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View Full Version : Stealing my content for SEO Spam?

KevinG
12-18-2007, 09:39 AM
During my morning reading of industry stuff, I came across an article about how popular it has become to "Google" oneself, so I did it. I came across something suspicious which has me making this post rather than the original topic of Googling yourself.

The #14 result of Googling my first and last name shows this listing:
http://www.cigar-review.com/seo-spam-listing.gif

This looks like they are stealing content from my site http://www.cigar-review.com and at least one other site, Cigar World. When you click the result, it quickly re-directs to an online retailer of cigars, to the same cigar they seem to be stealing the content for.

The SE result show this url:
http://www.thehappiestgrace.info/hoyo-de-m...bur-miniatures/ (http://www.thehappiestgrace.info/hoyo-de-monterrey-excalibur-miniatures/)

It re-directs to this url:
http://www.tinderbox.com/Hoyo-de-Monterrey...niatures-Cigars (http://www.tinderbox.com/Hoyo-de-Monterrey-Excalibur-Miniatures-Cigars)

When I tried pasting the original url and hitting the stop button real fast in an attempt to see the original page, I was thwarted by a 403 forbidden.

I was able to get this much code to render in that page source code:

<!-- One Computer Per Day -->
<!--ADDED STATS PRODUCT-->
<!--ADDED STATS PRODUCT-->
<!-- ADDING AFFILIATE TRACKING SIDE -->
<!-- END OF ADDING AFFILIATE TRACKING SIDE -->
<!--ADD BannerID and BannerPageClickedFrom-->
<!--END bannerID and BannerPageClickedFrom-->
<!--ADD RETURN DAYS COOKIE-->
<!--END RETURN DAYS COOKIE-->
<!--LINKED PROGRAMS Begin-->
<!--LINKED PROGRAMS END-->
<body bgcolor=white>
<BR>
<BR><font face=verdana point-size=10 size=-1>
<!--ADD SAMEDAYMUSIC PATCH-->
<!--END SAMEDAYMUSIC PATCH-->
<!--ADD CSN STORES PATCH-->
<!--END CSN STORES PATCH-->
<!--If you are not automatically redirected, please <a href="http://www.tinderbox.com/Hoyo-de-Monterrey-Excalibur-Miniatures-Cigars">click here</a>.-->
<BR>
<BR>
&lt;script LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.2">
window.location.replace('http://www.tinderbox.com/Hoyo-de-Monterrey-Excalibur-Miniatures-Cigars')
</script>


Here is whois info:




Domain Name:THEHAPPIESTGRACE.INFO
Created On:03-Jul-2007 02:58:30 UTC
Last Updated On:01-Sep-2007 20:33:13 UTC
Expiration Date:03-Jul-2008 02:58:30 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:DSTR Holdings, Inc. (R136-LRMS)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:DOT-X54Y3LK09HAZ
Registrant Name:J N
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street1:1024 Lenox Ave
Registrant Street2:#8
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Miami Beach
Registrant State/Province:FL
Registrant Postal Code:33139
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.7862828558
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:miamibest@gmail.comHere's the other site:



Registrant:
Tinder Box International, Ltd.

3 Bala Plaza East Suite 102
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: TINDERBOX.COM
Created on: 12-Jan-96
Expires on: 11-Jan-09
Last Updated on: 10-Oct-07

Administrative Contact:
Ellis, Wendy webadmin@tinderbox.com
Tinder Box International, Ltd
3 Bala Plaza East Suite 102
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
United States
6106684220 Fax -- 1231231234

Technical Contact:
Design, Inc., WebFX admin@webfxdesign.com
3050 S COTTAGE LN
SPARKS, Nevada 89434-6708
United States
7756261150 Fax -- 1231231234

Not only do they seem to be stealing my content, but they are spamming the search engines too.

Any input on what I should do?
EmporerEJ
12-18-2007, 10:04 AM
Here is whois info:


Here's the other site:

Registrant:
Tinder Box International, Ltd.

3 Bala Plaza East Suite 102
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: TINDERBOX.COM
Created on: 12-Jan-96
Expires on: 11-Jan-09
Last Updated on: 10-Oct-07

Administrative Contact:
Ellis, Wendy webadmin@tinderbox.com
Tinder Box International, Ltd
3 Bala Plaza East Suite 102
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
United States
6106684220 Fax -- 1231231234

Technical Contact:
Design, Inc., WebFX admin@webfxdesign.com
3050 S COTTAGE LN
SPARKS, Nevada 89434-6708
United States
7756261150 Fax -- 1231231234

Not only do they seem to be stealing my content, but they are spamming the search engines too.

Any input on what I should do?

