Can anyone check for me whether my theme is legit or not?

Shopify Discussion
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Hello everyone,

I paid someone online I met on Facebook to create a Shopify store for me. The store link is aabkntrends.com

The thing is, I went to customize the store settings on my own. I wanted to change how my store looked. When I went to the themes section of my store settings, my theme’s name is “aabkntrends”. He must’ve used his own customized theme to make my store.

My questions are:

  1. Is there any way to know what theme he may have used as a base to create and customize my own store?

  2. How can I know whether he is using a pirated theme or a legit one? I mean I don’t know whether he may have injected some malicious code or not no matter what he says.

All Shopify theme detectors online show that the theme name is “aabkntrends”. Now of course he may have completely made and created his own theme and not just customize some existing theme through its files, but I have no way of knowing that and that is why I am asking these questions here.

I am concerned that Google may reduce my SEO score when I launch my store if it does not my store trustworthy.

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Hi @alizaka26

Thank you for reaching out about this concern of yours. I can definitely understand how important it is to ensure you have a legitimate and reliable theme on your store.

From within your store admin, if you go to Online Store > Themes > Customize Theme, there is a menu in the upper left of the theme editor with 3 dots (see screenshot below). What do you see in that menu? Does it have a version #, links to supporting docs, etc? The documentation links and the links to “Get support” should refer back to the theme developer.

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Hi @Shay ,

I cannot believe how simple it was. The documentation leads me to this website https://boostertheme.com

Ok, this theme costs $250 PER YEAR! Whoa!!!

I paid like $110 for the complete creation of my store. So the theme is definitely cracked/pirated. I do not wish to use such a theme as whatever source he got the theme files from, it must be tampered with.

Ok so a few more questions:

  1. What sort of danger I may be looking at in the worst-case scenario? Like how secure are Shopify’s servers? Can the malicious code make its way to any new theme I choose to install?

  2. What should I do at this point? I don’t really want to mess things up, so I really look forward to some professional advice.

Oh and also, is it possible that my website start showing weird behaviors like redirections due to some virus or rather, my earnings being taken away from me?

Thanks a lot! I was completely confused as to what to do regarding my used theme before.

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I’m really sorry to hear that is the case. This is never a great situation to be in but I sincerely applaud you for being aware of it and looking into the options to get this resolved.

You mentioned some concerns about malicious code or the risk of using this theme file once a license is purchased for it. I’d be happy to clarify that for you!

When a theme file is originally purchased and downloaded you have access to all the theme file code. From there you can duplicate the code easily and potentially reuse it on other store accounts. The term “cracked” from a software point of view usually does mean a program has been used to override the software security features, but in terms of a theme file it just means that someone has copied the original code used in the file and shared it outside of the scope of their license.

Are there concerns that this theme file might have malicious code embedded in it? There is a slight chance of that. The areas that would be of main concern (like the Shopify checkout) are locked down though and the code for that can’t be altered unless you are on a Shopify Plus plan. There is also no concern that any modifications built into this theme file could transfer over to a new theme file. Most likely, the theme itself is just a vanilla copy of the original theme that was purchased.

You also mentioned concerns about redirects from your store. A redirect is generally managed through the domain URL, and not through the theme code. I’m not a trained developer myself, so I can’t say for sure about that. Hopefully one of our partners in the forum can shed some light on that topic for you.

Do you have access to the DNS settings for the domain on the store? If not, I would strongly recommend purchasing a new domain so that you are in full control of the website address.

Moving forward, there are two avenues I can suggest. The first one is purchasing your own copy of this theme file so that you have a valid license for it. From there you can download a fresh version and use the current theme as a template to recreate in a fresh copy of the theme. Once you get familiar with the theme editor, it should only take a few hours to recreate the theme experience.

Alternatively, you can dump this theme file altogether and rebuild on the customer facing website using a free Shopify theme (or a purchased theme of your choice). Shopify offers a range of free themes you can consider for your website and there are also external theme sites available that offer a range of themes at varying prices.

I recognize that neither option is really ideal. I will say though that investing in a high quality theme file that has a lot of bells and whistles embedded in it like the Booster theme is not a bad thing. A high quality theme is worth it’s weight. This theme file is a bit on the more expensive end of things, but comes with a lot of great features.

You can take a look at the available themes in the Shopify theme store here: Free and Premium Themes for Your Online Store.

Please let me know if you have any other questions I can help with.

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Same thing happened to me but after 4 months of store being online suddenly i am hit by a week’s notice that the store is unlicensed even thou when I do all of these things they definitely go back to the theme developer, so do i have a license or not?

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Hi @Lumire

I am really sorry to hear that you have been dealing with this. Do you have a receipt for your theme purchase from the developer’s website or the Shopify theme store? If yes, please ensure to reply to your ticket with that evidence. Do you remember where you purchased this theme file from?