For People Who Use Google Alerts...A Growing Disturbing Trend

20 replies
I don't know if people here use Google Alerts for their own names, but if you
do, have you noticed the following?

Somebody will take YOUR name and attach it to an article that YOU didn't
write?

I am finding this to be happening a lot lately.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding the reasoning behind this other than to
maybe have yourself associated with this person, but then why not just
use one of their actual articles?

I've seen my name attached to articles from beer making to how to raise
a family.

My concern is that somebody might find these articles (most are horrible)
and associate me with them.

Has anybody else run into this problem and if so, how have you dealt
with it?

I don't really want to spend my days sending C&D letters to these people.

Any advice is appreciated, or am I worrying about something not worth
worrying about?
#alertsa #disturbing #google #growing #people #trend
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ellis
    Steve, isn't it possible that someone has the same name as you?

    ...just thinking.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by Michael Ellis View Post

      Steve, isn't it possible that someone has the same name as you?

      ...just thinking.
      There is another Steve Wagenheim in Wisconsin. He is the CEO of a company.

      I doubt he is writing articles on making beer, raising families, and a ton of
      other things that have nothing to do with me.

      Plus...these are all on different sites that, if you look to find the name of
      the person who has the site (can be found in many cases) it's not my name.

      This is the weirdest form or scraping, if that's what you can call it, that I
      have ever seen.
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  • Profile picture of the author lowjo
    Hi Steve,

    I have not had my name attached to any articles but I did have my name attached to a ponzi money making scheme around 2001.

    Whoever that guy was used my name, listed my personal address and really got me some bad PR for a long while.

    That was disturbing!

    But alas as soon as you put your name out there in any way someone is likely to try and take advantage of it. I think it is a lot more common than people think.

    Sometimes you may even spot someone on another forum with an identical or similar username and they'll even be as bold as to use some of your own posts and experiences as their own.

    And no royalty checks at all!

    Cheers,

    Jonathan
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    • Profile picture of the author bwh1
      I think some smart ass likes to ride on your popularity.

      This guy maybe thinks that if someone Google's Steven Wagenheim, he will find his "how to make beer at home" article, then he further expect that the reader will be amazed and change his idea, dropping the initial goal to make money online and opens a home beer brewery.

      Monkey brains

      G.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    Price of fame and success unfortunately Steven, I am constantly going around the internet now and finding alternate versions of myself in the weirdest of areas and since there is not a single universal passport for the internet set up right at the beginning there is nothing none of us can do.

    It is the worst form of identity theft that cannot be held up in any court of law in any country, something I have been arguing for a long time now to deaf ears.

    I guess the only thing you can do is put a disclaimer on every single one of your pieces of work that it is an original S.W and that it directs you to your official site explaining that some people keep taking your name to sell crap which is why it is there, however probably some article directories would penalize you for for some reason for trying to protect your good name.
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    And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goethe”
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    • Profile picture of the author KenJ
      Steven - A couple of points

      1. You are good enough to ride out this sort of stuff. I do, however, understand the frustration it must be causing you.

      2. For someone like me with 1,000's of people sharing my name I have the opposite problem. I cannot brand my activities using my name - its too common. It's ironic that only yesterday I did a search on your name (And Others) simply to see how important having a unique name is.

      kenj
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      • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
        Originally Posted by kenj View Post

        Steven - A couple of points

        1. You are good enough to ride out this sort of stuff. I do, however, understand the frustration it must be causing you.

        2. For someone like me with 1,000's of people sharing my name I have the opposite problem. I cannot brand my activities using my name - its too common. It's ironic that only yesterday I did a search on your name (And Others) simply to see how important having a unique name is.

        kenj
        Yeah, having a unique name is a blessing and a curse all at the same time.

        1. Most searches will bring up your content only so you get the traffic
        you were meant to get.

        2. These same searches will also bring up any negativity, justified or not
        whereas there is no way to hide from it.

        I have no problem with somebody taking a legitimate shot at me, but some
        of the stuff out there is just flat out made up.

        It doesn't bug me as much as it used to (thanks to another member who
        made me realize that the nonsense can't really hurt me) but in he case
        of articles that have nothing to do with my business, this could lead
        people to believe that I'm involved in things that I'm not.

        As one person here said, he was associated with a ponzi scheme that
        really hurt him bad.

        So far, I've been lucky in that respect. But with what I'm seeing coming
        through on Google Alerts, nothing would surprise me.

        I guess I will have to pick and choose which battles to fight.

        So far, nothing too serious...unless people have a problem with me
        making beer at home.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
    Steven, someone has been cloning you at night while you sleep, then putting these mock version of you all over the net.

    It's all a plot to make "The Authorities" think you are everywhere.

