Gotcha... caught red handed trying to steal

by KarlWarren

Posted: 18 years ago 24 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I was just browsing through my Statcounter results and noticed someone who had been trying to steal products...

They were using Alexa (as usual) trying search terms to find thank you pages - strangely the search string also included the term "WSO" so I assume this person, at one stage has been part of WF. Incidentally, unless this person was using a proxy, they are also from the US

I have a number of DUMMY thank you pages set up on my server with no product download on them, so on this occasion the fruit was too high to be picked

If you don't use Statcounter, or a tracking program that lets you analyse the search engine terms people use to find your site, I highly recommend you start doing so - it will help you to locate holes in your security.

#caught #gotcha #handed #red #steal

Greg Cooksley

18 years ago

Hey Karl,

Thanks for the heads up on this one....

I must admit that I'm very green when it comes to the subject
of hacking into sites etc. It's amazes me that so many people
engage in these activities "just because they can". I love reading
stories about how these guys get caught.

Regards

Greg
amazing
how
these
guys
try
and
get

Thanks
1 reply

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Colin Evans

18 years ago

Hi Karl,

I also get a number of these attempts each month...

It's amazing how people can stoop so low as to try and pinch discounted WSO products, I guess they deserve all the failure they attract.

Thanks
1 reply

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peteinoz

18 years ago

Seriously..

are you telling me your not marketing to these people?

who said you cannot release software/report virally via this method?

report with affiliate links in it..

or strictly for branding purposes?

These can take off like wild fire..

think about it.. someone puts a link to something on your server and puts in on a black hat board or similar..... tons of people get it.. because they think they are getting something for free..

Thanks
2 replies

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KarlWarren 18 years ago

Originally Posted by peteinoz

are you telling me your not marketing to these people?

No, at the moment, my business model is solely relating to minisite design. I used to release PLR products and reports, it is something I will be doing again in future.
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- braver55b 18 years ago
  
  Thanks for the tip, I will start putting the code in my download pages, I currently only use it in my sales pages.
  
  Thanks
  
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Michael Oksa

18 years ago

Originally Posted by peteinoz

The problem is that these are the type of people who are willing to steal. If they see a link in your report, all they will do is try to track down the free version of that too.

Also, I fear with these people the only 'branding' you're doing is that of, "Hey! This is the guy we steal products from".

Just because it is going 'viral' on a black hat board or similar doesn't mean you will attract one single new customer.

That's the way I see it.

~Michael

p.s. Karl, thanks for all the good ideas.

Thanks
1 reply

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peteinoz

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Michael Oksa

Hey Michael..

I can see, that would be the way youve seen it..

Unless youve seen it first hand like I have

Let me put it this way, these are not criminal genius's these are people trying to make a buck online like you or I.

Do you think they email for support of these products?

are you ready? LOL

Of course they do..

Do all my branded products have the ability to be downloaded for free?

Absolutely not..

have people transferred from using hotlinks to my products to customers? Absolutely

Cheers

Pete

Thanks
1 reply

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Michael Oksa

18 years ago

Originally Posted by peteinoz

Hey Michael..

I can see, that would be the way youve seen it..

Unless youve seen it first hand like I have

Cheers

Pete

I certainly won't argue with results.

~Michael

Thanks
1 reply

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e-mail2u

18 years ago

Yet again,

Another reason why you should protect your downloads/thank you pages. A good way to do this is incorporate to them in to a membership site. That way even if they find your thank you page through a search engine, in order to access the page they first have to join your site. This may or may not put off some, but the majority will go else where.

Especially if the membership requires e-mail verification...

Thanks
1 reply

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Faisal Anwar

18 years ago

Yeah, this happens always, thats why i use e-junkie to process my payment and delivery of my product. Haven't had any problem with thank you pages.

Thanks
1 reply

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Scott Burton

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Faisal Anwar

Yeah, this happens always, thats why i use e-junkie to process my payment and delivery of my product. Haven't had any problem with thank you pages.

Just to be clear, the pages that I'm using the code on to be notified about are actually specifically there to notify me of people trying to get free access to my products. My actual delivery pages are not indexed and are behind protection.

Scott Burton

Thanks
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Sean Donahoe

18 years ago

Here is another "Anti-Thief / Hacker" trick for you to consider. Do not put a "DENY" in yout robots.txt for your downloads, members or thank you page as anyone can easily pull that file up and see which folders are worth getting into and they are usually unprotected.

The robots.txt only tells search engines what they should and should not index. These pages should not be indexed at all if you can only get to that page by paying and as such the search engines will not be paying and not be exposed to that page.

