Website was cloned

JamaicanMoose

JamaicanMoose

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Hi friends,

I thought that one of my sites had been crushed by Google's August update. Turns out, someone has cloned my website (all 1,300+ pages - text, images, ads.. everything) using HTTrack. The site is registered with reg.ru and hosted on a VPS in Belize. I tried contacting the host, but of course all emails are bouncing back.

Other than submitting a Google DMCA complaint and hoping they take action, is there anything that I can do? I don't have experience with this kind of thing.

Thanks!
 
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The DMCA is a good start. Luckily if Google sides with you then it's almost as if the other site doesn't exist. What are they using it for BTW? A PBN or ripping off your business model entirely?

-ThopHayt
 
ThopHayt said:
The DMCA is a good start. Luckily if Google sides with you then it's almost as if the other site doesn't exist. What are they using it for BTW? A PBN or ripping off your business model entirely?

-ThopHayt
Click to expand...

Ripping off my business model. They took my Wordpress site and uploaded all pages as .html. Only change they made was to my Amazon tags.

Google has approved the DMCA of 268 URLs. They denied 460 due to 'not enough information'... then approved the 268. I submitted the DMCA for both batches at the same time... with the exact same verbiage. I am so confused. I'll have to resubmit those 460 tomorrow.. and hope for the best on the rest.

Since the host is in Belize and contacting them is going to be near-impossible, I've reached out to a few Intellectual Property lawyers based in Belize. Based on some light Googling, it seems that Belize has pretty good Copyright / IP laws. Hopefully it doesn't come to having to use one of them, because I can't imagine they're cheap.
 
Hmm, if they're selling Amazon stuff would going to Amazon make sense? I don't sell on Amazon, but there may be a way to file a complaint there.

-ThopHayt
 
Meddie said:
Interesting thing, so if we want to make bad to competition we just clone the position 0 to 9 and build clones...so stupid Google still is?
Click to expand...

I can't be certain this is what caused my rankings to plummet. It could be a combination of this + the Google algorithm update. However, I have no reason to believe that this particular site would have been impacted by the update.

One lawyer in Belize quoted $850 for a cease and desist. Apparently they're on the same street as the host and could walk it over. Going to wait to hear back from Google and/or a couple other lawyers down there before proceeding.
 
JamaicanMoose said:
I can't be certain this is what caused my rankings to plummet. It could be a combination of this + the Google algorithm update. However, I have no reason to believe that this particular site would have been impacted by the update.

One lawyer in Belize quoted $850 for a cease and desist. Apparently they're on the same street as the host and could walk it over. Going to wait to hear back from Google and/or a couple other lawyers down there before proceeding.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that but think about if they also have the website backup and just rehost it again on the other off shore hosting...

Maybe you scare them and will end this nightmare.,sad to hear someone's work fucked up in a day for nothing.
 
Meddie said:
Good luck with that but think about if they also have the website backup and just rehost it again on the other off shore hosting...

Maybe you scare them and will end this nightmare.,sad to hear someone's work fucked up in a day for nothing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figure that'll just happen. Very annoying, that's for sure.
 
they cant copy the server side data with this though correct? Like the database / mysql etc?
 
Ya... I do wonder if it has something to do with performance? In theory the copied html site should be blazing fast compared to a cms running db queries to generate the page.... maybe the recent algo change put even MORE weight on performance particularly on mobile devices with slower networks.... that and also check your ssl cert maybe i remember they were going to start penalizing older symantec certificates with aug release of new chrome maybe related maybe not
 
Green Hatt said:
Ya... I do wonder if it has something to do with performance? In theory the copied html site should be blazing fast compared to a cms running db queries to generate the page.... maybe the recent algo change put even MORE weight on performance particularly on mobile devices with slower networks.... that and also check your ssl cert maybe i remember they were going to start penalizing older symantec certificates with aug release of new chrome maybe related maybe not
Click to expand...

We both have SSL. Site speed for both of us is around 1s
 
Are you sure it's cloned? My website was also copied once, but it turned out to be a proxy site. I just banned the ip address and the clone was down.
Maybe there's still a reference (JavaScript file) to your server so you can take them down.
 
Well theoretically Google should be able to identify copied content and in cases where necessary refuse to index low quality sites. I don't think it is what tanked your rankings would be strange though.
 
You only need to report on hosting.

Where clone site owners host their website.

Usually the hosting owner will solve your problem.
Because they will get court proceedings.

I've clone thousands of famous sites.
That's the only way.
 
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