    :-Don
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  • Profile picture of the author dlucca
    Have you considered that your clones have arisen and declared their freedom?
    They don't want jobs either! :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Shane Hale
    So people are trying to use leverage of your well known name and write as you? Are you just using Google alerts and plugging Steve Wagenheim in and getting alerts for your name? I never have thought to do that! That is a pretty smart idea!
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by Shane Hale View Post

      So people are trying to use leverage of your well known name and write as you? Are you just using Google alerts and plugging Steve Wagenheim in and getting alerts for your name? I never have thought to do that! That is a pretty smart idea!
      Yeah, then I check out the pages to see:

      1. If they're using my article, are they including my resource box?

      2. Is it my content to begin with?

      3. If they're saying something about me (plenty out there) what is it?

      As we do have free speech, I don't get too worked up (anymore) when
      people start going on rants on what a scumbag %#@& I am.

      I'm mostly concerned with being associated with things that I'm not
      associated with, for a number of reasons that I won't go into here.

      You'd be surprised how many people won't do business with me because
      I am into fortune telling.

      Absolutely true...and I make no secret of it.

      At least it's true and I'm not ashamed of it.

      But when I start getting people saying that I wrote this article about,
      whatever, and I never wrote it, that's when I get a little PO'd.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Steve, there's another possibility...

        It could be a scraper. I ran into that awhile back, and it still pops up occasionally. It's an evolution of the MFA scrapers that created "unique articles" by scraping article directories and mashing together sentence fragments with keywords in them.

        The new version collects titles, author names and paragraphs. The ones I saw didn't collect resource boxes because they were either using their own or none at all.

        On a side note, I thought I had a fairly unique name. Until I got active online, I'd only met one other John McCabe in my life, and he was a parish priest in the small Nebraska town we moved to when I got out of school. That made for some very entertaining late night phone calls from drunks, especially when my wife answered the phone...

        Now I find that there are many John McCabes out there, among whom are a classical music composer of some note (I can't carry a tune) and an author on nutrional supplements and organic foods (I think tofu is part of a foreign plot to weaken the USA). Like those old days in Nebraska, it sometimes makes for interesting exchanges.
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        • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          Steve, there's another possibility...

          It could be a scraper. I ran into that awhile back, and it still pops up occasionally. It's an evolution of the MFA scrapers that created "unique articles" by scraping article directories and mashing together sentence fragments with keywords in them.

          The new version collects titles, author names and paragraphs. The ones I saw didn't collect resource boxes because they were either using their own or none at all.

          On a side note, I thought I had a fairly unique name. Until I got active online, I'd only met one other John McCabe in my life, and he was a parish priest in the small Nebraska town we moved to when I got out of school. That made for some very entertaining late night phone calls from drunks, especially when my wife answered the phone...

          Now I find that there are many John McCabes out there, among whom are a classical music composer of some note (I can't carry a tune) and an author on nutrional supplements and organic foods (I think tofu is part of a foreign plot to weaken the USA). Like those old days in Nebraska, it sometimes makes for interesting exchanges.

          John, that's probably exactly what's happening because that's what
          these pages look like.

          Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeannie Crabtree
    Steven, I see your problem. Maybe someone has chosen your name as their pen name.

    I choose a couple pen names from people I knew as a child. As I want high quality articles, I don't think any one with that name can be upset, but what if they were bad articles? It would surely make a difference to anyone with that name.

    Hope you can just shrug it off and move on, as it is impossible to control it.

    Jeannie
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    I use them, but to tell you the truth I delete most of them without looking at the source. It is an easy way to find testimonials once and a while though.
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
    Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post


    I've seen my name attached to articles from beer making to how to raise
    a family.
    Well as far as the beer making, could the articles refer to another Steven Wagenheim like perhaps this one who is president of Granite City Food & Brewery - a casual dining restaurant with an on-site brewery?
    Signature

    :)

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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by mojojuju View Post

      Well as far as the beer making, could the articles refer to another Steven Wagenheim like perhaps this one who is president of Granite City Food & Brewery - a casual dining restaurant with an on-site brewery?
      Yeah, that's the guy in Wisconsin (think it's Wisconsin) who my Uncle Kal
      told me about. In fact, it might be a relative.

      But these other articles, on not on his site. And yes, it could be this other
      Steve Wagenheim these guys are scraping, but the "how to raise a family"
      and some of the other nonsense I've seen (you don't want to know) can't
      possibly be this guy.

      Well, I guess it could if they're scraping both our names.

      No way to tell who is being scraped I guess, is there.
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      • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
        Steve,

        Just do what I do...I get $1.38 everytime I sell your name.

        It's pure profit, my customers are happy, and people think my customers are smarter than they really are...

        What could go wrong...

        KJ

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