries), never daily tweet
I have the data in a spreadsheet if anyone wants to see it… I stopped researching after 4 hours showed the above info. Ugh. I’ll be removing all her giveaways from my dailies folder
Wow! I love this thread! I don’t think I ever entered any giveaways on her site and now I’m glad I hadn’t found it yet. I didn’t even think about there being cheaters around! Here I’m trying to just get people to come and enter some giveaways and now I have to watch out for cheaters? Darn It! I barely have time to enter a few myself the way it is. Thanks for bringing all this out into the open!
I could be wrong, but I think the contact information is behind the scenes. I enter a lot of giveaways and provide my email address (just like I did posting this comment), but it does not show up in the comments for the “common folk”.
Not disregarding your comments as I do think you have some valid points, especially regarding the plagiarism. But I’m not entirely convinced that she is staging and winning her own contests. I went through some of the winners, not as detailed as spamgirl, and I do recognize some of them as normal contest enterers and have interacted with some of them too on a regular basis….meaning not fake accounts.
Friend’s dad could be a PR agent – we don’t know that for sure. That would make sense if he is able to help her get interviews.
I guess I am trying to give her the benefit of the doubt from a giveaway standpoint. I feel like these comments are just trying to pick a part everything she does and at least she is making changes based on everyone’s feedback – making her twitter accounts specifically defined and owning up to those that are hers, giving credit to sources, etc… Maybe I’m too trusting. *shrugs*
(As a sidenote, I do think the blog & twitter contest world is flooded with cheaters. And quite honestly, more power to them. I spend so.much.time with my one twitter/blog account, I would not have a life if I had more. SO if that’s all they want to do with their time, have fun with that! I’m going to spend time with my family instead!)
I wanted to share that I supposedly won one of these couturenerd giveaways about a month or 2 ago. I sent her my address and info and 2 months later I still never got the prize. I stopped following her shortly after. I think her contests are fake and they are just a means to get more followers. I don’t think anyone will ever get those prizes much like I didn’t. There have been contests that have come and gone for months with no winners. It’s just a way to pray on the needs of struggling people who are trying to win stuff to get by these days and build her traffic and followers. And it kinda sucks because I felt let down and betrayed.
I wish you had stuck to only the plagiarism aspect of the blog instead of other frivolous gripes. The plagiarism itself is a disgrace. I don’t have time to go through everything, but that recall on the home page has the author listed as “Cheryl” but it’s a direct copy of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10309.html
That’s fine to put it on your own page, but where’s the source?
You MUST MUST source everything thing that you copy/paste that you KNOW isn’t yours. This is a major offense, CoutureNerd.
The Pizza Hut story .. Same thing. Nowhere does it list the source (which would be Pizza Hut, not you CoutureNerd. You didn’t write a word of it)
I imagine every post is like that, which leads me to ask why on earth would you have a blog like this? Is anything actually written by the owner? I would much rather see someone your age post their OWN reactions/comments to various news stories/celebrity gossip. There’s a lot of successful sites that do just that. Collecting and copying/pasting other stories off the web and pretending to make them yours is illegal and absurd. Not to mention your photos which also lack any credits. I hope rather than adding fuel to the fire, you learn from the mistakes and correct them accordingly because right now, you could be in a lot of hot water!
Just a quick note, my family hasn’t had electricity in more
than 7 hours. We are hot, tired and cranky. I’ll catch up best
that I can tomorrow after I run a few errands.
<3 Me
P.S. I’m on my iPod so that there is no misunderstandings.
Hey, I kind of didn’t want my last name out there (a privacy thing). If you could take that down, that would be appreciated. Like I said, the email address is not normally shown.
A: Every contest where the prize was supplied by a company the winners made sense – they were people I know, or could google, and ALL had comments with SOME identifying information (a link to their tweet, their twitter name, or their facebook name).
Every contest where the prize was supplied by “the father” or “the friend”, the winner had multiple entries with NO proof – they said they follow on twitter but did not supply their twitter name, they said they follow on Facebook but did not supply their Facebook name. This information is NOT available to the owner of the blog in any other form – only your email address & website is.
