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Our website design was stolen

16 points by esamek ↗ HN
I am the lead UI/UX Engineer for a company called HelloWallet in based in DC, and I came into work yesterday and was sent a link to this website: http://themattressboutique.com/

Our website is located here: http://www.hellowallet.com

Notice any similarities? We are taking the necessary actions but I am curious, what would you all do in this situation?

Here is the traceroute: xe-7-2-0-32767-sur01.floridaave.dc.bad.comcast.net (68.85.81.181) 9.943 ms 13.016 ms 10.529 ms 4 ae-20-0-ar04.capitolhghts.md.bad.comcast.net (68.85.115.201) 35.839 ms 22.171 ms 12.891 ms 5 pos-5-7-0-0-cr01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.90.85) 33.425 ms 20.759 ms pos-4-3-0-0-cr01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.90.173) 17.624 ms 6 xe-11-1-0.edge2.washington12.level3.net (4.26.6.21) 20.346 ms 19.578 ms 17.183 ms 7 vlan51.ebr1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.146.190) 78.736 ms 76.601 ms 76.790 ms 8 ae-6-6.ebr1.atlanta2.level3.net (4.69.148.105) 78.316 ms 77.705 ms 77.245 ms 9 ae-63-63.ebr3.atlanta2.level3.net (4.69.148.241) 77.589 ms 79.110 ms 78.466 ms 10 ae-7-7.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net (4.69.134.21) 78.302 ms 78.583 ms 80.935 ms 11 ae-3-3.ebr2.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.132.77) 76.571 ms 77.794 ms 76.753 ms 12 ae-82-82.csw3.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.137.26) 78.186 ms ae-92-92.csw4.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.137.30) 77.761 ms ae-62-62.csw1.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.137.18) 83.570 ms 13 ae-2-70.edge6.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.144.78) 75.762 ms ae-3-80.edge6.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.144.142) 79.727 ms ae-4-90.edge6.losangeles1.level3.net (4.69.144.206) 77.652 ms 14 * * * 15 * * * 16 web04.lax1.pronethosting.net (209.151.224.237) 107.211 ms 76.224 ms 77.021 ms

And here is the web hosting company that is hosting it: http://www.coolhandle.com/

Flattering, huh?

22 comments

[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 52.8 ms ] thread
BSousa
No idea what plan you will pursue, but try and contacting the company first.

This isn't the first time I see something like this, where the infringing company outsourced the design or even bought a design from ThemeForest like site and had no idea they were infringing.

somid3
Shugs, that is terrible. I would contact them company directly and let them know. Could be that they used a separate web-design company who is to be blamed
jordigh
I hope you alert the authorities about this theft so that you can quickly recover your stolen property. Is your business being impacted in the meantime due to your deprivation of this property? Do you have a backup design you can use until you recover the stolen one?
esamek
Unsure if we are impacted, but doubtful.

No need to have a backup design IMO. This is just our marketing site.

mromanuk
Probably they are Picasso followers "good artists copy but great artists steal"

Blatant copy by the way...

jedimike
Now I'm not one to promote petty revenge (unless it's VERY amusing), but there are a few scripts and images that they're loading from the hellowallet.com servers, and from filostudios.com, who I presume did your design.

If someone were to change these files, they could dramatically alter the look and behaviour of themattressboutique.com quite easily...

esamek
They did not do our design.

Have no idea who they are.

ukandy
I'm sure they will be getting an awkward call from their client very soon..
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
rtehfm
I work in the security/abuse department for one of the largest web hosting companies in the world and we see these types of complaints regularly. The best way to go about this would be to email the abuse@ email for the IP which is abuse@pronethosting.net. If you can't get a hold of them that way, contact the colocation company directly. Their website is http://www.cyberverse.com/.

You can find out more about this process at:

http://rising.blackstar.com/how-to-send-a-dmca-takedown-noti...

Network Information:

DNS Zone source: http://leafdns.com/index.cgi?testid=329C603D DNS Zone source: http://www.intodns.com/themattressboutique.com IP WHOIS: http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-209-151-224-224-1/pft

Let me know if you need any other information.

esamek
Thanks for the info.

We are taking appropriate actions. We have some of the best on our side :-).

jwcrux
Should be pretty obvious... they have hellowallet references in the page source.
jwcrux
Also, they are hotlinking to some images you are hosting.

You can have fun with this by changing the image to something "not ideal".

notjustanymike
Putting a single document.write(""); in one of your script files should solve this pretty quickly...
kris121
you should send a mail to department of abuse to hosting company where they copycat monkey have host their site.

i have experience with a image copy and here is a solution we made ;-

if their is too many people have stole or hotlinking the image from your server then change the image to 'this image is stolen and something lorem ipsum'. change the image to another name and update it on pages where you have used them.

this way you can show on the people site that they hosted something illegal. tough but solid way.

anons2011
They've even got your GA code in the source!
thrizzle
Also var disqus_shortname = 'hellowallet'. Sad.
musiic703
Esamek, I was wondering if you can contact me by email. I have a few questions.

Ruben.leija@me.com

[dead] musiic703
Esamek, I was wondering if you can contact me by email. I have a few questions.

Ruben.leija@me.com

ante_annum
Cuurently `en constracion`. Looks like your takedown worked.