Received a strange email about a spamming competitor.

From a "good samaritin"?...or is there something I don't know.

[threecrans]

I received an (apparently) anonymous email pointing out the behaviors of a spamming competitor. I checked the findings and sure enough, it looks like they have been using doorway sites under different domains. For example:

(Their main site is www.my-widgets.com.)

doorway domain 1:
www.widget-type-1.com
resolves to nnn.nnn.nnn.01
Contains 95% similar content to www.my-widgets.com/widget-type-1.html
Contains about 20 links to pages within www.my-widgets.com

doorway domain 2:
www.widget-type-2.com
resolves to nnn.nnn.nnn.02
Contains 95% similar content to www.my-widgets.com/widget-type-2.html
Contains about 20 links to pages within www.my-widgets.com

There are about 4 or 5 other sites which follow this pattern. In fact, they have multiple listings in both Google and ODP (in Google they have a PR ranging from 4 to 6) . One of their products is listed 4 times in ODP.

So, this seems to be the type of thing that people report being penalized for. Which brings to mind a few questions.

1. Is this illegal and if so, what is the likely penalty if I report?
   
2. Why would someone send me an anonymous note? Certainly could be a "good samaritan" looking to clean up the Internet. Also could be another one of our competitors that wants me to do the dirty work. Is this possible? Why would another competitor want to do this? Afraid of repurcussions?
   

Any input would be appreciated.

[jdMorgan]

threecrans,

I'll take door #2, especially if your site is very "clean" compared to your competition. Otherwise, why would the sender contact you - and anonymously - rather than the ODP category editor?

Personally, I wouldn't get involved in this. It could be a "campaign" instigated by another competitor who intends to go after you once the dust has settled on this initial attack.

Also, are all the domains you examined owned by the same site owner? An unethical person could set up domains to mirror the competition, and then report them. If ODP did not discover this ploy, the disruption to business during the appeal process would be quite unpleasant for the victim site owner.

Jim

[threecrans]

After further digging, I have found around another 10 domains that are in the same pattern as the domains above (content duplicated with main site and other doorway pages, keyword stuffing, links to within the main site) all registered to the same company.

This is really blatant. I can't believe that not only do none of these pages have any discernable penalty, but they are dominating the SERPS (Google's SERPS anyway).