This site may have STOLEN YOUR HUB!

1. 61

   jezebellaminaposted 11 years ago

   I found out this morning that this site had stolen at least 2 of my hubs. The more I looked, the more I noticed that it appears every single post on the site is a stolen hub, completely copied in most cases (including the authors' names and copyright notes, ironically).
   
   I see lots of names of hubbers I recognize and am attempting to notify as many as I can of these blatant infringements. If you find some of your hubs flagged for duplicate content, this site may very well be the culprit.
   
   http://www.financeforpeoples.com/
   
   I am going to figure out how to notify HubPages but I also thought I'd post here so that you all can keep an eye out as well.
   
   In light of the severity of this site's actions, I am hoping that notifying HubPages will get the issue taken care of the fastest and hopefully we won't all have to file individual DMCA complaints...does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on that?

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   1. 83

      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Unfortunately, because we do not own anyone's content, we don't have the grounds to file DMCA complaints on your behalf. But here's our guide to doing so: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/how- … -complaint

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      1. 61

         jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Simone.
         
         I understand that Hubpages can't file a DMCA complaint on our behalf...
         But do you mean that even though this site has literally copied and pasted what appears to be thousands of hubs - some in full - directly from Hubpages that there's nothing else that can be done by Hubpages besides encouraging each individual author filing DMCA complaints for every one of their stolen works?

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            wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            There is nothing HP can do to get material stolen from a third party (you) removed from the net.
            
            Suggestion: file a DMCA with the host, not the site itself.  When that host gets dozens or hundreds of claims against the site they might just shut it down themselves.  I've seen that used in the past - a group of hubbers chased one thief all over the net, getting new sites from a thief repeatedly shut down by various hosts as he jumped from one host to another.  It can work.

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            1. 83

               Jason Marovichposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Same owner as yours:
               
               Domain Name.........: financeforpeoples.com
               Creation Date.......: 2013-03-02 00:00:00
               Expiration Date.....: 2014-03-02 00:00:00
               
               Registrant Details..:
               Registrant Name.....: Gong Haohui
               First Name..........: Gong
               Last Name...........: Haohui
               Address Line 1......: Guangdong Province Zhongshan City Xiaolan Town
               Address Line 2......: North Round The Dragon Lane 18
               City................: Zhongshan
               State...............: Guangdong
               Country.............: CN
               Post Code...........: 528400
               Phone...............: (+86) 15162721619
               Fax.................: (+)
               Email Address.......: fanglin610@gmail.com

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               1. 61

                  jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks so much for taking the time to look this up. I really appreciate that!

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      2. 83

         Denmarkguyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Seems to me that this SHOULD be of interest to HubPages, as a web site. After all, if this kind of "scraper site" exists, a bunch of HubPages content will be flagged as duplicate/copied by Google, which in turn would lead to HubPages-- as a venue-- being downgraded/having its pagerank reduced. A similar situation happened over at Squidoo a couple of months ago... eventually Google shut down the site (it was hosted as a Blogger domain) after repeated complaints and filings by BOTH individual publishers AND Squidoo.
         
         It think it would serve everyone well to just file as many complaints as possible... but why not have HubPages (corporate) complain, as well. After all, the site is using "Hubs" and various other phrases that are probably HubPages trademarks, no?
         
         ~Peter

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         1. 61

            jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I agree! If all our 'duplicate' hubs are unpublished because of this site, HubPages loses out just as much as we do, or more in the long run. Presumably Squidoo has the same rights as HubPages when it comes to the content published on their site, but they recognize that they must have some pull as well as a vested interest in the authors who have had content stolen...
            
            And I wonder...if the hubs in question are unpublished by HP before the DMCA complaints are fully investigated, do we even have a leg to stand on??

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            1. 87

               Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Why would they be unpublished?

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               1. 61

                  jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  When I wrote this I was under the impression that on Hubpages 'duplicate content' could be unpublished even if the duplication was due to the work being stolen from the HP author who owns it.
                  
                  I have since learned that is not necessarily the case, so I'm hoping that I don't have to worry about that anymore!

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                  1. 88

                     TheKatsMeowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes jezebellamina, if I understand you correctly I thought this would happen as well. I think what you are referring to, is when Hubpage users have their own content flagged as duplicate, even if they clearly wrote an original article. I am not speaking from personal experience, but I assumed that if your article was flagged for duplicate and it was the original, it might under certain circumstances mean that someone else had stolen it. This doesn't seem to have happened with anyone on Hubpages in this instance however...

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      3. 79

         Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Simone - this is the type of incident where some method of alerting Hubbers who don't read the forums would be very helpful.  The site has many hundreds of hubs - some titles even say HubPages or list the names if specific Hubbers being interviewed, etc. 
         
