We are from an E commerce Company, A product based Marketplace We are an e-selling Platform that connects buyers with sellers who cater to the products & categories specifically in this domain.
With the help of Customers and Sellers feedback, data analysis understanding, we revamped as a new name, with a new, different look.
We got a wonderful opportunity to present our idea at TheRodinhoods Delhi Open House held on Aug 22, 2015. We got valuable insights, feedbacks & suggestions about our venture from Alok, Sairee and all the talented Entrepreneurs present.
Yesterday (Oct 1, 2015) at around 7:00 pm I was just going through my email inbox. My eyes sighted a shocking email, with exact subject lines that we have been using for our promotions. I looked into the mail and figured out that the concept of the mailer was also copied.
Amazed, I called my partner to look at what’s happening?
We looked further, clicked on the mailer and there was even more. The entire theme of our website was copied, the background image, presentation & content. The only difference was the name & logo of the website. We were numb for a second and then immediately reached our tech team and sent an email to Asha who suggested we reach out to the community for help.
Our first call was to change our backdrop image, so our viewers should not mislead & register thinking it as our parent website.
Meanwhile our tech was looking into the issue. They informed us that “someone with little tech knowledge has played with us, drawing information from inspect element.”
If you look at the snapshots below, you will see that the below image name has been used on their page. Whenever we make any changes in our homepage, the changes can be seen on the other website too.
#Incident 1: Our current look, we changed our backdrop & their backdrop also changed.
Fraud website screenshot, this is visible on there homepage.
#incident 2: They copied our Image name (Visible on there homepage, when we click on inspect element.
After we had all the discussions, around 1:00 AM I again thought of just browsing this website, which copied pasted our entire concept.
I jumped of my bed, the image we changed on our backdrop, automatically displayed on the backdrop of this fraud website. We inquired, investigated and know the name of the company & its owners, but at this stage we do not want to reveal (a call taken by our team.)
They created our fake email ID as well and scooted mails to people. This entire case has really affected us, specially just before the launch and we are looking forward for help & suggestions on the same at the earliest. We are really upset and not sure why someone is doing this.
Pls suggest next steps for us?
How to deal with such cyber crimes?
Hack-free software’s that we can use to prevent such thing?
What corrective legal measures should we take?
While we write this post, we get this watsapp on our personal number, check the screenshot below.
We really need your help.
Thank you in advance.