{"id":2583,"date":"2019-09-09T13:43:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T13:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/?p=2583"},"modified":"2023-07-24T14:07:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T14:07:57","slug":"digital-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/digital-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with Online Scams &#8211; Digital SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a current online jobs scam using my name, Leslie Gilmour and a website called Digital SEO.net.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lesliegilmour?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@lesliegilmour<\/a> Hi, I&#39;m a reporter for the Mirror. Would u b free for a quick chat to confirm you have nothing to do with a circulating scam?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Abigail O&#39;Leary (@AbigailOLeary) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AbigailOLeary\/status\/773862557073436672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 8, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>First off \u2013 it is a scam \u2013 do not give them money.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I first became aware of this a month or so ago.&nbsp; In Google Search Console \u2013 Google\u2019s webmaster help platform.<\/p>\n<p>Google list on this platform keywords that visitors use to find your website.&nbsp; My two highest search terms are now \u201cdigital SEO Leslie Gilmour\u201d and Leslie Gilmour digital SEO\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>So I went to investigate and found a website that is purporting to be me.&nbsp; A pain.&nbsp; I did nothing.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/cubedigital.io\/locations\/seo-agency-dublin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">I run an SEO agency in Dublin and<\/a> have been running websites for 10 years and I am used to scammers stealing my content and lying.&nbsp; I see it as an occupational hazard.<\/p>\n<p>This scam has had a long life to date. They have used the names of various people and various innocent companies since 28\/4\/2016.<\/p>\n<p>The scam follows the same pattern:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Offer of a job interview<\/li>\n<li>Time set for an interview by telephone<\/li>\n<li>Cancellation of the job interview<\/li>\n<li>Offer of the job anyway<\/li>\n<li>Contract sent in email<\/li>\n<li>Email stating a criminal records check must be completed<\/li>\n<li>A link is provided to a website that performs the check for \u00a3100<\/li>\n<li>You lose your money and don\u2019t have a job<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A few weeks ago I started getting messages on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lesliegilmour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a> and LinkedIn from people that were being offered jobs.&nbsp; They were seriously considering taking this offer.<\/p>\n<p>I told them it was a scam, and some were still so desperate for work they were not for completely believing me at first.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, I knew I had to take action.&nbsp; In retrospect, it was stupid of me to ignore this.&nbsp; I really did not think anyone would fall for such a scam \u2013 I am wrong.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/nabsta192\/status\/773141620137033728<\/p>\n<h2>Report to Police<\/h2>\n<p>Please report to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionfraud.police.uk\/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime\" class=\"broken_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Police here<\/a>, or to your local station.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the Police are underfunded and don\u2019t have the resources to deal with this&nbsp;type of scam quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Their main priority is not this type of fraud.&nbsp; Their main targets are listed on their website. &nbsp;This is way down the list \u2013 and in many ways, I can understand that when I read about some of the other online issues they deal with.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I have reported via their online system. (Not very user-friendly\u2026)<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/tom_gov\/status\/773800920211652608<\/p>\n<h2>Take Down Notices &#8211; DMCA<\/h2>\n<p>When content is copied on another website you can send a DMCA notice. Digital Millennium Copyright Act \u2013 perhaps not completely appropriate in this case \u2013 but I had to start somewhere.<\/p>\n<p>UP DATE \u2013 DMCA notices are only valid in the US.<\/p>\n<p>The first went to Google.&nbsp; I hold little hope of anything happening from that.&nbsp; Google is an automation driven company; they must get 1,000\u2019s of these notices every day.<\/p>\n<p>I sent a DMCA notice to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsohost.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TSO Host<\/a>, a web hosting company where the Digital SEO website was hosted.&nbsp; I communicated with one of the company directors and explained what was happening.<\/p>\n<p>He took immediate action and stopped hosting this website.<\/p>\n<p>Great I thought, I can get on with real work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now it is hosted with Digiweb in Ireland.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I sent them a DMCA notice and had a telephone call where I explained what is happening and what this company is doing.<\/p>\n<p>Digiweb said although these servers are in their data centre they are either rented or owned by another company.&nbsp; They said they can do nothing and would pass on the DMCA notice.<\/p>\n<p>So far nothing.<\/p>\n<p>The company which owns or rents the servers from Digiweb are Dedi Serve<\/p>\n<p>Dedi Serve do not have a contact number on their website.<\/p>\n<p>Every web host is supposed to have an abuse email address.&nbsp; The abuse email address for Dedi Serve is abuse@cldr.eu &#8211; a non-existent domain name that is not even registered.<\/p>\n<p>I mentioned this on Twitter.&nbsp; They have told me to open a support ticket.&nbsp; I will when I am finished writing this.<\/p>\n<p>This scam effects every web host company the scammers use and just taking the site down does not do any good.&nbsp; They can be back up and running within an hour with another web host \u2013 and I could have a full-time job chasing them around.<\/p>\n<h2>Domain Privacy<\/h2>\n<p>Domains can be registered with privacy.&nbsp; There are many good reasons for this.<\/p>\n<p>But, this domain name is held using a <a href=\"https:\/\/whois.icann.org\/en\/lookup?name=digitalseo.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UK resident&#8217;s name<\/a>. &nbsp;I am not going to add his name here as I think it is likely his name is just being used by the scammers also.<\/p>\n<p>The domain name is registered with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/en-uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">Godaddy in the US<\/a>.&nbsp; I have now given them this information and my belief that the whois information is fake.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, with that information, they will take possession of the domain name.<\/p>\n<p>But that will not stop them.<\/p>\n<h2>This is Just Another Tax<\/h2>\n<p>I can phrase that better &#8211; this is just another tax on people who can least afford it.<\/p>\n<p>I blame all of us for this problem.<\/p>\n<p>The Irish police will not take a report from me.&nbsp; They insist that all criminal reports are either emergency or are made in person at the police station.<\/p>\n<p>I am currently in Prague.<\/p>\n<p>The Irish police suggest that I go to the local police office here in Prague and report there.&nbsp; They say the Czech police will send it via Interpol to Ireland.&nbsp; Is this the best way we can organise things?<\/p>\n<p>I have reported to the UK police, as stated above.<\/p>\n<p>I have looked at the ICANN website who are responsible for .net domains.&nbsp; They cannot \/ will not do anything and suggest local law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>While we all insist on paying as low tax as possible and decimating public services this will become more and more of a problem.<\/p>\n<p>I am not the only person that has been affected by this scam.&nbsp; People have lost money, and other companies have been used.&nbsp; There is a fairly big list you can see if you scan through this.<\/p>\n<p>I think it is likely that the web host will take down this site, and likely that Godaddy will repossess the domain name. &nbsp;But, this will all be to no effect.<\/p>\n<p>Another domain name will cost a few pounds and they will back. &nbsp;This does need action from the police.<\/p>\n<p>I will update as I get more information.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATE 12\/10\/16<\/p>\n<p>So no luck getting the police or the Irish web hosting company to take action.<\/p>\n<p>A friend who runs a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blacknight.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">web hosting company in Ireland<\/a> reached out to the domain registrar who is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/en-uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">Godaddy<\/a>. &nbsp;I supplied them with all the information and they took the site down. &nbsp;Interestingly the domain is now up for sale&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2583"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3201,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions\/3201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesliegilmour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}