E-commerce · Do this yourself

Watch for stolen product photos and draft takedowns for sellers.

How it makes money: Charge Etsy and Shopify shops $19/mo to watch for stolen product photos and draft takedowns.

Agent setup: Easy · One Grok Bot agent on a schedule, a no-code page and a checkout link. How we rate this

Found on Reddit in r/Etsy, r/shopify (3 threads).

🔥 156 posts this week · 839 likes

Based on u/FalcorsLittleHelper on Reddit (opens in new tab)

Where this came from (Reddit)

Makers and stores find their photos and listings stolen by copycats and scam sites, and takedowns are tedious.

The threads (in our words)

Reddit blocks automated reads, so we couldn’t record upvote or comment counts. The business below is our own design inspired by these threads.

Who it’s for

Etsy makers and Shopify stores with original products.

Adapt it to your industry

  • Start with one niche or customer type, then expand.
  • Ask your first 10 customers what they would pay before you build more.
  • Keep a human check on anything sent in a customer’s name.

Step by step

  1. Connect the shop and collect product photos.
  2. Run weekly reverse image searches through services whose terms allow it.
  3. Group matches by site and store and show them with screenshots.
  4. Draft DMCA or platform reports the seller reviews and submits.
  5. Charge monthly by Stripe.
  6. Find sellers in maker communities and with helpful posts.

Ready-to-copy prompt

My product photo was copied here: [URL]. Draft a short, polite DMCA takedown notice with the required parts, using these details: [paste].

Start with AI

Opens the AI with this guide and the prompt filled in.

Open in ChatGPT (opens in new tab)Open in Claude (opens in new tab)Open in Grok (opens in new tab)
Time
1–3 hoursOur estimate

Your autonomous stack

Autonomy: Listings, emails, support and fulfillment partners run automatically. Your part: Weekly: approve new products and check refunds (about 1 hour).

Every layer an agent-run business needs, in order. Prices are public list prices, checked Oct 16, 2026.

  1. Agent (the brain): Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot runs the business day to day: writes, answers, decides small things and reports to you. Claude Code or Codex are alternatives.
  2. Build and hosting: Vercel hosting (opens in new tab) (Hobby free · Pro $20/mo). The product or service your customers use.
  3. Payments: Stripe payments (opens in new tab) (No monthly fee · 2.9% + 30¢ per card payment). Automatic checkout and receipts. Other options: PayPal Checkout (3.49% + 49¢) or Lemon Squeezy (5% + 50¢, handles sales tax).
  4. Customer acquisition: Buffer (scheduled X posts) (opens in new tab) (Free plan (3 channels, 10 queued posts each) · Essentials $5/mo per channel, billed yearly), beehiiv newsletter (opens in new tab) (Free up to 2,500 subscribers). Agent-written SEO pages, scheduled X posts and a weekly newsletter.
  5. Delivery: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). A Grok Bot routine delivers the product or result as soon as someone pays.
  6. Support: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot answers the support inbox; anything unclear is flagged for you.
  7. Monitoring and schedule: Grok Bot (agent + scheduled routines) (opens in new tab) (Included with The X Subscription Premium $30/mo (Super $100/mo for more usage; Plus $8 does not include Grok Bot)). Grok Bot scheduled routines run each day: send, check for failures, alert you if something breaks.
  8. Analytics: Google Analytics (opens in new tab) (Free). Tracks visits, signups and sales so the agent can report what works.
  9. Human checkpoint: Weekly: approve new products and check refunds (about 1 hour).
  10. Price: charge $19 per shop (monthly plan). Offer the first 3 customers a founding price for honest feedback.
Monthly cost$30–$55/monthFree tiers → paid plans of the tools above. Card fees come out of each sale.
What you could earn · EstimateEstimate: 80 shops × $19 = $1,520/moOur estimate, not a fact or a promise. It’s simple math if you land these customers at this price.
Details: source, numbers and tags

What they did

Agents reverse-search a shop’s product photos weekly and prepare copyright takedown notices. We designed this business from real Reddit threads; it is an idea for you to build, not a description of the posters’ businesses.

How it went

Found on Reddit in r/Etsy, r/shopify (3 threads). Upvote and comment counts weren’t retrievable, so none are shown. On X, 156 posts matched our search for this idea in the 7 days to 2026-10-16.

Worth knowing

The seller files notices in their own name; don’t file false claims.

Difficulty
BeginnerOur rating
Time to build
Not reportedOur estimate
Monthly cost
Not reported
Revenue
Not reportedWe only show revenue the source states
Engagement
No public countThe source shows no number
X buzz
51.7 · 156 posts in 7 days839 likes, 66 reposts, 35 replies, 5 quotes on 22 top posts · fetched Oct 16, 2026 · query: ("stole my photos" OR "stolen photos" OR "stealing my photos" OR "copied my listing" OR "stole my designs") -is:retweet lang:en

Posted · Added Oct 16, 2026

Original builder recipe

  • ChatGPT
  • Claude
  1. Connect the shop and collect product photos.
  2. Run weekly reverse image searches through services whose terms allow it.
  3. Group matches by site and store and show them with screenshots.
  4. Draft DMCA or platform reports the seller reviews and submits.
  5. Charge monthly by Stripe.
  6. Find sellers in maker communities and with helpful posts.

Tags

Read the original

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