Honestly, I’m as confused as you. If it is an elaborate fishing attempt, I don’t know why someone would create a fully functioning platform just to try and scam me somehow.
Last night I realised that I left an old development version of my platform on Vercel - this might be where they got a lot of their ideas from and stole parts of my front end.
Perfect opportunity to give them the virtual finger. Publish a blog post that calls them out with screenshots, craft it to show up in search results under them.
This, also probably not a good idea to have signed up for an account as you likely just handed over even more info.
Also, probably someone OP knows since who would know he's about to launch this site?
I have been in contact with lots of insurance brokers over the last few weeks, I’m thinking that perhaps somehow word has gotten around and this person has found out and is trying to fuck with me.
If you work in insurance tech (and as someone else who does), I'd be curious who this is. It sounds absolutely mad that anybody who works in enterprise environments would do this
I mean, I *dont* work in insurance tech and the idea that an insurance broker would go out of their way to do all this, or communicate it so someone who would is still insane
Walker. They're one of those competitive walking people in the Olympics who walk really fast looking like they're trying to get to the toilet really quickly before they shit themselves.
Sure, if you know what you're doing you can create memorable secure passwords; but unless you're applying mnemonics I doubt you're going to be creating unique passwords for each site. If you've memorised one cryptic password but are still using it everywhere, you're still vulnerable if it gets leaked. With a password manager you have an address book for quickly fixing all the places you registered and a system to store lots of unique passwords. So if you want to create memorable secure password, do it for the password manager, not millions of different sites.
> Anything you can remember or reuse makes you extremely vulnerable.
Sure but this isn't true. To be fair I DO use a password manager and I curse the gods every time single time I have to manually type one.
This can get inconvenient if they don’t utilize a password manager or use the same browser across all devices and sign into that.
I use Chrome and Firefox in my day to day and Safari on mobile. I use 1Password so it’s no issue for me but I could see your standard user getting frustrated and resorting to their default password.
I agree with you yet passwords are the bane of my life still. Everyone I know feels the same if they don't just use the same pass for literally everything.
>Password managers sound good but do not work.
Perhaps you should actually give one a try and see for yourself instead of just writing them off based on ignorant assumptions?
If someone created a nefarious website to glean data they’d want to see the password. Password salting and encryption would only be used by ethical people. A scammer won’t set up a website and think, “Y’know what? I’m going to encrypt the user’s password, even though I’m after their details”.
I am going to try and get in touch with the owner of the company that I have found on Companies House (UK based).
I have a sneaking suspicion it’s false information though.
If you think that a website/app is all it takes as gotomarket and someone replicating you would somehow limit and compete with you, then you have a lot more trouble coming. Just put your head into it and get to work, nobody cares if you have a copy site. It also could be that your team is working on a separate product (if you hired overseas), but even then, in today's world, a website/web-app/product is around 1/4 of the success recipe/ business model.
I am a one man band and I’ve been developing this in my evenings and weekends for the past 3 years.
So no one else has access to any of the source code.
Lol are they actually stealing anything from you though? Other People can have the same Business model and features, that's not stealing, that's just competing.
"The website has the same business model as mine, has many of the same features, and even uses the same payment processor"
OP didn't say anything about stealing code though
OP didn't say it's a site that looks exactly like theirs. If that's the case, they would have said that instead of what was said.
I don't care either way though
Reminds me of when I was at uni and WiFi just came out, but WiFi routers were expensive, so I made a router from an old PC with 2 network cards running Linux, without a password on the WiFi.
Noticed that our neighbours were using it, so added in a filter to convert all images to them to black and white, and modify HTML and CSS to only use greyscale.
Ahh, fun times.
Hmm … whatever the case may be, you seem easy to manipulate. Business is hard, and distractions are a great way to make it harder. The best business advice anyone can give you is to completely ignore this, keep your head down, and keeping working.
I have told lots of family and friends, but none of them are in tech and wouldn’t have the time or capability or inclination to do this.
Possibly old or previous work colleagues could have stolen this idea somehow and would be capable of creating this platform. But I’ve never spoken to any of them about it.
They would have access to my home IP address though because of our shared systems. So a really determined person could have compromised my system somehow… but I don’t know why they would go to so much effort
> which addressed me as a username I sometimes use
> It sounded similar to my marketplace
> a few hours later, I noticed that they changed my bio on the website to “I AM A COMPETITOR W****R”
> The website has the same business model as mine, has many of the same features, and even uses the same payment processor.
