ebay robot hitting hard!

Why?

[Liane]

Sometime over the past 5 days, I have had 20,691 hits from several ebay bots. Why would they be hitting my site so hard? I don't deal with ebay and never will.

Has anyone else seen this?

[wilderness]

how about an IP and UA?
Thanks in advance

[Liane]

This is the one that currently has over 26000 hits, cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll There are several others as well.

This is getting really weird. Three days ago I rec'd an e:mail from a guy saying that he had put in a bid on a boat I represent for charter which was listed on ebay. I called the charter company and they said it wasn't for sale. I told the guy and thought that was the end of it.

I rec'd another e:mail from him today. I thought this was very strange so called the charter company again. Apparently, they have been inundated with calls about this boat for sale on ebay. The owner of the charter company called me and said that apparently, someone has ripped off all the photos of the boats I represent from my web site and are "selling" them one by one on e:bay. There is a new boat up there today! (My photo again)

The charter company owner put in a bid of $90,000.00 and won the bid.

What I don't understand is how the heck can this be happening. None of the boats are for sale and this is obviously a huge scam!

Is anyone else experiencing this sort of thing? What can I do to stop it?

[NFFC]

> What can I do to stop it?

Sounds like that have hotlinked to the images on your site. Change the file name of your image and change the "stolen" image into anything you like :)

[Liane]

They have stolen every image on my site! How the heck can I change them all without destroying my site?

[Grumpus]

So, what's happening is that you're not getting hit by a spider, but rather those are referals to the images on your server from the listing at e-bay. In essence, those are pageviews at e-bay by prospective buyers.

See about blocking remote linking of your images (how depends on the type of server you've got). Search through e-bay's boat listings and see if you can find one, then report the seller to e-bay.

Good Luck
G.

[john316]

[gigablast.com...]

This pulls up some good sites that deal with the issue.

[Liane]

Thanks Grumpus, I'll contact my host and see how/if it can be done. Man, it is amazing that someone would have the b***s to try to pull off something like this. I hope e:bay can nail em!

Amazing results though ... guess I know where to try to sell a boat should the subject ever come up!

[rogerd]

One technique I've used in the past is to change the name of the image on my site (including the internal links to the image), and then substituting a giant, ugly "image pirate" pic. A p*rn image would work, too, but might reflect poorly on your original site. If the image thief failed to specify height and width, you can also cause some grief by making the replacement image much larger than the one he stole - this will blow up his table structure and page layout. :)

[Liane]

but might reflect poorly on your original site

Yah think? I don't think I will go that way ... but thanks for the suggestion.

I would really prefer not to mess with my site as there are more than 60 boats shown and more than 500 original images! I'll change the image names as a last resort, but there is nothing stopping this guy from doing it again.

I have contacted my host to see if I can block the hotlinks. In the meantime, if anyone is in the market to buy a boat, I wouldn't recommend that you try to buy one on ebay!:(

[rogerd]

I wouldn't recommend that you try to buy one on ebay

Darn, just bought a boat before I saw your post. Maybe I should contact PayPal. ;)

Liane, rather than renaming all of your images, you could probably rename one or two strategic ones. Does the thief have any items with bids yet? Those are the ones I'd change first. :) Do you have a picture of a rusty, beat-up rowboat? A sinking oil tanker leaking goo? The Titanic? The possibilities are endless...

My guess is one or two messed up auctions will give him the message...

[Liane]

There is a tug boat wreck just around the corner from me which is very picturesque as it is aground on a lovely beach (has been there for years). The wheelhouse can be seen, but the rest of the ship is under sand. Very rusty, windows broken out of the wheelhouse and listing severely to starboard. It would be ideal!

I'll see what I can do.

[jdMorgan]

Liane,

If you have contacted e-bay and reported this, I would do nothing to tip off the perpetrator that you and e-bay are onto him. This is a potential criminal - Give him a chance to hang himself.

Jim

[rogerd]

JDM could be right - the guy could be a complete fraud, as opposed to just a lazy guy unwilling to scan or take his own pics. Must be the devil in me that makes me want to mess with his head. :)

[Gizmare]

I have reported sellers to Ebay about photo theft before. Ebay is very active at stopping this, and the procedure is very easy. I think all I had to do is fill out a form they gave me and fax it in. Within an hour Ebay blocked the photos on the listing. I then received an email from the listing owner apologizing, and asking if he could use our images.

[Liane]

It is not just the photos this guy is stealing. He is perpetrating major fraud, not to mention grand larceny! Unfortunately, he is using my photos and my web host to do it!

The charter company owner bid $90,000.00 for a boat which isn't for sale and has won the bid! The boat is worth over $200,000.00.

He is contacting the FBI. I imagine that will put a stop to it pretty quickly.;)

I just got a call from another fellow asking if another boat I represent is for sale. He was asked to send 79,000.00 immediately and told that he can't see the boat right away because the "owner" (the guy he has been communicating with) is going to France for a week. He said to send him the money and that he would meet him at the boat (which he told him was in Huston) a week from tomorrow.

They have not just done one boat, they are systematically going through my entire website and are taking every single one of my pictures AND my copy!

I'm not going to do anything just yet. I'll let the FBI deal with it.

[sun818]

This sounds very serious.

For slimy sellers that hot link to my images, I have annotated the picture to show:

BUY IT NOW, 50% OFF
FREE EXPRESS SHIPPING

Boy, have the seller explain that one to his/her buyers! ;)

[rogerd]

I like that approach, Sun818 - I'll add that one to my bag of tricks!

Liane, your situation sounds like a lot more than image theft, good luck in sorting it out!

[Liane]

We have just discovered that there are two of them working on it at the same time. Each is doing one boat at a time. One is a woman, the other is a man. One of them is in France and the other is in the US.

This is a pretty slippery scam. I assume that they were banking on me not checking my log files and finding out about it because they are only allowing 12 hours for the auctions.

Man ... this is absolutely amazing!

[Liane]

... And they zero in for the bust!

These slippery critters have sold one boat to the charter company owner, one to an unsuspecting but very gullible consumer (poor guy) and one to the FBI!

They have locked onto yet another of the boats I represent and this time have stolen my photos, my copy and even part of my page design. (Copy and paste job). They have brass ones I gotta admit! One thing is for sure ... he/she can't spell worth beans. Spelling errors all over the place!

Will let you all know when they have them cold!

[rogerd]

Wow, great story, Liane! I'll never feel guilty about spending too much time with my logs again - I might be part of breaking up a worldwide crime ring!

Let us know how it plays out!

[Liane]

As it turns out, the one we thought was in France is actually in Romania. He has not yet been identified, but they have his IP address and the authorities are working on narrowing it down to the actual user. I don't know what Romanian laws are like ... but hopefully, they will be able to locate him.

He was so brash as to write the following when called out by the charter company owner for the scam!

Hi, what is wrong with you?..What scam? I think you are the riper here. I noticed ebay about your action and my lawyer will contactyou. You ripers, leave the onest guy alone.

Thanks

Still working on the one in the US. They are closing in and hopeful of an arrest ... soon.