This happened in ALL 7 giveaways. That’s what’s so fishy. I’m not saying *she* couldn’t contact them, I’m just saying for every single one of those giveaways there is no way for *us* to find these “winners” to verify a) they won, and b) they received their prize. I could find every other winner of outside-hosted giveaways, though, and I absolutely believe they receive their prizes (except the lady above, of course
I’m just supplying the information I found through my research. I don’t know if the winners of those giveaways were real, or if they got their prize (because I can’t find them!)
Well Cheryl has emailed me a couple of times.
My sister has my Mom for a few days, so I spend as much time away from home as I possibly can when I have “free time”. I honestly don’t know if I’ll answer.
Cheryl, this is far I’ll take the so called confrontation. I’m outraged that you literally copy and paste other content. You should be thankful I didn’t find any of our content there. It makes me feel not so nice. And then I get my panties in a wad, and really … no one wants that to happen.
Interviews, you’re interviews are copy/paste jobs. Blah.
Your friend funds your giveaways. Again, *sigh* Just whatever. Not many are buying that line of cow dung. I skimmed the emails you sent me, and this isn’t a personal attack or I would have been much, much more creative. If I’m up for it later, I’ll go through your emails. I’m not making any promises.
And I didn’t make any assumptions. I compared your copy and pasted posts. Your blog is full of those.
@ Ellen, no I don’t recall the contest.
Again @ Cheryl comment 7 – In my opinion you have ran circles around this, and have shown nothing to anyone about not cheating by manipulating twitter ID’s. You do contest, it’s on twitter under your ID’s.
We aren’t blaming you for anything. It’s all right there in the screen shot, hence my screen shot before you could edit your blog content. These are simple basic ideas of blogging courtesy before someone really slams you for swiping their work. If you don’t know not to use other peoples work, Why are you blogging? It’s not your content.
And in regards to your comment #8 – I just did a confrontation. I called you out on what’s been going on for awhile now.
Lisa, I take a lot of pride in being honest, even when it doesn’t seem very nice. But boy o’ boy, look out if I get mad. lol I’m glad you have found our blog also. We like to keep it real.
Angelica, love your name. Thanks for commenting. You said it!
Again, Carrie – comment 15 – You said it.
Wanda, Not all bloggers work in this manner. But unfortunately some do!
Spamgirl, Hi, long time no talk.
In fact it was her huge giveaways that drew my attention to this. That and the tip off from a friend on twitter. Source credits were NOT on her site the other day. Take a look at the screen shot of her site in my original post.
If you would like me to update my post with your data, I’ll do so, just email it to me. Again, I’m Mom free for a few days, so I may not get to it right away.
Barb, comment 22, not all blogs are like that. I know ours isn’t.
A is right, comments only show your name and website. Your email address on our blog and is hidden only for us to see.
Those twtter accounts were NOT defined before my posting.
Mary, I hope you get your prize(s). I have to agree with what you think. That they are fake and a means to get more followers. Without real content what are the followers going to amount to? Keep it real eh’?
@ MK, comment 26. True, I probably should have stuck to the just the plagiarism aspect, however when I get riled I just rattle away.
Comment 29, @ A – Taken care of the whole last name thing, I think that was an oops.
Spamgirl you have hella’ research skills. I almost idolize you. lol
FINALLY! I have been on to her plagiarism since she first started her blog. Thank you for finally calling her out on her behavior.Also, as far as the many twitter names go, I know of many people who have suspected her of using the gill account. Us contesters have an unspoken agreement that using many id’s for one contest is cheating. Her behavior is both sad and pathetic. Hopefully this post about her serves as a wakeup call and she stops plagiarizing and cheating and lying. I doubt that will happen though. do the owners of the sites she stole from know about this? If not, they should be notified. I really hope she stops her bogus contests too. But only time will tell! Thanks again for posting all this information. We appreciate it.
It looks like Couture Nerd has closed down. The link is dead and they’re no longer on Twitter.
I took time entering their contests and tweeting. I wish I could get that time back.
WOW! I never expected that!! I bet one of the sites she took content from contacted Google and they shut her down, or they contacted her directly and she closed rather than going through all those posts.
