Is this kind of clone possible?

I can't share specific links or details, but here's the situation we're facing: Our website has been cloned, but not in the typical way? The cloned site is in a completely different industry and did swap out text and images to match their business. The issue is, they didn't remove our email address from their contact form, so we receive their messages. Additionally, our website name appears in their source code, and while they removed our social media links from the desktop view, they overlooked them in the mobile view, so their social media icons still direct to our accounts.

We reached out to the business owner and he gave us the whatsapp # to the person who built their site, and he admitted to using a tool to clone our website. He claimed he was unaware that the tool also copied the contact form email address and social media links.

My question is, could this have been done solely with a website cloning tool, or is it possible someone accessed our backend? For context, we use WordPress with Elementor Pro.

It can be done using website cloner tools or even by just copy-pasting your HTML. Most probably the developer took your website's code and rebuilt the functionalities. So you shouldn't worry about access to your website. Still, if you feel your security might have been compromised, then contact the Hosting Provider and ask them to do a scan.

Plus you can also change all the passwords to website hosting and other things just to be sure.

mithbooks said:

It can be done using website cloner tools or even by just copy-pasting your HTML. Most probably the developer took your website's code and rebuilt the functionalities. So you shouldn't worry about access to your website. Still, if you feel your security might have been compromised, then contact the Hosting Provider and ask them to do a scan.

Plus you can also change all the passwords to website hosting and other things just to be sure.

Click to expand...

I thought that website cloner tools can only clone the front end of things and can't clone the back end? That's why I'm a little confused because the contact form email is not visible in the source code so I'm not sure how they would have pulled that over.