Online imitator- becoming a real problem - UK Business Labs

**Mark CP** · #1 (**permalink**) 27-11-2009, 04:30 PM

Hi,

Hope someone can help, it's come to our attention that someone is using our good name for nefarious purposes, basically it appears to be an online scam with someone plastering our name, address, company reg number etc all over various forums advertising iPhones.

As you can see from this link:
http://classifieds.smashits.com/a,16...ite---$300.htm

It’s pretty obvious that it's not legit but needless to say it's somewhat irritating to have someone using our details and credibility for criminal gain.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we can get this scam shut down?

Thanks,

Mark

**Mat** · #2 (**permalink**) 27-11-2009, 05:02 PM

Report the ad as SPAM. If it's replicated in several places, the best thing you can do is put something on your site along the lines of:

"It has come to our attention that our name is being used without authorisation. We will only ever sell products on this site."

casssimplyb · #3 (**permalink**) 21-12-2009, 12:02 PM

If they also have their own website, please send in a SPAM report to google. Use your webmasters account.
What Mat says is propably the best thing to do: report these messages as spam.
If it continues and you have some contact details of your imitator there are legal ways to stop him/her.

Wana Bee · #4 (**permalink**) 21-12-2009, 09:22 PM

since this is fraud I would advice you ask the site admins to hand over the info (ip address, names etc) about the person who is doing it and get them to delete the content.

I would advice that you get a good lawyer before things get out of hand (E-Commerce Lawyers Legal Contracts, Help and Mediation Services UK Wide- www.limeone.com) are good at this sort of thing.

**Mark CP** · #5 (**permalink**) 22-12-2009, 09:32 AM

The problem we have is that the site is COMPUTER PRODUCTS LIMITED - www.comprolimited.cc.cc

It seems to be from a template producing site, cc.cc, who i've tried to contact but as yet no response from Korea.

As for contacting google and reporting it as Spam, not sure as to the benefit or what it's to do with google?

casssimplyb · #6 (**permalink**) 22-12-2009, 09:38 AM

Google can ban their search results. At least people can not find it anymore through search engines.
Just double check if you can do this through the Google webmaster service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark CP

The problem we have is that the site is COMPUTER PRODUCTS LIMITED - www.comprolimited.cc.cc

It seems to be from a template producing site, cc.cc, who i've tried to contact but as yet no response from Korea.

As for contacting google and reporting it as Spam, not sure as to the benefit or what it's to do with google?

Wana Bee · #7 (**permalink**) 22-12-2009, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark CP

The problem we have is that the site is COMPUTER PRODUCTS LIMITED - www.comprolimited.cc.cc

It seems to be from a template producing site, cc.cc, who i've tried to contact but as yet no response from Korea.

As for contacting google and reporting it as Spam, not sure as to the benefit or what it's to do with google?

.cc.cc is owned by .co.cc.

To report spam use this CO.CC - Free Domain name registration + Free DNS service.

I dont know if Google can easily block .co.cc domains becuase .co.cc is a subdomain.

Good Luck
good luck.

VeryMark · #8 (**permalink**) 23-12-2009, 10:27 PM

Mark, you've sent me a pm but I can't pm to answer it apparently until I've logged 5 posts.

The source tracks back to a name and address in South Korea which also seems to be responsible for various other scams. The web host seems to be a South Korean ISP too.

Your taking civil legal action in the UK would seem to me to be pointless unless either the person or firm responsible has identifiable assets in the UK or you are prepared to spend further money trying to get an English court judgement enforced in the Korean courts. In either event, legal proceedings would be expensive and you would not recover all your costs.

The only other avenues I can think of are:

1. Writing to the Korean ISP to complain - ISP's are sometimes sensitive to their services being used for illegal purposes.

2. Contacting Trading Standards - their services are free and they have greater powers and resources.

3. Contacting the Commercial Attache in the British Embassy in Seoul - they might possibly be able to engage the attention of the South Korean government who might be persuaded to take action if they consider it an embarrassment to their country, and the Embassy might also have experience of dealing with similar complaints.

4. Contacting Google and the other major search engines like Bing, Firefox and Opera and asking them to ban the source in question from their results.

5. Contacting the forums concerned and also eBay likewise.

If you would like me to do anything further, please let me know.

**BinhZientek** · #9 (**permalink**) 07-01-2010, 11:00 AM

Mark

You can try and take their website down. I did the following when a scam website was trying to use my name to rob people:

1. check on Whois.com - Domain Names & Identity for Everyone or Whois.net - Domain Names to find out the details of which company is hosting the website
2. contact the company hosting the scam website, and email them detailing evidence of the scam website and ask them to take down the website
3. they will investigate and if it is scam will take it down

I have had to follow these steps to take down 3 different scam websites so far in the last 3 months. Good luck.