I’ll be honest, I loved her site design… it’s a shame about the content and contests
I am so sad that the site was taken down, after reading the post here I thought that maybe she just didn’t know that you had to make citations or credits and then that she would make the adjustments and go on. I guess the stress of having a family member pass away and this situation was too much at once. I do hope that she is doing alright and she is a really sweet person.
I am really saddened that everything is gone though on the contest entering side of things, I must admit. That was the blog that I entered most frequently. Not to say that I would be a winner, but the thought of all of the work myself and others did on a daily basis for months is a little unsettling, but I do understand the reasoning behind it.
I hoped that everything would work out somehow but this was not how I expected it to end. I wish her all of the best and hope that she can take some time off and get everything together
I think she has a new blog already.
ReNeckWitch confuses me often, so I can’t keep up with all of those names.
I too wasted tons of time entering contests on that blog. what a waste of time!
Whoever posted as “JustMe”, please check your email, I sent you one.
I don’t know her or the blog,but I do know this one.In fact,this is one of the first blogs I ever started reading.I have never seen “The Witches” raise an issue that was not valid.Given the amount of information you supplied alone: I will avoid her/her blog at all costs in the future.I appreciate the “heads up”! Why cheat,really? I expect this will all come back to her in time..karma and all.
@WinterWitch , I would love to know if she does, so I can spread the word on twitter. Please let me know. Thanks.
I too would also like to know about this new blog. Do tell.
Yes, please post. If there is a proof another blog is out there… then if contests pop people can be forewarned of joining and falling for the same garbage.
All of this comes as no surprise to me. When I first saw this chicks blog and read some of her stuff I recognized articles she posted from other sites and her actual posts sounded like a young child wrote them. No proofreading at all. They made no sense. I think if you compared her giveaways to those of other bloggers, the bloggers who have been around a lot longer than her you would have to wonder how the heck she was obtaining the bigger prizes. And just saying someone donated the stuff wasn’t good enough for me. I didn’t trust it so I never entered her giveaways. I believe I did at first but things just didn’t seem right so I quit. And I’ve seen a lot of twitter posts from this girl and she honestly is not that nice. She is honestly 2 faced. She appears nice but from what I’ve been told, behind the scenes, this girl was very vindictive, very sneaky. Comparing many of her older tweets to her newer ones, she seemed to forget what she told people because in one post she’d say she didn’t have money and couldn’t afford things and then in another post she was boasting about having several laptops, desktop computers, iphones, etc. And she demanded high dollar shoes and other expensive things. If you’re poor you don’t have those. I don’t know, her stories just never matched. They always changed back and forth and her articles were stolen. I don’t doubt that her giveaways were fake just so she could gain lots of followers. That’s not the right way to go about running a site. You don’t lie to people just to get a higher number. So in her eyes, she just looked at people as a number. A boost to her stats. I guess she did the smart thing and just shut down before she found herself in court. I too wonder if any of the other site owners were aware that she stole their posts. Ok you know I just remembered that when she started her blog the only thing she had on it was a few giveaways, no other content. She wasn’t worried about adding her own stuff. She just wanted big numbers. I’m shocked that every one else didn’t see that too. I guess some people are just naive. So sad! Thanks for posting this Rose. Great job
All I want to know is how to I contact this chick. I want any and all information I can get on her. I entered over 600 entries in order to hopefully win her Lush giveaway. I am a single working mother who spent HOURS entering that giveaway EVERY SINGLE DAY and it was all for nothing. I even posted links to her site on my own blog and twitter account. This could make me look bad to my own readers. I am fuming mad and pissed. All I want is her name and I am contacting a lawyer. If anyone can give me some sort of info, I’d appreciate it. thank you
SashaIlic at yahoo dot com
Sorry Sasha, at this point I don’t know anything more. However I also haven’t done a whole lot of searching. Seems she wrapped up shop on the blog when I called her out on it, same with the twitter names so far as I know.
I’m not sure where your site is, perhaps you should post a short explanation there as well as remove links to her?
Hey ya’ll, especially Sasha! I found her:
http://www.hellocotton.com/mypage/couturenerd
and I think this is her too:
twitter.com/igillygill60
I don’t think that’s her hubby as she said I think it’s her. I don’t even think she was married!
or here:
http://twitpic.com/photos/CoutureNerd
or here!