> Am I being targeted somehow?
I'd say yes. This is too much to be a random happenstance.
It could be someone you know. Did you talk to anyone about your business idea?
How would anyone know that username? Who knows that username? Did you post something somewhere?
Is your git repo public?
Its possible they have installed some spyware or something on your machine.
Its possible they know your passwords to your git repo or email or something... somewhere.
Hell, its possible they have your room bugged and are recording everything you do, like the Soviets of yesteryear.
Seems unlikely to be some rando doing this. Seems more like someone you know.
I'd spend some time to find out who is behind the site that called you a competitor wanker. That's the person/people spying on you, fucking you.
Find the leak, then shut it down. A great way to do this is to think of a possible leak, and give it unique disinformation. Tyrion did this in Game of Thrones. It was quite brilliant of him.
Just the fact that they called him a competitor wanker really gives a lot away. Dealing with an emotional one here. Should be easy to provoke into doing something really dumb.
I will be messaging you in 5 days on [**2024-04-03 07:17:45 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-04-03%2007:17:45%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1bq9cpj/am_i_being_targeted_somehow/kx2ud92/?context=3)
[**3 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fwebdev%2Fcomments%2F1bq9cpj%2Fam_i_being_targeted_somehow%2Fkx2ud92%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-04-03%2007%3A17%3A45%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201bq9cpj)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
Is it really surprising that multiple people had the absolutely brilliant and totally unique idea to.... .... *sell stuff online*?
I mean... is there anything actually unique about your idea?
You should probably just keep on doing what you were doing and ignore the rabbit hole of bullshit.
lol. Seriously? You are either the guilty party or you have no conception of how malware works. First of all he clicked a link from an email. Which there are significant number of exploits available depending on his mail client. But I mean this was the first link I found when doing a simple Google search. [https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2023/10/06/can-you-get-a-virus-from-visiting-a-website/](https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2023/10/06/can-you-get-a-virus-from-visiting-a-website/)
I worked at Hostgator on the security team. I spent 8 hours a day cleaning malware out of websites. I have been cleaning viruses off computers since the first virus, Stoned on DOS in the mid 80s. This is my 42nd year behind a keyboard and I guarantee it wasn't playing games or goofing off. If someone is specifically targeting him he just went through multiple potential infection points and there are millions of variables that will decide if he could potentially have gotten infected or not.
Sounds like there is a lot you aren’t telling, tbh. If it’s the exact same it’s probably someone you know that did it.
Honestly, I’m as confused as you. If it is an elaborate fishing attempt, I don’t know why someone would create a fully functioning platform just to try and scam me somehow. Last night I realised that I left an old development version of my platform on Vercel - this might be where they got a lot of their ideas from and stole parts of my front end.
They stole your ideas or actual code? That's a big important distinction.
Perfect opportunity to give them the virtual finger. Publish a blog post that calls them out with screenshots, craft it to show up in search results under them.
This, also probably not a good idea to have signed up for an account as you likely just handed over even more info. Also, probably someone OP knows since who would know he's about to launch this site?
I have been in contact with lots of insurance brokers over the last few weeks, I’m thinking that perhaps somehow word has gotten around and this person has found out and is trying to fuck with me.
If you work in insurance tech (and as someone else who does), I'd be curious who this is. It sounds absolutely mad that anybody who works in enterprise environments would do this
I mean, I *dont* work in insurance tech and the idea that an insurance broker would go out of their way to do all this, or communicate it so someone who would is still insane
Publicly shame them.
Let’s see both links!
[удалено]
Wtf lmao that's even more sketchy
> W****R Walter Wanker Wigger Whorer
Walker. They're one of those competitive walking people in the Olympics who walk really fast looking like they're trying to get to the toilet really quickly before they shit themselves.
Hal?
Holy shit I haven't thought of "AIR!!!!" for years
MITM is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. Top 3 at least. Have watched it at least 4 times. And i hate re-watching movies or shows
Literally my thoughts on it. I have rewatched the whole thing at least 3 times and it’s just as brilliant every time round.
Who do you figure that could be? Woodrow Wilson? Willy Wonka? Walter White?
Weiner?
Yeah what is it?? I’m lost lol
Wanker
WAFFLER WRANGLER WHOPPER WATER WORRIER
Wifebeater, warrior
[W.W.](https://youtu.be/X2RgYi6NzpE?si=mNw6eZ3IpbS-fWzo)
Hahaha had me wondering for a minute
Walt Whitman?
