"It's disturbing," one user said. "It made me feel extremely unsafe."(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Vinted sellers discover disturbing way their pictures are being used by perverts

Users of the resale site Vinted say the company is failing to do enough to protect them after several women reported being sexualised and harassed after posting their photos online

18 Oct 2024, 10:20 by Natasha Wynarczyk · The Mirror

Women say they are being sexually harassed after logging on to sell their unwanted clothes on Vinted.

Pictures of some who model their outfits have appeared on other websites where men can make lewd comments about their appearance. One victim, a 28-year-old named Lydia, was horrified to find out that her photos were being used in this way. She said: “It’s very disturbing. I had no idea this was happening, and it has made me feel extremely unsafe.”

Vinted says it is contactable day and night and will see every issue through to resolution. But Lydia claimed that 11 days after she reported the website to Vinted, she still had not received a response.

It was only after Dispatches alerted Vinted to her claims that action was taken and the website was subsequently removed.

Founded in Lithuania in 2008, Vinted is now valued at £4.5billion with 65 million users across 21 countries, 16 million of whom are in the UK. Fans of the site include former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie and reality TV stars Gemma Collins and Ferne McCann.

The scandal is exposed in a Channel 4 documentary, Vinted’s Dirty Laundry: Dispatches, which airs tonight.

Vinted is valued at over £4.5bn( Image: BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, consumer expert Iain Martin said some Vinted users had complained about receiving inappropriate direct messages. The Mirror found women on social media sites such as Reddit saying they got messages from men on Vinted asking them to sell intimate items of clothing such as their used underwear.

Others said they had received unsolicited “flirty” messages or comments, or had male users favouriting pictures of them wearing more revealing items they were selling such as bodysuits.

Users reported seeing their photographs reposted to other websites( Image: Shared Content Unit)

One user on Reddit even said that when they were selling their son’s school shirts on a metal mannequin, they had a request from another Vinted user asking for photos of her child wearing them “to see how they looked”. She said the user also asked for photos of her feet on another occasion.

Vinted said: “We are taking the allegations seriously... we act as swiftly as we can against anything that violates our terms and conditions. We’re very sorry to hear of these experiences and commit to take the necessary action against members who violate our community standards. We have a number of measures in place to uphold safety on the platform and are constantly updating these processes and improving our level of personal member support.”