Mike, I feel your frustration.  So sorry that it happened to you.  I don't have enough knowledge to know how to go and steal that way, lol.

Mike.....I feel your frustration here.  If it were me I would be, well guess I should not say but a littled p _ _ _ _ _.

Some people are dumb.  I am sorry that stole your hard work but to be dumb enough to not know to change the links  is REALLY dumb.

Oooooh I just LOVE secret codes! Will you write some into my wedding vows?? LOL!

Damn Mike! This is absolutely hilarious! Oh, and did you read what Dixie and Cal wrote about ME???

I hate to plagiarize you, but be forewarned: I plan on using that excellent tag in my next post :) 

Ray - I did write him a email giving him three days to remove.  You were my first guess at the identity of the perp. -

Pam - We shall see, I find stolen stuff all the time.  Reuters was stealing my posts too.  Oh, never mind. 

Kathy - He's dumb and a

Jennifer - I'll do anything you like. Aren't Dixie and Cal great?  Love them!

BTW There's a secret code on this page clearly thanking the people who helped make this customizer work. Can you find it?

Wow - that is just amazing - I am floored.

Mike, so how was it that you found it?

I saw a blog recently that mentioned a program or website that can check the Internet for similar pages. I'm going to go back and look for it.

Mike, I'm an html neophyte. Other than these content checks like CopyScape is it near impossible to stop theft?

       As AR continues to grow I am afraid we will encounter more of this stuff. Sue his pants off!!!

Mike -- Believe it or not, that's much more common than people think.  The thief thinks, "who on earth will ever notice if I steal some guy's page from the east coast when I work on the west coast?."

It still stinks.  You have a lot of very good ways of getting even rather than mad.  Let me know if you need any help.

If done properly, he'll rue the day he did this to you and took the easy way out.

Sad, but try to see the lighter side of it.  a) You did such a great job that someone wanted to steal it.  b) the person is obviously dumb enough to do that despite your implicity copyright. c) Sometimes it's fun to have someone to screw with when you get bored.

In the future, hope you can find him on Google AdWords. That's always a trip.  Clicking his paid ad a couple dozen times a day.

Either way that's just the start.  Being an intelligent, self-motivated, computer-oriented person, I'm sure you'll think of some pretty phenomenal ways to whack him.

It is interesting that the part of your profile this guy copied was the client testimonials.  Shoot if you are going to lievaboout having happy customers, why not make up your own story?

This appears to be a major problem. Hacks face two or three dilemas. One, they might get caught. Two, they might be asked to perform beyond their capabilities, three they have to spend their life with a loser. Even if they always avoid one and two, they are doomed to deal with three.

Courtney - It really does happen all the time.  Splogs steal my RSS feed daily.

Here's an example: 

What is a Forbearance?
jaysue wrote an interesting post today on Here’sa quick excerpt. He worked on a fancy cruise ship. Joe’s job is to light the Baked Alaska. He’sa highly trained and well respected person. It’sa dangerous job. ...
Cruises - http://cruises.mystudenttrip.com/ 

Peter - for most people they setup a Google Alert (as is this one above).  I actually found it because of our online chat program which tracks where you were referred sources.

Andrew - It's just about absolutely impossible to prevent the theft.  I can disable your abilty to right lick on my pages but that slows down the image theft.  Anyone can copy and past.

Kim - He's got three days.

David - You bet it does. For fun do a Google search for "Bryan & Yvonne Carpenter"

Sometimes when I find a blog that is stealing my pictures I replace the thieved picture with this: 

That usually works.

Dan - He stole everything then deleted what he didn't like and added a couple of images.  I'm sure he's not done. 

John - True!

Hack??  Or just a lazy bum that copies other peoples work?
It's one thing to borrow ideas, but to completely cut and paste then just change names......   UGH!

Hmm... Flattery??? Nest p'as? ;)

He seriously thought you were the bomb ditty as he only took from your work. He didn't like anyone else's client's testimonials. What?? We're not good enough for him? Our experiences weren't cool enough for his hacker friends?

I would like to know how to set up that Google alert that tells you if your name's been mentioned. You know, some day it'll be in lights. Trying to grab it before it gets there.

TTFN,

Terri Hayely

Wow - nice catch - guess he was too busy to do it himself - nice of you to give him 3 days - I will be watching for an update

Mike - amazing how some people just take the easy road. Nice catch. A secret message in the html code, sounds interesting, I need to look in to that.

Mike,

What a jerk...I'd ask him to meet me in the parking lot and we can exchange a few blows instead of links...obviously he liked your stuff enough to steal it...where did you notice this so I can see if it happens to me.

I'd call his broker in charge...

However, I had an agent that used to work in my office that asked me to help them set-up their website.  I never trusted this individual.  Anyway, this person left our office and proceeded to copy my website just about verbatim with identical headings(which were customized).  This person even went so far - like yours - to have a backlink that said:  http://theirname.com/tsantrock   I replaced the name for anonymity. 