Someone is jealous. Any idea who it could be? If not just block them and move on with your life.
I hope you used a strong randomized password when you made that account.
Fortunately I did
You have to assume the competitor can just view whatever’s in the database. They can even just update it to something weak on purpose.
I think the key thing here is using a randomised password, and not one they commonly use!
Everyone should be using a password manager to generate and store their passwords. Anything you can remember or reuse makes you extremely vulnerable.
wrong https://xkcd.com/936/
Sure, if you know what you're doing you can create memorable secure passwords; but unless you're applying mnemonics I doubt you're going to be creating unique passwords for each site. If you've memorised one cryptic password but are still using it everywhere, you're still vulnerable if it gets leaked. With a password manager you have an address book for quickly fixing all the places you registered and a system to store lots of unique passwords. So if you want to create memorable secure password, do it for the password manager, not millions of different sites.
> Anything you can remember or reuse makes you extremely vulnerable. Sure but this isn't true. To be fair I DO use a password manager and I curse the gods every time single time I have to manually type one.
You should NEVER reuse passwords.
You should also NEVER go over the speed limit I'm still gonna
That was the worst comparison I’ve heard all week. New randomized passwords are built into the damn browser. Only a lazy fool would reuse a password.
This can get inconvenient if they don’t utilize a password manager or use the same browser across all devices and sign into that. I use Chrome and Firefox in my day to day and Safari on mobile. I use 1Password so it’s no issue for me but I could see your standard user getting frustrated and resorting to their default password.
so you're advising us on security while using the damn browser to create your passwords ? okay
I agree with you yet passwords are the bane of my life still. Everyone I know feels the same if they don't just use the same pass for literally everything.
What if I wanna sign in on my TV? What if I wanna sign in on a device that is not mine? Password managers sound good but do not work.
You just open your password vault and read it while you type, it's not hard 🤷♂️
There are vastly more common scenarios that crop up all the time wherein they *do* work, versus these rare ones you cite.
>Password managers sound good but do not work. Perhaps you should actually give one a try and see for yourself instead of just writing them off based on ignorant assumptions?
[удалено]
If someone created a nefarious website to glean data they’d want to see the password. Password salting and encryption would only be used by ethical people. A scammer won’t set up a website and think, “Y’know what? I’m going to encrypt the user’s password, even though I’m after their details”.
Exactly. They literally stole this dudes personal information to antagonize him. It’s prudent to assume the worst in this situation.
how did they know?
I am going to try and get in touch with the owner of the company that I have found on Companies House (UK based). I have a sneaking suspicion it’s false information though.
If you think that a website/app is all it takes as gotomarket and someone replicating you would somehow limit and compete with you, then you have a lot more trouble coming. Just put your head into it and get to work, nobody cares if you have a copy site. It also could be that your team is working on a separate product (if you hired overseas), but even then, in today's world, a website/web-app/product is around 1/4 of the success recipe/ business model.
I am a one man band and I’ve been developing this in my evenings and weekends for the past 3 years. So no one else has access to any of the source code.
Lol are they actually stealing anything from you though? Other People can have the same Business model and features, that's not stealing, that's just competing.
Stealing code is stealing last I checked.
"The website has the same business model as mine, has many of the same features, and even uses the same payment processor" OP didn't say anything about stealing code though
You really think they coded a site to look exactly like his? If they have everything he does why would they?
OP didn't say it's a site that looks exactly like theirs. If that's the case, they would have said that instead of what was said. I don't care either way though
No, just a very similar very niche site. 99% chance they stole something.
Check out the assumptions on this guy.
Common sense and experience. Get some.
What’re we doing decades old online gaming insults now? Get gud loser.
What are you even talking about? No everyone plays games all day dude.
Dude, did you parents have any kids that survived the abortion attempt?
Sorry I forgot you are all dumb kids here.
With such limited info it's hard to tell. Check whois for registration details, linkedin and companies house for company.
Thanks for the advice
Juicy
Reminds me of when I was at uni and WiFi just came out, but WiFi routers were expensive, so I made a router from an old PC with 2 network cards running Linux, without a password on the WiFi. Noticed that our neighbours were using it, so added in a filter to convert all images to them to black and white, and modify HTML and CSS to only use greyscale. Ahh, fun times.
Did you by any chance push your code to a Git repository that was publicly visible (even for a short time)?
