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How Do I Fight Russian Site Cloners?
An anonymous reader writes "I used to run a small web design service, the domain for which I allowed to expire after years of non-use. A few weeks ago, I noticed that my old site was back online at the old domain. The site-cloners are now using my old email addresses to gain access to old third-party web services accounts (invoicing tools, etc.) and are fraudulently billing my clients for years of services. I've contacted the Russian site host, PayPal, and the invoicing service. What more can I do? Can I fight back?"
Excellent idea! If you file the claim, the scammers have to file a reply, or they lose by default. Since people like this are bottom feeders who move from one scam to another, I seriously doubt they'll want to expose themselves by filing a response. Like cockroaches exposed to a light, they'll scurry away.
The problem with this is that the scammers can send just out another mail calling him the scammer and 'reassuring' the customers that everything is okay and keep the money flowing. Who are they going to believe, originalguy@gmail.com or admin@originaldomain.com?
He needs some way of proving who he is. He may have to resort to calling each customer directly to convince them, perhaps by referencing details of their relationship and past transactions that the scammers shouldn't know.