Found a web scrape thief – now what?

In my opinion, web scrapers are scum. Maybe not the type of scum who would do something brutally vicious to another living thing but certainly the type of scum who would reach into your open wallet when your head is turned.

A few days ago, I wrote an article that describes how I find people scraping my content. These web scrapers like to hide behind anonymous identities so they don’t even have to feel guilty about stealing from you. Many of them don’t even view the practice as stealing since they aren’t literally taking money from your bank account. But they are taking your hard work and passing it off as their own — virtually the same thing if you ask me!

The reality is, sadly, even when they get caught, they usually only get a slap on their wrists if anything at all! In other words, they don’t have much to lose other than their conscience.

So what can you do to stop a scraper when you find one? The first thing is to find their hosting company. Many of the best web hosting companies have scraping listed as a violation to their TOS. Once you notify them and can provide evidence that you wrote the content, the hosting company will shut down the scraper’s site.

Don’t bother contacting the scraper directly; trust me, you won’t hear back. There are no accidents when it comes to scraping. This is an intentional act of stealing from you.

Step-by-step scraper shutdown

Go to Whois and enter the scraper’s URL.
When the results are returned, click on the Server Stats tab.
Record the IP Location (which includes the hosting company).
Go to the web hosting company’s site and contact their customer service.

Voila! The scraper’s site should be suspended almost immediately. In the event you’re looking for a new home yourself, you can try SherWeb Exchange Hosting 2010.

Not only will you feel good about keeping your hard work to yourself but you’ll also prevent any duplicate content penalties from search engines.

Do you have a scraping story you can share?

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This entry was posted on 2010/03/26, 12:01 am and is filed under Leveraging tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

48 Comments

At 2010.03.26 00:30, Market Samurai Discount said:

Thanks for clearing that up Gabe!I have had people do this to mean as I mentioned in your last post, but didn’t know how to go about it. But now I do, I think I will go and protect my content!

[Reply]
- At 2010.03.27 14:44, Gabe Young said:
  
  I know, it’s hard to find time to pay attention but you wants their hard work being published by someone else?
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.03.26 00:35, Brad said:

1. Report it to general list: http://splogspot.com/pages/submit

2. Use whos hosting this (http://www.whoishostingthis.com/) (lists IP/screenshot/DNS/hosting company)

3. If the hosting company has servers outside of the U.S. (almost none do) then you can’t sent a DCMA (that includes Canada!).
.-= Brad´s last blog ..More Smart Phone Touch Screens Get Tested iPhone Still Top Dog =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.03.27 14:44, Gabe Young said:
  
  Thanks for your tips, Brad!
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.03.26 00:41, Dave Doolin said:

Timely, I”m about to publish my little article fitting in between these two. Came back looking for link to previous, found this one. Excellent! Will bracket.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How to Practice Blogging Like a Master – You can do this =-.

[Reply]
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At 2010.03.26 03:18, 7 Excellent Tips for Handing Content Robbers | Website In A Weekend said:

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At 2010.03.26 08:11, Cebu Tech Blogger said:

I’m just wondering why the heck the owner of this blog ( technology.electronicscenterblog.com ) keep on scraping contents from other sites including mine… It doesn’t even have any ads… Thanks for sharing this, Gabe…
.-= Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..What is a Blog and what is Blogging? =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.03.27 14:44, Gabe Young said:
  
  That is a little strange but maybe he’s getting ready to add some ads?!?
  
  [Reply]
  - At 2010.03.27 15:18, Cebu Tech Blogger said:
    
    Maybe… I tried your suggestions from your follow-up post on how to act against content scraping, hope the hosting provider response to my email.
    .-= Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..Line2 VOIP App for iPhone is down =-.
    
    [Reply]
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At 2010.03.28 05:23, Satriya said:

thanks for the step by step, but we must protect our own content with copyright before. nice idea.
.-= Satriya´s last blog ..Batik and Indonesia Java International Destination =-.

[Reply]
At 2010.03.28 12:52, Dennis Edell said:

It’s a judgment call, but yes, sometimes contacting the scraper does work. I’ve had scraped content of mine removed with an email or two.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Holy Power Outage Batman, Not Again! Yep, Another Two Days Shot to Hell… =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.03.28 21:52, Gabe Young said:
  
  Even if it does work, it’s only because they don’t want you to contact their host to shut them down. And the reality is, unless you report them, they’re just going to scrape from other people.
  
  I know, they can still move on with a new domain and new host but at least we can make them jump through a few hoops!
  
  [Reply]
  - At 2010.03.29 12:18, Dennis Edell said:
    
    True enough in most cases, and I do have a bad case of giving benefits of doubts, lol.
    
    Every once in a while though it does pay off. I’ve met more then one true beginner who was sincerely apologetic.
    
    What’s worse is every now and then, you’ll hear, sorry I learned it from so and so. Now THAT, oh man don’t even get me started.
    .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Attention Readers of all Kinds! – Multiple Articles Comin’ Atcha!! =-.
    
    [Reply]
    - At 2010.03.29 12:51, Gabe Young said:
      
      You’re a nicer guy than I am! I personally prefer to just have them shutdown and move on with my life.
      
      I mean, who doesn’t know that copying an article word-for-word doesn’t violate something? Surely no one can be that ignorant, right?
      
      [Reply]
      - At 2010.03.29 18:01, Dennis Edell said:
        
        Now there’s a trick question.
        .-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Attention Readers of all Kinds! – Multiple Articles Comin’ Atcha!! =-.
        
        [Reply]
At 2010.03.29 12:11, Riley@Las Vegas Web Design said:

Great advice Gabe. I haven’t had much luck with contacting scrapers directly. However, I have had great success when contacting article directory websites to remove stolen content. So far, they’ve been quick to respond to copyright issues and either remove the article in question, or close the offending publisher’s account.