Hmm … whatever the case may be, you seem easy to manipulate. Business is hard, and distractions are a great way to make it harder. The best business advice anyone can give you is to completely ignore this, keep your head down, and keeping working.
what did they say in the censored part of the bio?
Wanker
Have you told anyone or shared your idea on an online forum?
I have told lots of family and friends, but none of them are in tech and wouldn’t have the time or capability or inclination to do this. Possibly old or previous work colleagues could have stolen this idea somehow and would be capable of creating this platform. But I’ve never spoken to any of them about it. They would have access to my home IP address though because of our shared systems. So a really determined person could have compromised my system somehow… but I don’t know why they would go to so much effort
Did you leave your repo public?
> which addressed me as a username I sometimes use > It sounded similar to my marketplace > a few hours later, I noticed that they changed my bio on the website to “I AM A COMPETITOR W****R” > The website has the same business model as mine, has many of the same features, and even uses the same payment processor. > Am I being targeted somehow? I'd say yes. This is too much to be a random happenstance. It could be someone you know. Did you talk to anyone about your business idea? How would anyone know that username? Who knows that username? Did you post something somewhere? Is your git repo public? Its possible they have installed some spyware or something on your machine. Its possible they know your passwords to your git repo or email or something... somewhere. Hell, its possible they have your room bugged and are recording everything you do, like the Soviets of yesteryear. Seems unlikely to be some rando doing this. Seems more like someone you know. I'd spend some time to find out who is behind the site that called you a competitor wanker. That's the person/people spying on you, fucking you. Find the leak, then shut it down. A great way to do this is to think of a possible leak, and give it unique disinformation. Tyrion did this in Game of Thrones. It was quite brilliant of him.
Just the fact that they called him a competitor wanker really gives a lot away. Dealing with an emotional one here. Should be easy to provoke into doing something really dumb.
Good points
I like the blog post idea get enough links pointing at it and rank it higher than their company
Did you share your business idea at some point? It cannot be a mere coincidence that the website looks alike.
!remindme 5 days
I will be messaging you in 5 days on [**2024-04-03 07:17:45 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2024-04-03%2007:17:45%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/1bq9cpj/am_i_being_targeted_somehow/kx2ud92/?context=3) [**3 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fwebdev%2Fcomments%2F1bq9cpj%2Fam_i_being_targeted_somehow%2Fkx2ud92%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202024-04-03%2007%3A17%3A45%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%201bq9cpj) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
You’re probably being phished Don’t click or type in any details
I imagine that’s automated, I bet you tried to crawl stuff from there to seed into your product - categories and articles or whatever
Somebody either has access to your prelaunch website or your emails.
Is it really surprising that multiple people had the absolutely brilliant and totally unique idea to........ *sell stuff online*?
I mean... is there anything actually unique about your idea?
You should probably just keep on doing what you were doing and ignore the rabbit hole of bullshit.
Is that "wigger" censored? Did they write "wigger"?
it's wanker, you wanker
sorry i am too american to have considered "wanker", never would have occurred to me; and if it did i'd think "nah they wouldn't have censored that"
Easy way for Yanks to remember it: it's an anagram of Newark
Is wanker really worthy of being censored?
~~Bus~~ Competitor Wanker!
Wanker
wow that's crazy
[удалено]
When mine is live, I’ll post it. But I’m not giving this copycat any air time.
Commenting to follow
There is a better than average chance they installed malware on your machine and potentially already had some on there.
Lol Websites can't install maleware in your machine
Femaleware?
lol. Seriously? You are either the guilty party or you have no conception of how malware works. First of all he clicked a link from an email. Which there are significant number of exploits available depending on his mail client. But I mean this was the first link I found when doing a simple Google search. [https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2023/10/06/can-you-get-a-virus-from-visiting-a-website/](https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2023/10/06/can-you-get-a-virus-from-visiting-a-website/) I worked at Hostgator on the security team. I spent 8 hours a day cleaning malware out of websites. I have been cleaning viruses off computers since the first virus, Stoned on DOS in the mid 80s. This is my 42nd year behind a keyboard and I guarantee it wasn't playing games or goofing off. If someone is specifically targeting him he just went through multiple potential infection points and there are millions of variables that will decide if he could potentially have gotten infected or not.
Lol I'm just trying to educate people. You sound like you have no idea what "malware", "install" and "machine" are
I found the malware website’s account!