         I'd think that with theft of this magnitude, HP would be within its rights to file a B to B complaint - if not through a formal submission, through friendly letters to Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. 
         
         This type of wholesale theft harms the search engines as well as HubPages and the hundreds of authors affected.

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      4. 80

         Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         They even have a category called "Help for New Hubbers"!  Amazing! So therre are probably HubPages staff articles from the help section there, too.

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      5. 68

         galleryofgraceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         They have duplicated much of the Hubpages website surely hubpages will want to stop them

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      6. 89

         theraggededgeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I bet that if HP went to the hosting company with all legal guns blazing that they could force a shutdown of this site. It happened to Squidoo and they had the (many) scraping blogs taken down within 24 hours. Threaten legal action and they will keel over and die.
         
         Of course, we have to file DMCA notices for our individual content but if the whole site, or large sections of it, are scraped, then HP must take action to protect their own interests.

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   2. 83

      Jason Marovichposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Here's another scraper site from China.
      
      Domain Name.........: politics-socialissues.com
      Creation Date.......: 2013-03-02 00:00:00
      Expiration Date.....: 2014-03-02 00:00:00
      
      Registrant Details..:
      Registrant Name.....: Gong Haohui
      First Name..........: Gong
      Last Name...........: Haohui
      Address Line 1......: Guangdong Province Zhongshan City Xiaolan Town
      Address Line 2......: North Round The Dragon Lane 18
      City................: Zhongshan
      State...............: Guangdong
      Country.............: CN
      Post Code...........: 528400
      Phone...............: (+86) 15162721619
      Fax.................: (+)
      Email Address.......: fanglin610@gmail.com

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   3. 83

      tmbridgelandposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yep, half a dozen of my hubs here. Drat. Thanks for posting this. Time to go cry to Google.

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   4. 83

      tmbridgelandposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I did post a complaint to Google. But really, I think we are overreacting. It sucks to have your content stolen, sure. But are they really stealing much of our business? I tried googling my actual content, paragraphs from my stolen Hubs. The only results I got were for my actual Hubs on Hubpages. Those other sites don't even appear in the results AT ALL. So they are not searchable with Google, and they are probably getting very few visitors. I imagine this guy, over in China or wherever, spending all day stealing content, thousands upon thousands of pages, to make a few bucks a day. Easy money for him, depending on how automated the process is, but really no more than a few pennies stolen from any of us.

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2. 72

   Hikapoposted 11 years ago

   Thanks for the lookout. I just visited the website. It looks like they are trying to do twitter type website...

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3. 86

   quotationsposted 11 years ago

   Filing a DMCA complaint will not do you any good if the site operator is the content scraper. They will simply ignore you and bet that you will not have the time or financial resources to sue them if they ignore the DMCA takedown request. Plus they are offshore so your ability to obtain judgment against them is nil.
   
   The best bet is to get them taken off the search results for Google and for good measure Bing and others as well. Google has specific forms to request that they be removed from the search results on the grounds of copyright infringement. Go to Google and follow the links. http://support.google.com/bin/static.py … page=ts.cs (FYI copyright infringement falls under the option labelled " I have a legal issue that is not mentioned above" on the form)
   
   While this will not remove your stolen content from the scraper site, it will make it invisible which will 1) avoid duplicate content penalties and 2) keep them from getting revenue from visitors by profiting from your stolen content.
   
   Hope this helps!

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   1. 61

      jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This helps VERY much, thanks!! My heart admittedly sank a little when I saw they are located offshore... and they'd be right to guess I don't have the time or financial resources to go after them for this!
      
      When you say the stolen content will become invisible, do you think that will apply for HubPages duplicate content purposes, or just Google's? It would be heartbreaking to think all these hubs could be unpublished from HP because someone stole them and there's nothing the innocent hubbers can really do about it as far as HubPages is concerned!

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      1. 86

         quotationsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I don't think that you need to worry too much about Hubpages penalizing you for duplicate content because your content has been stolen. Duplicate content penalties apply only when you are copying content from other people. As the innocent party you should be okay, although sometimes there can be some confusion as to who is the original author.
         
         I have had content stolen and it did not trigger any penalties against me, just a friendly warning from Hubpages that someone had stolen my content. The reason is that your hub was published first so it is relatively easy to tell which is the original. You may lose that priority however if you make changes to your hub and republish it, in which case it may no longer be so obvious which came first since the publication date of your edited hub might now appear to come after the stolen content - making it look like the stolen content was the original. Every web page contains data on when it was published. Although it is possible to fake, so that a page published after you can be made to look like it was published first, most thieves are not that smart. So as long as you do not republish your hub and leave it as is, you should be okay.
         
