I'm Befuddled...

[PFZ_Ken +]

I didn't know for sure where this post fit best so...

I was doing some research and I ran across a site that from the search return looked like it might have the item I was looking for and I was surprised to see that it is my site under a domain name I've never heard of.

Our domain is: PFZ Recovery - Surplus Industrial Equipment - Investment Recovery - Demolition - Rigging - Concrete Crushing

Here is what I found;

DC White Enterprises - Surplus Industrial Equipment - Investment Recovery - Demolition - Rigging - Concrete Crushing

This is our old "default" template but whoever did this didn't bother to change a lot of the information i.e. phone number, names etc. But laughably they did add a copyright notice to what they stole.

I can't see the point of this, they cannot make a deal on anything shown. I did a whois and I know from this that the domain's registrar is GoDaddy but I'm not sure how to find out the web host so that I may make a complaint to them.

What is the purpose of something like this?

Ken - PFZ

[Lhotch +]

wow, thats interesting. They are clearly taking your ads, or did at one point anyway, but they could not get any of the user info associated with the ads. Looks like someone is using 68C to do some funny biz because everytime you click a link they hit you with a stupid popup.

[Eric Barnes +]

Yes if you look they do not have any of the php files and I have to think they used some sort of scraping software to make a copy.

We talked about it here at the office and the only thing we can figure is they are planning on making money from the popup.

To find out the host I always use this service: Discover Who Hosts Any Website | Who Is Hosting This Not 100% accurate but most of the time is pretty close.

[Lhotch +]

I suppose technically taking your content is theft, give em a call..

Ontologicalsystems.com - Ontological Systems - DC White Enterprises - Surplus Industrial Equipment - Investment Recovery - Demolition - Rigging - Concrete Crushing

[PFZ_Ken +]

Ha Larry, the stupid popup is javascript code I put in the template code. It is stupid that is why it's not on our current site. There's no money to be made from it in any case as it was to allow subscribers to our newsletter.

If nothing else it makes us look bad so I'll pursue getting this fixed.

Thanks for the responses.

Ken

[Lhotch +]

strange. Maybe they were just testing a scraping script and never cleaned house. If I remember correct way back when something similar happened and someone copied maffos site.

[Blair +]

I've done some googling to try to discover who "DC Enterprises" may be. He's got some sort of Headline generator script and sells some book related to Toenail Fungus (I'm not kidding). The guy appears to be located in Illinois.

Other than that, all contact information on this site seems to point back to you, Ken.

It's strange, that's for sure!! I think his toenail fungus has migrated to his brain

[PFZ_Ken +]

Well yet again it appears that it is the victim who must pay for justice.

Using the link Eric provided I found out that GoDaddy is the host for this site.

I called GoDaddy and was basically told that I needed to engage the servces of a copyright lawyer to provide whatever is needed to prove the content is mine.

Is it very easy for anyone who wishes to see which is the original site and which is the stolen site. But that doesn't matter to GoDaddy.

As far as I'm concerned it is a "thief friendly" approach they are taking.

Ken

PS Here is the whois info for this theif;

Registrant:
TelecoTech & Management Services, Inc.
8540 Ashwood Drive
Capitol Heigths, Maryland 20743
United States

Domain Name: ONTOLOGICALSYSTEMS.COM
Created on: 26-Apr-07
Expires on: 26-Apr-10
Last Updated on: 28-Apr-09

Administrative Contact:
Pope, clifford
TelecoTech & Management Services, Inc.
8540 Ashwood Drive
Capitol Heigths, Maryland 20743
United States
(301) 541-1742 Fax -- (301) 541-1789

[Blair +]

Originally Posted by PFZ_Ken

As far as I'm concerned it is a "thief friendly" approach they are taking.

I totally agree! That's another aspect of why this is so ...... strange!

Years ago, we found another site who had copied our content word for word. I found an email address and politely asked them to change the text. I also informed them that I was CC'ing the email to a lawyer.

Before I sent the email, I asked a friend (the lawyer) to ignore the CC..... especially since he does real estate and not copyright infringement

[PFZ_Ken +]

I called our host with which I have multiple personal and business accounts (Pair Networks) and found an entirely different tone than that of GoDaddy.

On their recommendation I filed a complaint through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at https://complaint.ic3.gov/default.aspx

We will see what happens. I will post any progress or news in this matter.

Thanks again for all of the input.

Ken