The best protection is something like DL Guard or equivalent to protect downloads and store the files themselves outside of the webroot. For example if your website was located in this folder:

Code:

/home/myname/www

you should put your download files here:

Code:

/home/myname/downloads

That way you can point your file protector at that folder but it will never be accessible from the web.

Hope that helps a few people secure themselves a little better and prevent thieves from stealing your hard work.

Thanks
1 reply

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Chris Monty

18 years ago

Good tips. I've busted a few people doing this.

Thanks
2 replies

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JohnMcCabe 18 years ago

Of course, there's also the obvious one...

Don't name your page files things like "thankyou.html" or "download.php". Or go the other way and name them "jjZD6Hk$6Nj@.htm", either. Those just scream Hey, there's something good here!
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- lynnw196 18 years ago
  
  I agree with you Pete.
  
  I do know some folks who have gotten a lot of products for free. They said they do it because there is so much re-hashed garbage on the net, they don't want to drop the cash for trash. But, there is almost like a code of honor among them. I was told if it is actually a good product they will use and buy thru the affiliate links as a way of saying thank you for a decent product. Believe it or not, I also know of some who after checking it out went back and actually bought it!
  
  Pete is also correct in the viral aspect. Once posted on those forums it spreads like wild fire. You would also be amazed at the amount of subscribers and traffic you can drive to your blog or other sites by "leaking" your product. So, I guess this whole topic comes down to individual percerption and marketing tactics.
  
  Thanks
  
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Tiger

18 years ago

Hey Karl,

I know it is more work, but if you put a 'dummy download' with
just-short-of-bogus information for download, the thief may
leave your site with it, and think he "got" something.

/Steve

Thanks
1 reply

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Jill Carpenter

18 years ago

Originally Posted by Tiger

Hey Karl,

I know it is more work, but if you put a 'dummy download' with
just-short-of-bogus information for download, the thief may
leave your site with it, and think he "got" something.

/Steve

This could actually be hysterical. A dummy download that is an ENORMOUS size file and has nothing on it at all. OR it has something in the beginning so it looks good, but cuts off after the beginning. Someone tries to download and it takes forever - then when they go to look at it it just cuts out at a really good part. Kind of like when your at the movies and the stupid film breaks right in the middle of a serious fight scene (I had that happen to me a couple of times).

There could be a market for "fake products,"

People will get ticked off when they realize how much time is wasted on the download, not to mention HD space and getting only half the information.

Thanks
1 reply

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Scott Burton

18 years ago

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

People will get ticked off when they realize how much time is wasted on the download, not to mention HD space and getting only half the information.

Or it could start out sounding great, then all of a sudden every other line could read, "If you really want the complete product, please return to <web address> and purchase a legitimate and licensed copy." and other statements to that effect.

Of course one drawback to the large download bogus product is, if several people hit it, it will accumulate a chunk of bandwidth. A lot of these thieves are running on broadband and can pull a few hundred megabytes in minutes.

--Scott Burton

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Jon Alexander 18 years ago

problem with the enormous download idea is that you'll get hammered for bandwidth. Unless you host it on rapidshare or somewhere.
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- Timothy Allen 18 years ago
  
  Tip: Use a Gif image to put your thank you message on the download page.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  e-mail2u 18 years ago
  
  This could be funny, why not create the dummy download page then put audio on something like
  
  " Alert unauthorized down loader, your ip has been logged and will be reported for download theft you have 20 seconds to leave this page or action will be taken"
  
  Make sure the audio box is out of sight and watch them run.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Ken Strong 18 years ago
  
  Can't you avoid this whole problem by using a program like DLGuard or something similar?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Asher 18 years ago
  
  Hi Karl,
  
  Could you recommend some way to prevent people from stealing like that? How the heck do you detect that from Alexa pages and block it?
  
  Asher
  
  Thanks
  
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  Asher Aw
  
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Scott Burton

18 years ago

Originally Posted by KarlWarren

I have a number of DUMMY thank you pages set up on my server with no product download on them, so on this occasion the fruit was too high to be picked

I've started implementing a simple set of PHP code on selected pages that generates an email to me when those pages are accessed, and it includes the referrer, IP Address of the visitor, their browser identifier and what page they reached.

If done correctly, this can lead you at least to the proxy they were using, and I have an email in about 60 seconds of when it happens.

I originally used this code on my 404 error page to track when an attempt was made to reach a page that wasn't there. (If a particular page got enough missed traffic, I might throw a related product page in there.)

--Scott

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Gotcha... caught red handed trying to steal

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