Friday, July 31, 2009

Who we are and why we are here

The simple purpose of this blog is solely to reveal that the person behind http://handmadeartisanfraud.blogspot.com/ is disgruntled artist Ullja Kuntze. Her other blog is here: http://ullja.wordpress.com.

We have documented proof that Ullja Kuntze is the author of http://handmadeartisanfraud.blogspot.com/. She has been making purchases from the businesses she targets, apparently in order to obtain the owners names and addresses before she fraudulently reports them to local tax and licensing agencies, and she pays for those purchases using her Paypal account under her business name "Beads4U". The address on file for this account matches Ullja Kuntze's address in Texas. We, the authors of this blog, have not yet been targeted by Ullja Kuntze's blog, but a great number of highly respected and talented artisans within the handmade arts community have been; primarily those she considers to be in direct competition with her, and those who have questioned the business practices that have caused her online shop to be closed in the past, and her Etsy and Artfire profiles banned. It is our concern that these artisans will be adversely affected by Ullja Kuntze's false claims.

Ullja Kuntze has, on http://handmadeartisanfraud.blogspot.com/, anonymously defamed a number of excellent and reputable artisans with false and unfounded claims that they are perpetrating fraud and tax evasion. We at Artisan Fraud Truth Report wish only to see the names of these honest businesspeople vindicated. Currently, when you Google their names, Ullja Kuntze's blog http://handmadeartisanfraud.blogspot.com/ comes up, associating their names with fraud. This appears to be a clear and deliberate attempt to damage the livelihood and reputations of these artisans through Google search manipulation. It is our hope that this blog will, through using many of the same techniques, also appear on these Google searches and help mitigate the harm Ullja Kuntze is inflicting on these fine businesspeople.

Here is more information about Ullja Kuntze's current and past run-ins with the artisan community:
http://consumerist.com/5323799/etsy-...got-her-banned
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=ab-jewelrymkg&tid=41659
http://etsynews.com/698/allegations-of-fraud-on-etsy/


As well, a number of artists have blogged about her - needless to say, most of these people have now been libeled with false accusations of illegal activity on her blog:
http://www.skyisland.com/blog/2008/june/international_criminal_my_own_backyard
http://subeeds.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/lampwork-fraud-on-etsy-and-ebay/
http://themermaidtale.blogspot.com/2008/06/merlot-and-email.html
http://fourtailslampwork.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-etsy-worth-it.html
http://dancingwinddesigns.blogspot.com/2009/07/ullja-frauds-fraud-blog.html

There is also this humorous parody blog, to lighten the grim mood this has put many artisans in:
http://handmadeartisanfraudtruestory.blogspot.com/


If you have a blog about this situation you would like linked, please let us know.

11 comments:

  1. You are awesome! This blog is great!

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  2. You can find the FDA's stand on handmade soaps and cosmetics on my blog at:
    http://flowerchild79creativehaven.blogspot.com

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  3. BTW, U seems to be going back and re-attacking the people she's already posted fake fraud reports on. It's possible that it could be in reaction to this blog. If you know her username, you might want to block her...

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  4. You folks are so awesome!! Best wishes to you and all the artisans you've vindicated.

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  5. I doubt anyone checked with HER fire marshall or her Health and tax departments, no one messed with her. I have no idea why anyone would be so vile and hateful nor put the energy into all the ordering and reporting and filing and printing and following up on reports and agencies....Sick

    You guys have done great, you restored my faith in the human race!

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  6. She is doing it in an attempt to bump up her Google search ratings. What you can do to counter that is to tweet and re-tweet this blog, post it everywhere you can, email it to friends, and comment on every single entry.

    What you have going for you, besides being in the right, is numbers. She cannot be everywhere at once; the artisan community she is attacking has enough people that it, for all intents and purposes, can.

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  7. Well, let's just overwhelm her .....

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  8. So glad I was given this blog. I was beginning to think that the human race were falling for what she has to say.
    Thanks for letting the entire community know that she is the fraud:>))

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  9. I added a link to this site from my space

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