Couturenerd22@gmail.com
or here:
http://couturenerd.wordpress.com
I wasted hours, days, nights entering her giveaways in hope I would win a 100 dollar visa gift card to help buy groceries for my family and so forth cause times are rough for my family. She said I even won one and never got it! I feel so cheated I’m cautious with what contests I enter now. I question companies because of her. There is nothing like a savvy internet mommy scorned. I don’t believe a word she said. I think she said her nanna died to avoid the people asking where their prizes were and to avoid announcing winners. It all truly makes me sick and I’m thankful to you Rose for posting this! Everyone spread the word on where she is. I know plenty of people who want answers as to where she is and to spread the word to avoid her!
She is Cheryl Ruan on facebook.
I like how she deleted everything once confronted. Yes, REAL PROFESSIONAL. Talk about low.
This is a pretty serious matter. I’m going to ask those of you that comment to please use a valid email address, rather than a fictitious email.
Thanks!
And this is my real email address. Mary is my Middle name which everyone calls me by and I don’t really want to post my real name since I don’t want to be retaliated against by this crazy blogger couture nerd.
But I also found her myspace!
http://www.myspace.com/Ch3ryl
lol That’s fine Mary, I was referencing “AHHH”.
I hope Cheryl comes out to clean up her mess.
I can’t help but wonder if she’s old enough for legalities to be pressed against her, or if it would fall on her parents if she’s under age. What a sad mess.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, perhaps you all should let a few more know because there are still many sending RT’s for her giveaways on Twitter.
She’s over 18, even though she acts and writes like a pre-teen! I doubt she’ll do anything else regarding her lies / plagiarism. She probably thinks since she deleted her accounts on Twitter and her blog that “it’s all good.” ha! By the way, she is still tweetong contests from that igillygill60 account… But of course she’d never admit to it. & She probably has a new Twitter account by now…. Once a liar/cheater always a liar/ cheater.
Cheryl is 20 years old. She just turned 20 a few months ago and supposedly lives in California. She lives with her parents and her younger sister. She always claimed to be a computer hacker and that she was married yet one of her twitter accounts she talked about how she was engaged so who knows. I always liked how she claimed to be a graphic designer but if you know anything about graphic design & html you would have known in the beginning that she was using a free web template she got from another website. Sure she probably added some plug ins or widgets but the template was not hers. She is a habitual liar plain and simple. And why isn’t her “man” answering anyone’s questions as to when they’ll get the prizes they supposedly won? “He” is still tweeting contests so how come he don’t answer? I still smell a rat and thinks its Cheryl. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time entering her bogus giveaways. Investors my ass!!! She’s living in la la land. Way too immature to run a website although she’s a good liar because look how many people followed her and helieved bullshit. Sorry for the language Rose! I’m just totally pissed that someone like her makes great bloggers like you look bad to companies and now many people are doubting other bloggers. That’s a shame. Grow up Cheryl and get it through your thick head, you’re not cut out to be a blogger!
For the last round of winners, like the Hello Kitty things, etc. did you receive your items?
What has always surprised me, is the amount of people that fell for her. I mean, not just ‘new’ people, but savvy ones who bought what she said hook line and sinker.Good people, decent people who jumped on her bandwagon.
There was a contest months back where people had to tweet for entries- much like the Taco Bell, but it was for a flip camera. Cheryl was giving an incentive on her blog for those who tweeted it- and many did. Cheryl was also running scripts from her site TO Twitter which was highly against Twitter TOS. That may have been what she was referring to when her account was suspended- as it was for awhile. She ‘won’ the camera but cheated doing it.
I also want to take the time to point out that Cheryl was beyond sneaky and devious. There were bloggers and people SHE tried hunting down- tried to rally her friends against if they so much as made a peep against her. It was like Cheryl had some sort of ‘posse’ who almost chased people she didnt care for or like. It was sad, and it was high schoolish but it went on.
You all know who who are who participated in this- and now those bloggers and others like her were proved right about Cheryl- that Cheryl copied others, she cheated and she lied constantly.
