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Hijacked Website

by balara
7 replies
Hello everyone,
This may not be the correct forum for my problem, but I figured that there would be some pretty good technical minds in here that might be able to tell me what to do in my current circumstance.

I purchased a website that was hosted on the owner's server. Yesterday I went to make some changes and lo and behold...there was someone elses website there! I went to Better Whois and found out the contact details and sent an email to the site owner to contact me asap...so far no contact has been made. I don't know who is host is so I can't contact them.

I've also sent an email to the guy from whom I purchased my site. No response from him either. In the event that neither of these people contact me, how do I get rid of the site?

Thanks for any help offered.
Veronica
#hijacked #website
  • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
    Hi Veronica

    I just want to make sure I understand this correctly, as I'm a bit confused.

    You bought a Domain Name and a site from someone, is that correct? If so, did you make arrangements to leave it on his server, or were you going to transfer it to another host? And was the domain name transferred to you and/or your registrar?

    Are you saying that now the Domain Name is being used by someone else?

    Any chance that the domain name you purchased has expired?

    If you can clarify some of this I'd be happy to try and assist you.

    Bill
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    • Profile picture of the author balara
      Hi Bill,
      I purchased a domain name (which has not expired) then purchased content (approx 500 pages) from a marketer online, and set up this content on the purchased domain name. The marketer offered hosting on his server, or I could use my own host account. Because of the number of pages on the site I elected to use his hosting. The site has been fine for about 9 months, but last night I went to check it out and found a different site there. I've checked the URL with BetterWhois, and there is contact info for the owner of the offending site. The owner appears to be hosting the site himself. I have emailed him asking him to make contact with me, but so far no luck, although it is rather soon to have expected a reply.
      Whilst I would like my 500 or so pages back, I want the domain name more, so I'm wondering what would happen if I created new content for the domain name and put it up on my host which is HG. Would the intruder site disappear or would the new content be added to that site?
      Having not previously experienced a situation like this I'm a bit lost as to how to proceed.

      regards
      Veronica
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      • Profile picture of the author mporgsoft
        If you are no longer seeing whois info that is yours you would not be able to set the nameservers to point back to your hosting company or even add content.

        Do you see the domain in your registrar account, godaddy or whoever you use? Can you log into cpanel or ftp?

        The way you describe it first thought was you were hacked and then the other option is the domain did indeed expire.
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        • Profile picture of the author chaos69
          If, when you go to your website, you are seeing another site appear there, it sounds like the DNS/your domain is ok, but the host is no longer serving requests for your domain so you are seeing the default site listed, or the first in the config file if apache.

          If it was a domain/DNS problem then you would not get any sites returned, unless the A record had changed recently. (it would help if you posted your domain too, so i can confirm).

          If you have an agreement with the person you got the site from for hosting, then you will have to contact them to get this resolved. It may be a simple admin error, or perhaps it was a time limited agreement to host your site for a certain time?
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  • Profile picture of the author balara
    Hi Bill,
    Thank you for taking an interest in helping me with my "drama". The problem has been solved. IPowerweb have a registrar programmer and he has pointed the DNS back to Hostgator. I'm just waiting for the usual time lapse to pass so that I can delete the intruding website. I have a backup of the original content, although I won't put it back up under the same domain name. I suspect that the chap I purchased the content from, and who was hosting the site, has done the switch of hosts. He had emailed me a few weeks ago wanting me to purchase more stuff from him. I politely declined his offers as I'm concentrating on promoting the sites I have and don't need further distractions. So I wonder if he has tipped me off his host in retaliation. If so, I'm really glad I didn't buy any more stuff from him.
    It's is comforting that people like you are willing to help others out of a spot of bother.

    Kindest regards
    Veronica
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  • Profile picture of the author balara
    Thank you too to chaos69 and mporgsoft for your comments and suggestions

    Cheers
    Veronica
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  • Profile picture of the author mywebwork
    Hi Veronica

    Glad to hear that you have it all sorted out, and that you have your domain back in your own hands.

    Best of luck with your site.

    Bill
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