My Stalker

S

shrek4

New member
Apr 4, 2012
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Moved the tread here by member's advice:

Hi everyone, I am new here, although I've been reading your wisdom for quite a while. I need help, and I believe this is the place to find it. You guys have pretty sharp tongues, so please don't judge me too harsh, unless you can help me somehow.

I have a decent e-commerce site (with real inventory), which has been doing well with organic (non forced) links for the past 5 years. The site is pretty informative and well on-page optimized. I haven't forced any links to it, they have come naturally through the years.

Last year, something strange happened. Someone close to me (I considered him a very close friend) suddenly turned his back on me without apparent reason. He's been helping me with orders, receiving stock on my behalf (we were neighbors), etc. The person knew how much money I was making through the site, and also knew a lot of the details about how I built my business (as I said, he was close to me).

Few months after being in blissful ignorance why I was discarded from being his friend, it hit me really hard. That same person has made two very similar ecommerce sites to mine, and a forum (in addition to the two competing sites), which is dedicated to reviews of brands in the same niche. As you could probably guess, there were about 30 negative reviews about my business by the time I found out what was going on. As it turned out all those reviews were from the same IP (my ex-friend's IP). At the same time, he was pushing up his two e-commerce sites through the forum (while trashing me and optimizing for my brand name).

In addition, one year later, that same person keeps trolling all my backlinks and is stalking every single forum, blog, wiki, yahoo or anything else that random people have put content about my site through the years (unsolicited links I had). He also goes, and removes my links wherever he can. He goes and gets a link, article, lens, press release, or everything else I do, and his site is rapidly climbing rankings just a year after it was established.

In addition, he copied (spun) the content of my site, and needless to say uses my suppliers, all my contacts, etc. He was so close to me that he knew all this personal information.

I am really annoyed with my stalker. I have worked for 6 years on my reputation and credibility, and without bragging, I am proud of what I have been doing. However, it really hurts me that someone just capitalizes on my hard work, and is really good at getting ahead fast by simply copying me and trashing my image through fabricated reviews. The person himself is not very intelligent, but whoever he has hired, is.

Any words of wisdom are appreciated. Yes, I know - get links where he can't get them, but that's really close to impossible (I am completely white hat, and not that rich either). Yes, I know, sue. I did manage to remove the 30 negative reviews with the help of a lawyer and forensic investigator, however, new ones from proxies started popping slowly (he's gotten smarter).

This is my money site, so I can't risk with private networks or anything "grey". I am even afraid to bookmark anymore because he goes after me and does the same.. This game is getting exhausting.

I posted this on one more forum without much success. I am hoping to get some advice here. Thanks in advance.
 


Two things:

1- If you say you are 'white hat' you will always lose. So reconsider your position and the meaning of 'white hat'. If I say I'm going to war but I will not shoot people, then I'm going to lose.
2- You are not telling the whole story. It seems to me you pissed off the wrong guy. In which case, it is hard to escape reaping what you sow
 
shrek4 said:
I am here because I am looking for any solution how to stay ahead given the circumstances. I am close to giving up.
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This friend of yours has a lot more hustle than you.

Without knowing too much about you, I would suggest you're too focused on negative reviews (reviews without identity verification don't carry much weight) and not enough on marketing your business.

If you don't decide you're not a victim, you're screwed.

You don't need wisdom. You need to get mad, and stop letting people push you around. Or go out of business.
 
greenleaves said:
Two things:

1- If you say you are 'white hat' you will always lose. So reconsider your position and the meaning of 'white hat'. If I say I'm going to war but I will not shoot people, then I'm going to lose.
2- You are not telling the whole story. It seems to me you pissed off the wrong guy. In which case, it is hard to escape reaping what you sow
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1. I have put too much bloody work into this to risk serp penalties. I'd love to shoot some people, but I can't risk leaving my family on welfare because of it.

2. I am indeed telling the whole story. If I was not telling the whole story, I wouldn't have spent the money to use a lawyer and get the fake reviews down (I wouldn't have had the guts to go after him if I have done something bad to this guy).

"So reconsider your position and the meaning of 'white hat'." - would you please elaborate?
 
shrek4 said:
1. I have put too much bloody work into this to risk serp penalties.
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So you are saying your not willing to risk your non-ranking position to get ranking? Sounds to me your problem isn't business but basic reasoning.

shrek4 said:
I'd love to shoot some people, but I can't risk leaving my family on welfare because of it.