I quit entering her contests shortly after the ‘scripts’ incident-and not long after she had a mini computer that went to a ‘one post wonder’ who couldn’t be traced in much the way spamgirl described above. I quit following her blog, unsubscribed from everything but watched and waited.
Who I feel sorry for are those that didnt jump on her bandwagon, join her Twitter posse, and spent their time tweeting, posting, just trying to help their family with a promised prize. Who I hope learned a lesson are those who are STILL believing Cheryl STILL tweeting for her and hearing a boo hoo story somewhere. Wake up- she is a kid who got busted- don’t enable her.
Her house of cards fell- thank you Rose for being the little gust of wind.
No edit- my typing sucks
“You all know who you are who participated in this- and now those bloggers and others like her were proved right about Cheryl- that Cheryl copied others, she cheated and she lied constantly. ”
corrected
lol sorry about that. I’m “AHHH.” I try not to put my name on sites, but yes, I find it extremely immature and unprofessional to just essentially “disappear” from the issues. Grieving for your nana is not something you can hide behind forever (and also doesn’t justify wiping all of your content off the Internet). I know Cheryl is still lurking around reading all of this. I’m not surprised by her course of action. Her immaturity and overall stupidity was clear from the get-go. People who are insecure are the ones who need to lie and create fake personas for themselves. She’s a fine example of extreme insecurity and unfortunately, she roped in a lot of people in her web of lies and appalling behavior.
Well you answered my question!! Was wondering where all the big prizes came from and I was sucked in to entering a few but I never look who wins so honestly I had no clue and was entering there for about 5 weeks yikes! Thanks for answering my tweet was wondering what happened to the site!
Michelle # 56 Your email is protected, only Winter & I can see them.
A short post, as I’m in bed on the iPod. I know she has been reading this
post. I’m afraid she is going to rear back up with new names and such.
I am ashamed to say I fell for her lies. I believed she really could offer up the big prizes. I did not know of the scripts incident though. & The reason why @IGillyGill60 is not answering anyone is that it’s CHERYL tweeting from that account. She’s entering for tons of things–including women’s clothing, skincare, etc. I say that everyone should report that account as a SPAMMER, and perhaps Twitter will suspend or remove that account too. Also, maybe keep an eye on who Igillygill is following or new accounts who follow him. I am willing to bet money that Cheryl will (or already has) started a new Twitter account. Oh, another funny thing, besides being a “hacker and web designer” she also claimed to be a professional ballet dancer. I’m sorry, but that girl is too funny. None of us ever believed that, and she’s NOT married either. She just likes to make things up to get attention. She is a sad, spoiled, immature little girl whose lies finally caught up to her.
@CallMeShocked, don’t be ashamed. There are several other people that still are oblivious as to what she was doing. I’m glad she has stopped as it does look bad against valid bloggers such as us.
She really needs to come forward and clean up her mess. Somehow, if that’s even possible.
I don’t agree with reporting the account for spam, because we know it’s not spam – it’s entries.
I just wandered in from blogPRwire and found such an appropriate topic. I too, have been a victim of plagiarism.
I write content that can take days to research and compile- it’s very seldom celebrity and always fact-based. I have had my work directly copied onto other websites and even had a 5000-word blog post stolen in entirety by a newspaper’s website. Because of the nature of some of my posts, I have been ripped off by lazy bloggers and websites all over the world. I have zero idea how to generate my own advertising base so these websites are making money off of my prolific brain. And that burns my a**.
So let’s call it what it is- INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT. If you steal from someone you should not only be called out for it, but sued if you do not cease. Give them fair warning, because many people do not know that unauthorized transmission of copyrighted material is not just an irritant, but has serious legal ramifications.
so what did I do to stop it? Simple. i use a copyrighting service that registers each individual blog post under a designation. Those copyrights are emailed to me daily and are monitored for theft. The amazing part is that I do not pay a penny for the service, save for the nanosecond it takes to transfer the copyrights to a permanent folder.
If you find out that someone is stealing, don’t report them as spam but for what they are- THIEVES.
Howdy Mika, welcome to our humble little corner of the blogsphere.
“Give them fair warning, because many people do not know that unauthorized transmission of copyrighted material is not just an irritant, but has serious legal ramifications.”
