My Identity Crisis
Mikey 13 comments
Identity theft comes in many forms. I had never been a victim of said crime until yesterday when while checking the web stats I noticed 41 unique visits from a thread posted on the popular gaming forum IGN.
The thread starts off innocently enough, with 'Catsitter' asking for feedback on his first web site development project. But the link to his site is what got me startled. Apparently his first web site project was www.rustylime.com.
Only two people worked tirelessly to develop this web site, and Catsitter was not one of them. In fact we do not know anything about this person, other than he joined IGN on January 2006 and as of today has contributed 647 posts on said web site.
Why would someone steal the identity of a web master? For the life of me I can not understand why.
My friends and colleagues have mixed feelings. Some say I should take it as a compliment and others say I should do everything in my power to expose the bastard. The more I think about it the more I agree with the latter sentiment. Borrowing from someone's design is one thing and it happens often. But to just state 'hey see that web site? I made that' is asking for a digital butt kicking.
I have posted my official reply near the bottom of the thread and await an explanation. Until then, allow me to assure all Rusty Lime members and visitors alike that the web site you have come to know so well is in fact the result of blood, sweat and CSS by me and a close colleague.
We have no qualms with anyone borrowing from our design, or even making suggestions for improvement, but we draw the line at outright identity theft.
Links
Update: It seems the original DIGG link is no longer available, but I found another less popular one here for what it's worth. And the IGN thread has apparently been removed by a moderator, probably because when I exposed him people's response to Catsitter were not very kind. The Whirlpool thread where I posted my original discovery is here.
I did eventually get in contact with Catsitter via email, thanks to a online colleague in Sydney who figured out he was the site owner of Bold Claim. I stated we knew about the IGN thread and we do not take identity theft lightly and that he should come clean. His response was a single sentence - "I was advertising my site on that forum, where commercial activity is not permitted, so in order to shake any suspicion i grabbed your site off broadbandchoice forums and pretended it was mine."
I replied with "Your response was hardly explanatory, Please await a further email from us while we decide our next course of action."
That must have got him rattled, because his reply was a long winded apology with tones of regret. He must have thought we were going to take legal action of some sort but that was never our intention. I wish I could find the original email.
Davo
Tuesday 9th May 2006 | 08:25 AMO.....M.....F.....G. Who the hell would do that? Probably some punk-arse kid trying to get cred for a job interview or something. Whatever. Burn him.
Jasmine
Tuesday 9th May 2006 | 08:49 AMHi Mike. I hope you find out who did it. Could you imagine someone walking into an art gallery and telling everyone he painted all the pictures, and you were standing right next to him when he said it? This isnt any different. Good luck.
I saw your whirpool post and you have got in contact with the guy. What else did he have to say? What did you say!!!? Enquiring minds want to know! Freaking unveleivable! LOL
_procreator
Tuesday 9th May 2006 | 11:37 AMScandal! seriously probably is just some kid. No professional in his right mind would take credit for someone elses work. So wat can ya do?
andrew
Tuesday 6th June 2006 | 10:35 PM
i guess first thing that would come to mind is flattery...but then this person has stole something and tried to make it his own.has he done it before to someone else? mike can you not tag (like some sort of signature ) web sites that you design, make etc
can you trace this person through cyber space? or track back to where he is?
Curious
Wednesday 6th December 2006 | 07:39 PMI get You do not have permission to access the /asp/denied.asp page.
Curious
Wednesday 6th December 2006 | 07:40 PM
And the link to digg gives
Oops, what you're looking for isn't here!
The page you requested is not here but there are a few things you can try:
* Try searching for the story you're looking for using the form above.
* Go to the homepage to see the most recent stories.
* Browse the topics on the left to find the story.
Pretty sure it's a website bug? Please let us know and we'll try to get it fixed.
Thanks for the heads-up 'Curious'. It seems the IGN thread has been removed by a moderator, and the DIGG URL has change completely, although I just did a search and found someone else had http://digg.com/tech_news/Identity_theft_of_website_owners_-_check_your_webstats.">posted the story as well. And then there's http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=517568&p=2#r38">my original Whirlpool post from when I first made the discovery.
I was once rang by a business owner who knew me as a friend asking had I ever hired John Doe to design Archiseek - he had got a resume in for a designer position which listed my website as one of his.... needless to say he didn't get the job...
Hey, you haven't written about an update on this.
BTW, great design for the blog. Hope you don't mind me studying your CSS.
Seems like my site link got all messed up above.
I have posted an update at the end of the article for those who need to know what happened :-) And I fixed your link Ajay.
Rodney
Tuesday 9th May 2006 | 12:43 AMEagerly awaiting Catsitter's reply....
It's really rather odd. I imagine some 15ish kid trying to big note himself, so the fact that he used your site is kind of a compliment, yes. None the less, expose away. He deserves all that comes.