2. I am indeed telling the whole story. If I was not telling the whole story, I wouldn't have spent the money to use a lawyer and get the fake reviews down (I wouldn't have had the guts to go after him if I have done something bad to this guy).
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You pissed him off and you aren't saying why. I can see people stealing your business model because your naive, but not go to the lengths he has gone. Every story has two sides, and you aren't telling it straight.

shrek4 said:
"So reconsider your position and the meaning of 'white hat'." - would you please elaborate?
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White hat is synonymous with retard. Non retards don't think in black and white, but in shades of gray, which is what the world is made of. We deal in risk/reward, not subjective 'ethical' terms dictated by our enemies (the SEs)
 
Hello friend,

You now learn lesson important that why come of business there no such thing as friends.

I think you should destroy him before he destory you. In business have to kill competitor in order to survive.

If no want to kill business of enemy then might as well just try to sell business to him. Because eventual he will put you out business.

Good luck bro
 
Congratulations, you have somehow managed to get into a war with this guy.

You have three options:

1. Make peace with him.
2. Surrender (give up).
3. Destroy him (I mean morally, not physically).

If you have attempted 1, with no success, then you need to quickly decide which of 2 or 3 you choose. Either is valid, but you must under no circumstances vacillate.

If you choose 2, move on quickly and without fuss.

If you choose 3 you should heed the words of Carl Von Clausewitz, Prussian General and author of On War: "he who uses force unsparingly ... must obtain a superiority if his adversary uses less vigour in its application". In simple terms, if you want to win, you must hold NOTHING back until he is comprehensively beaten. That means no dicking about with "just white hat stuff". Do whatever it takes. You are making the classic mistake of thinking that doing nothing isn't as big a risk as doing XYZ. It's a much bigger risk.

How about finding out who is doing the links for him, and hiring him?
Or spamming the shit out of his domain to knock it out of the serps?
 
Thank you for the insights.

1/ @greenleaves - His reason was that I pretended not to notice and greet him at the grocery store, thus he never wanted to have anything to do with me anymore. The two competing websites he has made (as I noticed later) were made 3-4 months prior this fact. At the time he's started the sites, we were still great friends, attending our kids' birthdays and barbecuing together. Apparently, the whole thing was planned while he was still "helping" me occasionally.

2/ @greenleaves - I did not say "not ranking", I said he is right behind me for less than a year. I am ranking well, but am starting to get concerned.

3/ @amateoursurgeon - I have tried. I believe he hired a good friend of him with a degree in security. I may be wrong, and it may be just a savvy offshore with plenty of time on their hands.

4/ @amateoursurgeon - If I spam his sites, he'll do the same to me. He is copying every single move I make (back links, content change, marketing move..) and applying it to his sites. Whoever he has hired is really good, or has plenty of time to spy on me.

I was naive to trust, yes, but I did not expect such sh* from a friend either.
 
shrek4 said:
Thank you for the insights.

1/ @greenleaves - His reason was that I pretended not to notice and greet him at the grocery store, thus he never wanted to have anything to do with me anymore. The two competing websites he has made (as I noticed later) were made 3-4 months prior this fact. At the time he's started the sites, we were still great friends, attending our kids' birthdays and barbecuing together. Apparently, the whole thing was planned while he was still "helping" me occasionally.

2/ @greenleaves - I did not say "not ranking", I said he is right behind me for less than a year. I am ranking well, but am starting to get concerned.

3/ @amateoursurgeon - I have tried. I believe he hired a good friend of him with a degree in security. I may be wrong, and it may be just a savvy offshore with plenty of time on their hands.

4/ @amateoursurgeon - If I spam his sites, he'll do the same to me. He is copying every single move I make (back links, content change, marketing move..) and applying it to his sites. Whoever he has hired is really good, or has plenty of time to spy on me.

I was naive to trust, yes, but I did not expect such sh* from a friend either.
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You are pissing me off. Instead of seeing all that you CAN do, you keep dwealing on why things are not going to work. Keep that attitude up and you are hopeless.

Less whining, and more doing. You can get links to a domain you 301, that way he won't see the links you are building.

You have a victim/defeatist attitude. Nothing can cure you of that except yourself.

I remember reading someone who posted here that even if you get hit by lightening, it is your fault for being there. You have to take that attitude. Take OWNERSHIP of your situation, and change it.
 
greenleaves said:
You are pissing me off. Instead of seeing all that you CAN do, you keep dwealing on why things are not going to work. Keep that attitude up and you are hopeless.

Less whining, and more doing. You can get links to a domain you 301, that way he won't see the links you are building.

You have a victim/defeatist attitude. Nothing can cure you of that except yourself.

I remember reading someone who posted here that even if you get hit by lightening, it is your fault for being there. You have to take that attitude. Take OWNERSHIP of your situation, and change it.
Click to expand...

I like the way you put this, I needed the slap.

And thank you for the advice, will do immediately.
 
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