Fake website and copycat store takedown

What counts as a fake website

The fake sites we see against direct-to-consumer brands follow a few patterns. Most copy the brand's own product photos and catalogue, sit on a domain that adds a word to the brand name (outlet, sale, shop, official) or uses a cheap extension such as .shop or .store, and price everything far below the real store to move volume before they are reported.

• Full catalogue clones. A store that copies every product page. One fake Castore store copied 3,422 products, and a fake Gymshark store listed 2,584.
• Discount outlets. Sites selling your bestsellers at a fraction of the price, like the 9 fake CRAFTD stores selling a $112.99 chain for $47.27.
• Networks. Several stores launched together from one operator, such as the 63 fake DFYNE stores we found live on a single day.
• Instant clones. Stores that are fully stocked within seconds of the domain being registered, as with the Dr.PAWPAW clone that had 196 products live 17 seconds after registration.

Not every lookalike is a fake. Resellers, review sites and parked domains also use brand names. That is why a person reviews each match before it reaches you, and why we only file against sites that pose as you or sell copies.

How we find them

Fake stores rarely use your exact name, so searching for it is not enough. For each brand we combine several sources:

Each candidate is screenshotted and compared with your real store, and its registration data, hosting and platform are recorded. Your own domains and accounts are kept on an allowlist so they never show up as findings.

How removal works

1. 1

   We verify the match

   An analyst confirms the site is posing as you or selling copies, and attaches the evidence: dated screenshots, the copied photos and pages, and the domain's registration and hosting details.

2. 2

   You approve

   You see every confirmed site with its evidence and approve or dismiss it. Nothing is filed without your approval.

3. 3

   We file with every company keeping it online

   Depending on the site, that is the store platform's IP or abuse form (for example Shopify's), the hosting provider and the registrar's abuse contacts, a copyright notice for copied photos and text, and a report to Google Safe Browsing. Your letter of authorisation and trademark registrations are attached where the recipient asks for them.

4. 4

   We follow up and keep watching

   Providers that do not act are chased, and the domain variants and image matches are checked again, because the same operators often come back on a new domain.

Prefer to do it yourself? Our free Abuse Contact Finder shows who hosts and registered a site, and the DMCA notice template and cease and desist template cover the letters. The Takedown Evidence Checklist lists what each recipient expects.

Suspending a site versus getting the domain

A host or platform can take the site offline, and a registrar can suspend the domain for abuse, but neither gives you the domain. If the domain itself contains your trademark and you want it transferred to you, the route is a UDRP complaint (or the equivalent for country-code domains such as .uk). That is a legal proceeding with a filing fee, and it is worth it mainly for domains that keep coming back or that customers type by mistake. We tell you when a case looks like one for your lawyer.

Who this is for

Consumer brands that sell through their own online store, from first-year labels to established names, whose customers are finding fake versions of the site through ads, search or social media. It suits teams without in-house legal resource for enforcement, and brands that want a person to answer when something new turns up.

It is not a phishing or fraud-domain service for banks and software companies, and it is not a content-piracy service for creators. If those are your problem, look at a specialist in that area.