Message from Admin

[evelinaapparel]

Hello,

I received a convo from an admin (I am not sure if this really is an admin) a few months ago, asking me to send a free item from my shop to a bloger that contacted etsy admins. My item was supposed to be featured in a magazine.. So since it was an admin I shipped two items to adress that they gave me. After a few weeks I have contacted this admin again, and again but I dont get any answers from her.

It is so sad to even think about this, that someone got my items for free and this was all a lie.

Admin name is Robbyne Hodgson.
How can I check if this was real or not? Is she really an admin?
Can anyone here help me?

Thank you so much!
Spela

[heartsabustin]

Did her avatar have an orange bar across the bottom with Admin written in it? If not, it may have been a scam. Do you still have the convos? I'd forward them to abuse@etsy.com to make sure.

[evelinaapparel]

It does have an orange avatar. Thats why I believed her, but now it seems weird for her not to answer on my email..I have the convos yes.
Thanks Erin! I will do that. Thanks!

[Pininkie]

They could have mocked up the avatar. I'm glad you are reporting. Sorry you lost your items.

[maydaylabels]

Yes, the avatar is easy to copy. Here is a (sort of) list of Etsy admin; alphabetized. There is no Robbyne. https://www.etsy.com/about?ref=ft_about

But I did look her up on google and found this: https://twitter.com/RobynneHodgson

(press assistant at EtsyUK, says her twitter profile)

It is entirely possible she's both a real Etsy admin and a scammer. Reporting it to Etsy is the best idea. If it were me I'd probably make a fuss in the forums too, but then again maybe that's why I'm forum-muted :)

[maydaylabels]

And I should add, even if she's not a scammer, and somehow comes through and shows you where your items were featured, this is highly inappropriate for Etsy admin to be a go-between in a giveaway between a magazine and an individual seller.

[TAGSMITH]

It's probably not a scam. It was probably an Etsy admin working for you, to try to get you some press. If acting as a go between is "highly inappropriate", Etsy please act "highly inappropriate" in my behalf to Esquire and GQ magazines.

[maydaylabels]

Yeah, it's not cool for Etsy Admin to spend my listing fees acting as a go-between for individual sellers and magazines. The magazine itself could contact the seller; sellers can pursue their own press exposure; Etsy Admin could direct magazines to targeted searches for certain types of items or features - but acting as a specific promoter for one shop (out of hundreds of thousands of shops) is just a huge waste of $.

[evelinaapparel]

I send an email to etsy, and I will let you know what they are saying about it. If it was a scam I would just like to inform all of you to be carefull.
Thank you all for your help! :)

[TAGSMITH]

That's where we differ. If Etsy wants to have their PR people put together a "Great Handmade Gifts for Men" pitch, and don't include me I'm okay with that. It's still bringing in buyers to Etsy.

[heartsabustin]

I've had a magazine contact me directly, and then later, an admin contacted me on that same magazine's behalf. I think they started acting as go- betweens because people were reporting the magazine's accounts as spammers.

[maydaylabels]

A "Great Handmade Gifts for Men" pitch is fine; it is very very different from acting as a personal go-between for one specific seller and a magazine.

Eta: If someone convos me from a blog requesting a free item, or from a magazine requesting a free item, I sometimes report them as a spammer - we get a lot of those, generally from places that are just trying to get free stuff (or free things to giveaway to increase their blog traffic, which is the same thing as free stuff). I've been featured a few legitimate places and not once has anyone asked for free product.

It seems like it would be a lot more efficient for Admin to just un-block the magazines they consider legitimate from the spammer list when they get marked that way by sellers. Otherwise, it seems like it's the seller's choice whether to respond to a request from a magazine or a blog or whatever, and I don't see why admin would feel the need to get involved?

[Former_Member]

If you are ever in doubt as to the validity of someone who says they are an Etsy admin, you can always email Support@etsy.com and ask.

There was an in the European Etsy News a while back about Etsy contacting some sellers for some European marketing campaigns but I really didn't pay much attention at the time. Maybe that was part of it?