Our original domain is https://wasp-lang.dev, while the fake one is https://wasp-lang.net/. They didn't change anything, even all of the URLs remained the same. Also didn't try to get in touch with us, we discovered it by accident.<p>I'm not sure what is their motivation (sell us domain at a premium?), but doesn't sound benign. What can we even do in such a situation?<p>Thanks for your advice!
This seems like it would be mostly automated on their part. You could add a bit of Javascript on your site and wait for them to mirror it.<p>if (document.location.hostname == 'wasp-lang.net') document.write("");<p>Making it a pain for them would make it probably not worth bothering with.
The HTML source has this:<p><!-- Mirrored from wasp-lang.dev/ by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Fri, 14 Jan 2022 14:26:50 GMT --><p>So it seems that this is a mirror and using this tool <a href="https://www.httrack.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.httrack.com</a> to copy your site<p>The site is hosted on a Vultr VPS in Singapore. Could be someone there but you can raise a DMCA request with Vultr here:<p><a href="https://www.vultr.com/legal/copyright/" rel="nofollow">https://www.vultr.com/legal/copyright/</a><p>Attn: David Gucker, DMCA Agent.
319 Clematis Street Suite 900
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
732-566-1268 (fax)
Email: dmca@vultr.com
I guess the first thing would be to try and contact them. They've anonymised their WHOIS info but it looks like there's a unique email associated with the domain: 53fdcf64883c49cb959ebaab98cea57e.protect@withheldforprivacy.com<p>Try emailing them and asking WTF they're doing?
I have EXTENSIVE experience with this, as I’ve dealt with it many times as a brand owner.<p>The strategy is to attack them from all sides.<p>1) Shopify DMCA
2) Cloudflare DMCA
3) Web host DMCA
4) Look at any widgets or services they use on the page - DMCA
5) Get a lawyer to email them notice of violation and lawsuit
6) Google DMCA
7) Registrar DMCA<p>I’ve had most luck with 1 and 2 (most responsive). Others can work but take more time 2-3 months.<p>8) Order from their store (If they are selling) and write your company name as customer (so they can see you are buying to pursue legal action).<p>9) Start adding any relevant keywords they might be using on their domain to your website to catch any traffic (like variations of your trademark).<p>With all of these listed, the best method is to cite your Trademark # in each email. There’s a specific template for each service provider which needs to follow guidelines for takedown requests (such as your signature, mailing address etc), make sure you include all those relevant points or they may ignore your request.
Someone bought a domain I let expire (intentionally - I no longer wanted to run that site) and appears to have mirrored all the content on it with occasional ad links thrown in here and there.<p>It's weird.<p>I don't want to link to the site because I don't want to drive traffic to them.
Also might be just SEO squatting... May throw up a bunch of AdSense ads on their side, the fact that there is a duplicate site is a problem for you, do what the comments say with adversarial stuff and complain to as many parties as possible including DMCA, registrars and the Microsoft/Google deceptive Site lists, etc. Don't let your domain expire or you'll get it bought of you and content mirrored there too which is surprisingly common
Given they've literally just deployed a copy of an open-source website, I'd guess it was a mistake rather than malicious: possibly someone who was testing out vultr's hosting or perhaps someone trying out docosaurus (given your website is listed in their showcase as open-source: <a href="https://docusaurus.io/showcase" rel="nofollow">https://docusaurus.io/showcase</a>). Easy enough to imagine someone running through a deployment process that <i>intelligently</i> recommends a domain to register for them.<p>If malicious, it's probably not about the site content and rather they're sending out emails pretending to be you.
I wouldn't be surprised if they attempt to sell you the domain. It's a bit more elaborate than those Chinese cons where they want to sell you obscure domains similar to yours.<p>That said, I'm with you surely there is more to this?
Basically I would challenge them on the bluff. I would take down my website and be like, "hey cool so I guess you're in charge now.". I would stop doing things in public related to the previous thing that was copied. I would see how far they take things. When they get bored and wasted enough of their own money on this I would pop back up.