[Reply]
- At 2011.09.22 02:23, ribele said:
  
  From my experience, Eric always has very forward thinking.
  ribele’s last post…MTX 2-Channel 170-Watt Amplifier (THUNDER342): Electronics
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.03.29 21:51, Leo said:

I had a guy from Thailand stole my sites (he copied 5 of them) including contents of every page, graphics, etc. (except the contact us page the guy was too stupid to figure out what plugin I was using for the form so he skipped the page altogether). It can really get to you when someone does that. Be prepare to do some work if you want to file a formal DCMA (hosting companies won’t do anything unless you file a formal complaint).

I also found about 90% of web sites that publish the articles I submitted to EzineArticles would either strip off my resource boxes or remove the links. That’s same thing as stealing. Sad.
.-= Leo´s last blog ..Highly Profitable Secret Campaign Revealed =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.03.29 23:44, Gabe Young said:
  
  Stealing content is so easy and the penalties are almost non-existent, it’s amazing more people aren’t doing it. It’s a shame to say but it’s true.
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.03.30 01:53, Vance Sova said:

Hi Gabe,

This is very helpful. But what do you do in case of sites that scrape content automatically?

Would the same apply? There is nobody to be found behind the site. I checked one site and it has changed hands many times over.

It had a comment box so I posted a comment there which was promptly removed as I asked them to remove the content they stole from me.

I just didn’t know what else to do. The sad part is that this site had a pretty good Google page rank and as soon as I posted on my blog this site stole the content and it was indexed by Google there first before it was indexed on my blog.

It took days before my blog was higher in search results than the thief’s. I wish they would catch it right away and stop giving any ranking to scrapers.

Recently I visited a blog where someone who commented was checked out by the blog owner who discovered that the guy’s blog was all stolen content and from the A bloggers to boot.

Vance
.-= Vance Sova´s last blog ..Marketing With Alex 3.0 Preview, Gurus Nightmare Alex’s New Ebook =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.03.30 07:54, Gabe Young said:
  
  I found that even though the Whois domain tool works well for the most part, these thieves can be quite elusive.
  
  If you are unable to track them down, the easiest ways to deal with them are: 1) add deep links to your articles since they’re most likely scraping the entire post from you and 2) post a few articles about what scumbags they are.
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.03.30 10:53, Logosupermarket said:

Fairly simple really, thanks for the help.

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At 2010.04.14 16:09, 1skyliner said:

Great advice Gabe. I haven’t had much luck with contacting scrapers directly. However, I have had great success when contacting article directory websites to remove stolen content. So far, they’ve been quick to respond to copyright issues and either remove the article in question, or close the offending publisher’s account.
.-= 1skyliner´s last blog ..Find Blogs Using the Top Commentators Plugin =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.04.14 17:05, Gabe Young said:
  
  Hosting companies are usually quick to react. As I mentioned in another response, even if contacting the thief works, they’d just move on to another target.
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.05.14 23:09, bibliobibuli said:

it simply isn’t true that you don’t hear back. do your detective work and name them and shame them. for me that has worked twice.
.-= bibliobibuli´s last blog ..Best Kids’ Books =-.

[Reply]
At 2010.05.15 08:36, Deanna Schrayer said:

I consider it fate that I found you. For the first time since I opened a blog last year, I discovered one of my posts copied word-for-word on a site without an owner name, obviously a scrapper. I was so angry! I just happened to see, at that moment, a tweet (via @mariblaser) about this post – how timely!
I do have a copyright page on my site(s) explaining what can be used, and what must be done, but obviously automatic scrappers, or not automatic for that matter, completely ignore this. I will be taking action today! Thank you so much for this step-by-step guide!
.-= Deanna Schrayer´s last blog ..Fibromyalgia Awareness Series – Make Fibromyalgia Visible, Part 4: My Story (How I Came to be Diagnosed with Fibromyalgia) =-.

[Reply]
- At 2010.05.15 23:00, Gabe Young said:
  
  Good luck with stopping that scrapper!
  
  [Reply]
At 2010.08.19 04:28, Dori Stein said:

Everyone doesn’t know what website scraping is. If you want to know the exact definition you should view:
http://www.fornova.net/blog/?p=4

[Reply]
At 2010.11.12 04:27, Catalin said:

To find a scrapper, I periodically google various lines from my posts and it’s quite easy from there.

[Reply]
At 2010.11.29 01:02, cleveland taxi said:

I appreciating your work..

[Reply]
At 2010.11.29 01:04, cleveland taxi said:

Excellent blog! I truly love how it’s easy on my eyes as well as the info are well written. I am wondering how I may be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day!

[Reply]
At 2011.03.18 06:01, الحب said:

Thanks fowr sharingdw nice blog and good list Gabe

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At 2011.04.09 15:25, Maggie said:

Hi Gabe, I came across your article because I recently discovered my content being copied on this site: http://www-catalog.net/ .

I tried to use your tips to find the person, but I cannot for the life of me find any contact info for his web hosting company. Do you have any tips for finding that information?

I’m so frustrated – my blog isn’t even well known – basically just my friends read it, but I still don’t want people stealing from me!

[Reply]
At 2011.05.12 07:52, porno said:

Timely, I”m about to publish my little article fitting in between these two. Came back looking for link to previous, found this one. Excellent! Will bracket.

[Reply]
At 2011.05.18 13:31, fa nyílászárók said:

exactly. web scrape thief may cause problems.. absolutely agree – you just waste your time to contact the thief. nothing more

[Reply]
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[Reply]
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