         As I understand it Hubpages either uses copyscape.com or something similar to it to identify stolen content. I believe that the database used by copyscape is based on Google's search results, so if something disappears from google it will eventually disappear from copyscape as well, which means effectively that it no longer exists, so any duplicate content issues should go away. There may be some lag however until the databases are synced.
         
         If I were you I would also file similar complaints with Bing and Yahoo to neutralize all possible sources of search engine revenue for them.
         
         It would also be a good idea if there were multiple complaints filed against this site from different hubbers. One of the other posts has identified other people whose content has been stolen and it would be a good idea if they all filed complaints with Google at the same time in order to get their attention.
         
         Best of luck. I hope you crush them like bugs! Please let us know how your complaint to Google was resolved, in case you decide to go that route.

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            quotationsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Just an addition: I checked with copyscape and it says that "Copyscape uses Google and Yahoo! as search providers, under agreed terms. Copyscape performs post-processing of the search results received from these providers. More details..."  --- so if you can get these hubs off of the google and yahoo search results it should take care of any duplicate content warnings too.

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            1. 61

               jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               This is good to hear, thank you so much for all he great information. I submitted a complaint to Google via the form you provided, and it really wasn't too difficult. Hopefully the issue will be resolved quickly!

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4. 59

   limorepoposted 11 years ago

   Using my premium copyscape account, this website has been  found copying from these links(only for alerting the real users)
   http://hubpages.com/topics/personal-fin … g-finance/ financial-education/4005
   http://edwardc.hubpages.com/hub/How-to- … n-Property
   http://edwardc.hubpages.com/
   http://justateacher.hubpages.com/hub/ 30-Hubs-In-30-Days-Day-Two-My-Likes-And-Dislikes and
   http://sonanorris.hubpages.com/hub/BarclayParterFinance
   http://jezebellamina.hubpages.com/
   http://adistin96.hubpages.com/hub/Opini … it-or-Scam
   and many more.
   I hope these person find my link helpful.

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   1. 61

      jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Awesome! Thanks so much for running that test. I have notified a few on this list so far, as well as a couple of others who were hubbers I recognized! I was just going down the front page of the site and doing my best to find those titles here on HP. In the process I came across one hubber who has apparently been banned from HP so I'm genuinely hoping that the reason had nothing to do with this pesky scraper site...
      
      I will continue to get in touch with as many hubbers as possible who have been violated, hoping that working together might make a big difference.
      
      Thanks again for this!

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5. 67

   Making-Jewelleryposted 11 years ago

   While Hubpages don't act on our behalf, it'd be nice if somebody were to write an automated "do it" script for us.... a "File It Wizard" style where we (the clueless) just filled in boxes and the relevant moans were set out to the relevant parties.
   
   I had some hubs copied a couple of years back, took me hours to even begin to get a handle on what to do - tried, pretty much failed to achieve much action really on those.

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      quotationsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You know, that might be good business idea. Develop a site or an app that does the form filling for you and submits DMCA complaints and take down requests to google. I dont have the technical expertise but I think there would be a demand for this

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I can't help there either - I'm no techie - but a recent bout with stolen stuff resulted in learning how to find sites and hosts as well as how to file.  It is written up as a hub, and doing a few will quickly teach anyone how to go about it.  It really isn't difficult if the proper procedures are laid out 1 2 3.

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6. 61

   jezebellaminaposted 11 years ago

   I have just finished submitting my complaint directly to Google. It really wasn't that difficult. I followed the link provided by Quotations and answered a series of questions which led me to this form:
   
   https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools … ;&rd=1
   
   I provided the links to each of my hubs in a separate 'group', along with the location of the unauthorized posts and a description of what was the infringed upon portion ( in this case, all of it).
   
   THEN, I went to report an Adsense violation, as I remembered it is against Adsense policy to post content that infringes on copyrights. Presumably, the whole purpose of scraping content is to profit from ad revenue.
   
   Hopefully the combination of these complaints will put the site out of commission, or at least render it worthless. If the site owner is banned from Adsense, hopefully he will think twice about stealing content for profit in future!

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      wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well done.  I saw the the site is, I think, Chinese and the host probably is too.  As such they probably would not take it down voluntarily.  Hopefully some of the other hubbers with stolen stuff there will soon follow suit as well.

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7. 88

   Stacie Lposted 11 years ago

   If this isn't a Hubpages problem, then maybe two of the categories, "Help for new Hubbers" "Hubpages the community" and "Hubpages affiliate programs" will be of interest.

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8. 94

   ktrappposted 11 years ago

   Thanks jezzebellamina. I had two articles stolen on that site and have filed my complaint with Google.

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9. 85

   justateacherposted 11 years ago

   I reported them to Google and filed a complaint - although I have discovered that filing a complaint probably won't help, maybe the Google report will have them removed. We will see. I had at least three things stolen that I could see...

