CORNWALL, Ontario – How often do you think to Google your business? If you’re like most – probably not often enough.
Michele Allinotte, of Allinotte Law Office said that this is something she does frequently, but a recent search revealed that her entire website had been spoofed. As it turned out, the domain was registered to an individual in Nigeria posing as a law firm in London.
“It’s unsettling to see someone using my intellectual property without my permission,” said Allinotte. Another search found several other websites linked to the domain in attempts to give the site more credibility.
“It’s a large scheme that makes it look like other professionals are involved,” said Allinotte. “They’ve made it look like a legitimate law firm.”
Kelly Bergeron of Code Heroes specializes in web design, and says that what’s most disturbing about these instances is how simple they typically are for the offender.
“Unfortunately, it’s pretty easy to copy a site’s whole structure,” said Bergeron. “And other than involving a third-party monitoring system, there’s not much business owners can do to protect against this type of thing.”
Allinotte says that following the incident, she spent a substantial amount of time reporting the site to various fraud organization, the domain registrar, as well as the RCMP.
