What do you do when someone is trying to ripoff your website?

pokeraddict

Webmaster
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Location
Las Vegas
This is a cross post from WOL and my own forum, I am hoping to get as many ideas as possible and I hope it is appropriate to post this here. I am still a bit of a newbie when it comes to being a webmaster.............


After having my website ripped off almost word for word a few weeks ago and after many threats and rogueing him on my site (he was actually one of my customers that ripped me off) someone else has hit Rentacoder now with an offer to have someone build them a website with the below requirements. Notice how one line says "the same setup as on URL Not Found / Outdated " and if you are familiar with my site every idea that is here is on my site and there is little if any original thought in the below described ripoff job. I thankfully had some coders email me and also traced the refer link in my log to find this. It went up just yesterday. My patent is pending but is in the early stages. I did this after getting ripped off the first time. Of course my main concentration is to improve my site as if I had 100 other sites like mine out there. I want to provide the best site possible, but of course if someone is going to compete with me I dont want it to be with all of my own ideas. Also this packet had the sample text on the webpages ,much of it, especially the FAQ page has been taken word for word. I only included the summary requirement page below as it is long enough, if you go download the packet from rentacoder.com you can see the rest of it.

Anyone have any ideas here? Below is the packet or requirements on the ripoff site. Am I overreacting?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am looking at creating a website that is similar to URL Not Found / Outdated and pokerrakerefund.com . Please find attached a rough html guide to what the site would look like. Exact content will be provided once the coder is selected.

The site is called Poker Incentives Review.

The following items will be required to be completed by the successful coder:

1) Website designed and coded (as described below). It would also have to be uploaded onto a server of my choosing.

2) Three (3) 468x60 banners would be created so I can promote the website.

3) Three (3) 125x125 banners would also need to be created for site promotion.

1) Website:

General:

I like the current layout but I am open to suggestions. The logo, colours and other things can all be changed. Currently the website is made up of frames but again this can be changed (it was only done so that I could easily design a rough sketch of it).

The site should have good meta tags on each page to help with the search engine rankings.

Top:

The logo should appear on the left with a slogan as well. Poker Incentives Review, The Complete Guide To Poker Incentives. The banner ad should then appear in the middle of screen. This banner should be a rotating one where customers can buy 10% of the sites impressions and the banner changes on every page load. Ideally stats should be available for it.

A control panel would also be needed so I can easily maintain these banner ads.

Right:

This part of the site would be blank initially but must be able to contain two (2) 125*125 banner ads (below each other) which would advertise 2 other sites that I hope to set up in the future.

Left:

This side of the screen would be 2 have different sections. 1 section would contain a list of all of the poker sites. The other section would contain a list of all the poker affiliate sites. These would be linked to the appropriate section of the website for the user to get more information on them.

Ideally it would be good for these sections to be able to be in a different order based on what page the site is on. If we are in the directory page, the affiliates should be listed on top of the poker sites. Otherwise it should be the other way around.

Home Page:

This would have a brief intro (probably better than what I currently have). It would then list all of the Incentives by Poker site in alphabetical order. The order of incentives offered by affiliates is determined by a monthly auction. These offers would follow 1 at a time under each poker site.

Each offer would be linked to the affiliate site information page provided in the directory.

Also some of the sites might be linked together if they are in the same network. I will explain what sites would need this.

Overview:

This page contains a series of FAQ explaining how the site works. If the page gets too big it might have to have anchors or some other organising system attached to it.

Directory:

This would contain a brief intro. It would then list all of the affiliate sites in the order determined by the monthly order and then list all of there offers and information (the same setup as on URL Not Found / Outdated.

Stats such as click-throughs would ideally be provided so that each affiliate can see how effective listing on the site is.

Forum:

This would link to a forum. This forum should be modelled to look like the main site. Ideally it should also be able to display banner ads at the top of it.

Advertising:

This would list all of the various advertising options available to people. It would then have Paypal and Neteller (another payment option) buttons down the bottom so the people can easily pay for there advertising.

The auction would be conducted via email and I would send out separate bills to each person for this.

This would also be were advertisers log in to view there stats on the banner ads and from there listing on the site.

Newsletter:

This takes users to a page where they can signup for a newsletter from my site. This would have to be a double opt in process.

A control panel would also be needed so I can easily write and manage this newsletter

Referrals

This is not on my initial designs but I would like it added as a main menu between the newsletter and contact us button.

This would allow people to refer advertisers and get a % of the sale

Allow people to refer others to the sites newsletter and go into the draw to win a monthly prize.

Contact Us:

This would have all the contact us information.


Ideally I am looking for a coder who would be willing to work with me on additional projects similar to this in the future.
 
I am sorry this is happening to you!

Unfortunately it happens a lot in our industry.

Your patent lawyer should have some input, if you have one. You may also want to check out Larry Walters, he handles a lot of cases like yours. His address:
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.


Most of the time just a firm communication will work though. From my own experience, thieves scare quite easily.
 
Well, in the dirty tricks department you could ask the coder who did your site to answer the "help wanted ad", take the job, and then stall stall stall...
 
mary said:
Well, in the dirty tricks department you could ask the coder who did your site to answer the "help wanted ad", take the job, and then stall stall stall...


:D :lolup: :D

Yes or build in some unpleasant surprises.
 
I am the developer so i doubt he wants my bid!

Anyway Rentacoder.com decided that I have a legit enough claim to remove him off their site and see if he comes up with a reasonable response. I doubt it but who knows.

I have a screenshot of the first ripoff person with the entire layout and wording the same as my site. I am certainly going to take the next step towards exercising my legal rights on him too.
 
pokeraddict said:
Anyway Rentacoder.com decided that I have a legit enough claim to remove him off their site and see if he comes up with a reasonable response. I doubt it but who knows.

Please let us know what happens with that.
 
It has reincarnated in a more politically correct listing at rentacoder.com. Not much I can do now I guess. I am sure the site will be a total ripoff but I do not guess there is anything to do now since it isnt blatant. :( I just have to keep my product the best.
 
Look at the dickhead!!

Take a look at this page:
Link Removed ( Old/Invalid)

and see if it's any different than this:
https://www.casinomeister.com/accredited-casinos/

What a dick!! And what a stupid one at that thinking he wouldn't get caught. The appropriate affiliate managers have been notified (as well as the webmaster) - I'm wondering what this guy has to say for himself.

What an a-hole!
 
** This is really a crummy situation to be in.. (and I am putting it mildly!) It is unfortuanate that some pple do this, on the other hand, maybe it is a compliment to you too.. Either way.. If it did not affect any players, i'd put up the crappiest website I can muster (Angelfire-home-page) style on that domain, hehehe... STEAL THAT YOU BUGGERS! But it is not practical I know... The other option is to find out what the site name is maybe... and insist on a disclaimer that says that "www.blahblah.com (YOU) are by no means associated with this website, nor do you approve or endorse any of their bussiness practices." or something of that nature... **
 

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