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10. 60

    Phil42posted 11 years ago

    I would try to track their movements and see where they go and try to post and let everybody know just what happened and I'll bet people will catch on.
    Sorry for dumb people

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11. 77

    karthikkashposted 11 years ago

    This kind of stealing happened once last year. Most of our hubs were stolen and directly posted on one of the websites which was created. The website was reported. Of course, it was taken down. So, you can report this website for stealing your content without permission.
    
    On a side note, you can also put a disclaimer on your hubpage profile (I did it after my hubs were stolen) that your hubs are your intellectual property and legal action will be taken against anyone who will steal a part or whole of it without your permission (like plagiarism). See how it works for you.

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12. 79

    SweetiePieposted 11 years ago

    Thanks for letting us know.  Unfortunately, DMCA take down requests are par for the course when it comes to writing online, and I say just be ready and willing to file these.  I have been the victim of these on more than twenty occasions, and Google is always good at taking down the plagiarist content.

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13. 94

    ktrappposted 11 years ago

    Also stolen content on:
    http:// www. healthforpeoples. com

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    1. 61

       HattieMattieMaeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Guess we need to start a rat patrol! lol

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14. 85

    justateacherposted 11 years ago

    Be careful with these guys - they have also hacked my email. Luckily for me, it was a junk account that I use for spammy things, but it was hacked...

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    1. 91

       Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for the warning!

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15. 93

    LongTimeMotherposted 11 years ago

    I wonder if it is worthwhile contacting yahoo.  The contact address for the site is
    
    financeforpeoples at yahoo.com

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    1. 89

       theraggededgeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Yahoo are pretty good at removing stolen content. They did it for me  a couple of weeks ago.
       
       Their link: http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/copyright/en-us/
       
       Their email: copyright@yahoo-inc.com

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16. 61

    jezebellaminaposted 11 years ago

    Has anyone had ANY luck? I feel like this whole thing is spiraling way out of control. Judi Bee has started another thread here with a list of sites owned by this maniac. They are all the same concept, just different topics covered. I am too afraid to check them right now to see if I find more stolen work...I think I need a break or my head will explode.
    
    Anyway, if you're feeling brave, you can find the list here:
    http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/111298
    
    I hope someone will check back in here too, when they have some good news

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    1. 79

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I feel your pain (got it in my head, too), Jezebellamina - most of us have spent the past several days filing tons of DMCA complaints. This is so incredibly time-consuming and frustrating.  And, of course, many of us have decided not to write new hubs until there's a way to better prevent this at the site level here.  Or at least to address it.  I simply can't keep adding more content for the thieves to scrape.

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17. 90

    alocsinposted 11 years ago

    Thank you for taking the time to tell me about this, jezebellamina. I will read the forums and see what my options are.

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18. 88

    TheKatsMeowposted 11 years ago

    Well sadly I was hoping that today I would check the sites and they would be gone no such luck, let's hope it's because it's the weekend and by Monday this whole thing will be sorted out!

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    1. 87

       Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       As I asked on another thread, why do you expect the site will disappear?  What have you done to make it disappear?   Unless you are filing with the hosting company, it's not going anywhere.

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       1. 88

          TheKatsMeowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          @Marisa Wright why do you assume that I haven't done anything? In fact I have filed a complaint with the hosting company, along with a DMCA complaint to google and adsense. I don't know why you think that I and others haven't done anything.... If you have another suggestion I would love to hear it!

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          1. 87

             Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Good to hear you've filed a complaint with the hosting company.   I understood that you had filed with Google only - must have misread a post somewhere.  Apologies.

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19. 61

    jezebellaminaposted 11 years ago

    Awesome news! HP staff are ready to help us. Thank goodness Paul Edmonson has started a thread here asking for info on your stolen Hubs to take to Google. The more, the better!
    
    http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/111495

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       wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/111525

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       1. 61

          jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Great news! Glad to hear you had some luck, at least with one. Thanks for the update...this brings great hope. Following that thread as well and hope to have some of my own good news to share soon!

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          1. 96

             wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             If you do get an entire site shut down, as I did, please post it on the other thread.  Might save someone else considerable wasted effort.

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                jezebellaminaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Absolutely. Will do!!

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20. 61

    jezebellaminaposted 11 years ago

    Woohoo!! It looks like all this guy's sites have been suspended for now. Keep your eyes open for other sites popping up as he will probably try to do it again... but at least we know we can bring them down if we all work together.
    
    Messing with hubbers will NOT stand. Great job, everyone!
    
    Check this thread for info on the sites that are suspended: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/111525
    
    Thanks everyone for your help and support. I have learned SO MUCH through this experience. Next time, I'll be ready and know exactly what to do.

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       TheKatsMeowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       SO happy right now, but still anxious about this happening again in the not-too-distant future! I am going to be very vigilant in the coming weeks.

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