What Are Clone Sites?
Clone sites are fraudulent websites that copy your store’s design, product images, descriptions, and branding to trick customers into thinking they’re shopping at your legitimate store. These fake stores collect payments but never deliver products, leaving angry customers who blame your real brand.
How Clone Sites Damage Your Business
Direct Revenue Loss
When customers accidentally purchase from a clone site, that’s revenue you never see. Worse, those customers often won’t return to your real store after being scammed.
Brand Reputation Damage
Scammed customers leave negative reviews on social media, tell friends to avoid “your store,” and file complaints with consumer protection agencies - all targeting your legitimate brand.
Customer Trust Erosion
Even customers who weren’t scammed become hesitant to purchase once they learn clone sites exist. The doubt lingers: “Is this the real store?”
Support Burden
You’ll spend countless hours responding to customers demanding refunds for orders you never received, explaining that they were scammed by an imposter.
Warning Signs Your Store Has Been Cloned
- Customer complaints about undelivered orders you have no record of
- Social media mentions of your brand with unfamiliar URLs
- Chargebacks for transactions that don’t appear in your system
- Emails from customers asking about suspicious websites
- Drop in organic traffic as clone sites compete for your keywords
- Brand mentions with typo domains (yourstore.co instead of yourstore.com)
- Reports to your customer service about poor “customer service” you never provided
How Scammers Create Clone Sites
1. Scraping Your Content
Automated tools crawl your entire store, downloading product images, descriptions, pricing, and even customer reviews.
2. Registering Look-alike Domains
They register domains that look similar to yours - typosquats (amazn.com), different TLDs (.co, .shop, .store), or added words (official-yourstore.com).
3. Deploying the Clone
Using cheap hosting and pre-built ecommerce templates, they recreate your store in hours. Some even use your favicon and SSL certificates to appear legitimate.
4. Driving Traffic
Clones buy ads targeting your brand keywords, create fake social media profiles, and even send emails to your customers using purchased data.
How SecurEcommerce Detects Clone Sites
Canary Token System
We embed invisible tracking tokens in your store. When anyone copies your site, these tokens “phone home” revealing the clone’s domain and hosting information immediately.
DNSTwist Typosquat Scanning
Our automated scanner checks hundreds of domain variations daily - typos, different TLDs, homoglyphs, and common scam patterns.
Risk Scoring Algorithm
Each potential clone receives a risk score (0-100) based on:
- Domain registration age
- Content similarity (using LSH fingerprinting)
- Google Web Risk API data
- SSL certificate analysis
- Hosting infrastructure patterns
Instant Alerts
When we detect a clone, you receive immediate notification with:
- The clone site’s URL
- Risk assessment score
- Recommended actions
- One-click reporting tools
What To Do If You Find a Clone
- Document everything - Screenshots, URLs, any customer complaints
- Report to the domain registrar - Most have abuse policies
- File a DMCA takedown - For content theft
- Report to Google Safe Browsing - Gets the site flagged
- Alert your customers - Proactive communication prevents blame
- Contact hosting providers - Many will remove fraudulent sites
Prevention Is Better Than Reaction
While SecurEcommerce can’t prevent someone from attempting to clone your site, we ensure you know about it immediately. The faster you respond, the less damage is done.
Most clone sites are discovered only after significant customer complaints. With SecurEcommerce, you typically learn about clones within hours of their creation - before they can do serious damage.