Many people may not know this, but if they are going to jump head first into blogging shouldn’t that be one of the first things they know/learn?
Common sense kind of suggests that you don’t use someone else’s material.
Appreciate you stopping by, feel free to come again. Sorry, no burgers, fries or a shake to offer.
Just wow…
Thanks so much for making this known!!!
Here she is on facebook http://www.facebook.com/CherylRuan
also cherylruan@gmail.com is am email i found through research
her youtube is now closed as well http://www.youtube.com/user/couturenerd22
so this blog went up on the 2nd of august it looks like
http://thehautechicblog.blogspot.com
this visa gift card contest also looks alot like cheryls style
http://thehautechicblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/25-visa-giftcard-giveaway-open.html
Finally she got busted. I knew she was not right a year ago that’s why I blocked her on Twitter. She was slamming a friend of mine for no reason. Looks like it caught up to her.
I want to share some research I have done regarding http://thehautechicblog.blogspot.com/ which I suspect to belong to cheryl and others have agreed. It went up August 2nd
To me everything about this blog has her written all over it: copying and pasting posts, giveaways for visa gift cards, even the setup and wording of the blog.
Some examples of copying/pasting?
http://ow.ly/2miU0 vs the original: http://ow.ly/2miUa about tempur pedic. http://ow.ly/2miUo vs. the real one about jade beauty serum: http://ow.ly/2miUy
Those are just 2 of the posts and I would bet my coffee money that the others are also copy/pastes. they have a “source” listed, but shouldn’t you link back to the source? I have been blogging about a year and I think you ought to link back to the original article. This is so her style!
The set up of the contest is also similar. One thing I noticed on Couture nerd was that the contests that seemed legit asked you to go to the companies website and find another item. Gift cards and purses and sunglasses….they all said to follow via GFC. That helps to get up numbers I suppose. Well this new contest http://thehautechicblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/25-visa-giftcard-giveaway-open.html also follows the GFC follow as the main entry format…okay I understand that many bloggers do use that, but its just too much similarity for me not to be suspicious.
she has used this photo http://ow.ly/2miIE which is copyrighted but she cut out the side. more copyright violations
Also I know many people live on the west coast, but it seems like a generalized way of hiding your true location, since we all know she is in the Long Beach area. Most big events happen in California, and I doubt she is from Oregon or Washingon….
She claims to have a 13 year old son and is married….I remember a while back Cheryl was trying to get some shoes and I actually caught her in a lie to a company claiming she had a son. B.S. You don’t have a teen son. The thing is I used to be twitter “friends” with her and talk regularly. When she started being dishonest I decided to unfriend her. I believe blogging is about honesty and integrity. You want to share your ideas and experiences with the world! Why would you want to put someone else’s work on your blog? why not express your own opinion?
I am not here to be a b*tch or talk sh*t about cheryl. I am here to show that other bloggers are NOT impressed with her immature antics and b.s. We who take this blogging business seriously don’t want companies to look down on us because of her stupid ideas.
I also was wondering about the girl who said she won a Soda Stream soda machine from cheryl? I have one I received to review, and another good blogging friend of mine did as well, at the same time as Cheryl. We didn’t get one to giveaway and I don’t believe Cheryl did either. when she starts getting good legit companies involved and saying they are sponsoring a contest when they aren’t, it irritates me even more. Freebies are not what blogging is about. Yes I enjoy getting freebies and it is fun to do product reviews. I enjoy doing giveaways for my readers. But that is just a perk to blogging. I blog because it is a great outlet for my crazy life and I want to be able to relate to other moms and in turn have them relate to me.
Well I think I have said a mouthful. What do you guys think? IS @thehautechic really @CoutureNerd in disguise? Join the conversation and leave your opinion!
I am not sure if she is or is not… but I find both the followers she has and the ones she follows to be quite interesting. Some ‘sameness’ there too.
Havent posted it, but for anyone with time on their hands, there is a site on Google that has all of her ‘hubby’s’ info on it. I am sure the info is correct as it is something he is interested in. Not posting as it is going a bit above and beyond and it really isn’t tough to find- for those of you looking for her, you could likely find her through him.
wow I am amazed at how easy it was to find his phone number!!!! how funny!
