Someone Has Cloned My Site But Isn't Mirroring

Technical Q&A
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1

So, I found out last week that someone has cloned my site but it isn’t mirrored. They have content up from WAYYY earlier in they year. I dug through every shopify conversation that I could looking for solutions to redirect, make them continuously load, put a 404 on their landing page, but nothing has worked.

At this point I have reported with Shopify (heard nothing back), cloudfare (heard nothing back), google (nothing has been done), Microsoft (nothing done), IFC (heard nothing back), FBI (heard nothing back), reported them on spam sites (the only thing that has worked). I don’t believe that they are stealing my traffic yet, but they are starting to rank on my branded search page because of my SEO.

Can someone please refer me to a ShopifyPro who can fix, or give me some possible solutions?

My Website:

wayoutwesttrading.com

Fraud Website:

https://elliottcasey.com/

2

You can file a DMCA takedown request directly with the hosting provider of the cloned site to get it removed. Additionally, using Google Search Console, you can disavow any backlinks from the fraudulent site to protect your SEO.

3

Thanks so much. Already filed a DMCA with Cloudfare but it looks like that process is being a bit longer than I’d hoped. I’ll dive in to the Search Console right now. Would you know if there is any way I can find how they got in and reverse it?

4

Hello,

The domain is registered via a Chinese domain registrar but you could try to contact them and notify them of copyright and trademark infringement. I don’t know how successful you will be, but that is your best bet. These are possible email addresses that I’ve seen associated with them, hopefully one of them works.

abuse@diymysite.com

demi@diymysite.com

westabuse@gmail.com

If that doesn’t work, consider a DMCA takedown notice with places that you see your content (diymysite.com, google, etc).

Best of luck!

Travis

5

Hi @way_out_west, sorry you’re dealing with this. Since the clone is not mirroring live changes, I’d treat it a bit differently from the “real-time mirror” cases.

Disclosure up front: I’m behind ShadowShield, which focuses on protecting Shopify landing pages from cloning. It does not protect ads or Shopify checkout.

For your case, I’d split the response into three parts:

  1. SEO cleanup: use Google Search Console to document the copied URLs, request removals where possible, and keep a clear record that the copied site is duplicating your content.

  2. Takedown evidence: keep screenshots, matching page URLs, copied product/page content, domain/registrar/host details, and proof that your pages existed first. That makes DMCA/trademark complaints stronger.

  3. Prevention going forward: because this looks like a static copy rather than a live mirror, the main goal is to make future copying less useful and easier to detect quickly. Protect the highest-value landing/product pages first, especially pages that rank for branded searches or drive paid/organic traffic.

I would not spend too much time trying to make code on your real Shopify site redirect the fake site. If they already copied an older version and host it separately, your current theme changes usually won’t affect them. The useful technical layer is more about reducing future copying and catching new clones early.

6

A WHOIS lookup on the fake domain should show you the registrar and, if it’s not privacy-shielded, an abuse contact you can email directly, often faster than waiting on Cloudflare’s DMCA queue. WhoisFreaks has a free WHOIS lookup tool, no account needed. Worth checking DNS records too, sometimes a cloned site shares hosting infrastructure with other domains tied to the same operator.