Lookin' like they are over here in my neck of the woods......
KevinG
12-18-2007, 10:12 AM
And the other guys are near me.
Hammer
12-18-2007, 10:19 AM
So you're equating using some text from your site as content theft? Sorry but you lost me. First of all, if he did copy text from your page it would be copyright infringement and plagiarism but I wouldn't call that content theft. Second, maybe I'm dense, but I don't see where you posted the text that he copied from your site.
KevinG
12-18-2007, 10:25 AM
So you're equating using some text from your site as content theft? Sorry but you lost me. First of all, if he did copy text from your page it would be copyright infringement and plagiarism but I wouldn't call that content theft. Second, maybe I'm dense, but I don't see where you posted the text that he copied from your site.

Uh ... text is content too homie.

I will try to get some more info to explain it better in a little bit.

Maybe it will help explain a little better by saying they are using "Cloaking" which is black hat SE spam and they stole my content to do it.
Hammer
12-18-2007, 10:30 AM
Uh ... text is content too homie.

I will try to get some more info to explain it better in a little bit.

Maybe it will help explain a little better by saying they are using "Cloaking" which is black hat SE spam and they stole my content to do it.
If you had an erotic story site I'd agree that the text could be considered content but if someone takes text from a cigar site to use on their own site, I don't consider that 'content'. But I'm not trying to get off on a side discussion about a word's definition, I'm just trying to understand because I'm lost so far.
KevinG
12-18-2007, 10:44 AM
If you had an erotic story site I'd agree that the text could be considered content but if someone takes text from a cigar site to use on their own site, I don't consider that 'content'. But I'm not trying to get off on a side discussion about a word's definition, I'm just trying to understand because I'm lost so far.

You're cracking me up.

So, an erotic story is content, but an original article about cigars is not content?

How do you figure that?

Let's put it into the adult world.

What if someone copy / pasted an original review of a porn site from one of the review sites, like The Best Porn or Sir Rodney and used it for their own site's benefit?

That's not stealing content?

Everything on http://www.cigar-review.com is original content.
Hammer
12-18-2007, 10:48 AM
Have you ever heard of anyone that plagiarized a famous book being accused of stealing content? If someone builds a website to promote their website design business and they plagiarize text from my site, no, I would not say they stole my content.

In the case of an erotic story site, the stories on that site were written for the express reason of making money from people that paid to read those stories, so someone could consider those stories to be "content" but an article about cigars is simply an article about cigars.
KevinG
12-18-2007, 11:00 AM
Have you ever heard of anyone that plagiarized a famous book being accused of stealing content? If someone builds a website to promote their website design business and they plagiarize text from my site, no, I would not say they stole my content.

In the case of an erotic story site, the stories on that site were written for the express reason of making money from people that paid to read those stories, so someone could consider those stories to be "content" but an article about cigars is simply an article about cigars.

Ok. Cool.

That will save me time when I do my new site to sell design and stuff. Thanks for letting me paste text from Porn Site Pros. You're a good friend.
Hammer
12-18-2007, 11:11 AM
Ok. Cool.

That will save me time when I do my new site to sell design and stuff. Thanks for letting me paste text from Porn Site Pros. You're a good friend.
I never said you shouldn't be angry at someone if they plagiarized your site and used text from your articles, I simply said I wouldn't consider that stealing 'content'.

What would help me understand right now would be to drop the semantics argument and see the text as it appears on your site and as it appears where they used it. I'm not saying you don't have a point, I'm just having a hard time following it. And other than venting about it, is there a solution to this kind of thing? Since Tinderbox is a U.S. company, is it worth contacting them about and pursuing if they tell you to fuck off?
KevinG
12-18-2007, 11:20 AM
drop the semantics argument and see the text as it appears on your site and as it appears where they used it.

Ok. Look at the text here in this screen cap:

http://www.cigar-review.com/seo-spam-listing.gif

Now look at this screen cap from my site:

http://www.cigar-review.com/seo-spam-listing2.gif

That is from this page listing cigar reviews:
http://cigar-review.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=1&id=74&Itemid=0&limit=208&limitstart=0

... And other than venting about it, is there a solution to this kind of thing? Since Tinderbox is a U.S. company, is it worth contacting them about and pursuing if they tell you to fuck off?

I submitted a spam report to Google here:
http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html
EmporerEJ
12-18-2007, 12:30 PM
And the other guys are near me.


Let's get 'em!


:kapow:.......................:shooter:
:uzi::woo:
Top_Of_Google_Man
12-23-2007, 11:03 PM
I have successfully gotten google to remove sites who copied large tracts of text from my sites. It can take some time though. Keep at it.