I totally think http://thehautechicblog.blogspot.com is her! She even uses the same visa card picture that she did on couturenerd! It’s ridiculous. Can’t someone take legal action against this girl to teach her a lesson on how not to steal and lie to get what you want which is apparently attention and free stuff?
That’s defintely her. No doubt in my mind. The same old garbage but now with a source on articles. What a hoot. Read the disclaimer guys – still in typical Cheryl’s five year old style of writing. Her “13 year old child” – probably her little sister. Lovely..unless she had a child when she was 7. Cheryl if you’re reading this…please get a college degree like normal people your age do. It’ll do wonders for you.
amen Michelle!
Wow, this is a great lesson to be learned by not only CoutureNerd, but every offer and microblogger as well!
Nice sleuth work, RedneckWitch and friends!
I hope Cheryl is off fixing these issues and will return as a more ethical blogger, as I see this criticism as constructive and a fair warning.
I also pray that in light of the passing of her family member, she is emotionally stable enough to handle the pressure she’s under.
I was typing Blogger not “offer” (oh iPhones)
or maybe I’m still asleep…
What a total loser… you think she learned her lesson, but no. I guess she loves scamming people. I think if we all block and report her Twitter account (@TheHauteChic) maybe we can stop it before it gets out of hand again. & Thank you Lisa for your detective work!
And so she strikes again. I’m so over it.
well this time, A, people are forewarned… Although someone should tell the companies. Oh, I reported her and her “C.C” account on Faebook too.
Yea, that is definately her new blog. Guess there are so many that have been scammed by her. The greed and stupidity of some people! I applaud you for bring this to our attention! Believe me, it is all over Twitter and Facebook. She can use all the alias’s she wants, but she will get called out. So many good people tweeted for her contests for nothing! This chick is a danger to society! Major screw loose!
It probably doesn’t matter, but WAY back (probably in 2009) before she started giving away suspicious gift cards, I won 2 of her giveaways (from a handmade UK store and a Laura Geller blush) and received both of them in the mail. Not to say that I believe her giveaways are legit, because I completely agree with this post.
What I mean to say is that I believe she originally began as an honest blogger (I’ve read a couple of her posts and nothing about celebrities and such) with a few giveaways. I don’t know why she suddenly started plagiarizing and scamming people, but I can’t say she’s always been that way.
I just realized I have Cheryl’s address. So if you need it (anyone) please contact me!
OMG! I had no idea this was going on! I have been entering her contests and ever since her site went down I have been wondering what happened to the giveaways.
@ Mary- I once “won” something from her too and after sending my info via twitter DM she never responded. So I sent her an email and explained my discomfort in knowing someone falsified a giveaway BUT shortly after that I received an email with the prize. She claimed she DID send me my prize (giftcard) via email BUT I never received it until I complained. She could have at least sent me an email after my win confirming the prize. I can say she honestly responded.
she responded to me, but every time she had a different excuse as to why I did not get my prize and after the 3rd excuse I realized she was a fake!
Looks like the The Haute Chic Twitter account has been deleted. Think this is the end?
http://thehautechicblog.blogspot.com/
Blog is still there, entries for the $25 gift card showing but nowhere is there the mention of the perfume people were tweeting for.
I spent months entering her contests daily. I actually won and received the footzyroll shows.
I took a break from my contesting as I was getting married and honeymooning. I went to my normal contesting blogs to discover i couldn’t find the blog. Thanks for sharing all the info, i feel duped, and appreciate even more all the giveaway bloggers and entrants that are legit.
I spent so much time and effort in all her giveaways. I blogged, facebook and twitter them. I finally won her Angel Eyewear giveaway sometime in May. I waited for like 2 months and sent her a 2nd email asking about the status of my prize. She told me it was mailed.
However, recently I contacted Angel Eyewear myself, since Couture Nerd is no loner around. Angel Eyewear asked me to choose my prize again and I assumed they would mail the sunglasses to me. After waiting for sometime again, they told me they did not received any email from Couture Nerd saying I’m the winner, and asking me to show the email from Couture Nerd.
And now, I’m not even sure if I would still be able to claim my prize.