Anyway I haven't done anything about it other than complain to everyone on my office and draw a mustache and devil hat on the agent's picture.  Lucky me - she now has listings on my turf too! 

I agree, this individual and the one that stole your stuff is a good for nothing A$$wipe. 

Mike, That's incredible!! I sure wouldn't want to do business with that guy. I think he needs to hear from your attorney.

That is really unbelievable. Why would someone spend so much time copying when they could have just created something unique at the same time. I am surprised you found it.

I actually saw your profile after your hockey posts.  I was impressed. 

I think you should send him an invite to join AR.  Ha! Then start linking him to all sorts of copyright posts....

It is amazing how many times I see pieces and parts of either my blog description or website somewhere else.  I've never been hijacked as completely as you have though.  WOW I wish I was that smart :-)

Well that flat out stinks!  I'd have my attorney write him a letter and demand he take it down. 

I'm really sorry this happened but I look forward to looking at your own original piece of work and I'm sorry he copied it.  I bet the other guy is just a upset...but can you believe he didn't even read it to ask about the "mike" name and why it was there?  Hummmm

What a drag you put a lot of effort writing posts and then to have someone copy them is just down right sinful. Hopefully you have contacted them.

Hi Mike - that really stinks!  I do have google alerts set up for some of my stuff, but haven't gone far enough with copyscape and/or other programs that are supposed to do a good job at just this kind of thing.

By the way, I've seen your hidden code several times.  I thought that was really cool and was really curious just how you did that.

Ann

Unbelievable !  This stuff never cesases to amaze me.  Do thye AR gods ever do anything about it ?

Is that for real?? WOW! No honour between negotiators I guess.

What an idiot!  I think you were too nice to him....Let us know what happens.

Wow...I hope you continue to pursue him.  What a jerk!

HA!!!  I've heard that lame nonsense "Imitation is a form of flattery" to many times.  It is not.  The thief is not flattering.  The thief is stealing content/ property. 

I don't consider it flattering when a competitor agent steals one or more of my maps and puts it on their web page and competes with me for buyer or seller business. 

I make them pay cold hard cash for that form of "flattery".

I've seen a lot of my content on other agents web sites.  That doesn't bother me too much.  But, when they steal an image, they pay.  They pay me now or they pay me a lot more later.  Then they'll be paying my attorney too.

BTW, testimonials are often stolen.  Apparently the folks who steal content can't get testimonials of their own.  Doesn't surprise me. 

Dude!!  That sucks, or does it?  It Gave you something to post about didn't it? LOL!~ 

Like you need that.... 

I want to live next door to Lenn, THAT's the kinda neighbor I want as a Blogger!! 

So who's your attorney???   See ya Monday Mike!!  :-))

That really stinks, but its a good thing is your profile and not your ID

That really stinks, but its a good thing is your profile and not your ID

WOW!  You gotta sit back when you are fuming and kind of give a little chuckle about them forgetting to remove "Mike" from the testimonial!  I can't believe someone would swipe a testimonial.  That is low of the low!

WOW! Can you say "Busted"? Sorry that this guy targeted your information. It is amazing how people think. It is like a criminal that doesn't think he will ever get caught or an athlete that uses Steroids. Great detective work.

Mike - I think your tag on this post says it all.  This is deplorable.  I have had a few people do this with my stuff over the years, too. 

Mike~ I've had it happen to me as well...what continues to amaze me is the lengths that those people will go to steal content. In that same amount of time, and with half the effort they probably could have come up with something decent and original. Plus, I don't understand how these idiots think we won't find out..? I feel for ya.

Mike -I feel for you. I had a similar experience with an agent in my own office to boot. Had one stealing my format of my profile then another "clipping" my pictures online and posting them onto her websites. Nice huh? No permissions or requests to use them just plain stealing. It sucks and now I work in the same office with them or should I say around them. One of them even had the gall to threaten suing me years ago because we had the same website host and I took a picture of a local town icon which I guess she believed belonged to her even though it was my picture that I had taken myself. Fun stuff this real estate business. Oh well, hang in there and hope this gets cleared up for you. Best of luck with it. Bob H.

Unbelievable what some people will do. It's funny (not funny HAHA but funny ridiculously sad) if you view most of the testimonials, they have Mike's name in them. Very sorry, Mike! Has this moron even responded to any of this?

Mike,

I saw something that said I was Cool... Oh the power of the internet... hacking your blog

I just had to deal with stolen content myself and I was surprised how irate I got. 

This guy's theft is so bad, it's almost humorous.  Hello, linking back to your blogs??

This guy is just dense.  Hey you got a feature out of the deal though!

I think AR should have a copyright attorney on staff who could help us with this stuff. We'd keep 'em busy!

I'm glad you can see the humor in this though.  It made for a very interesting read! 

I still don't know how to track all this stuff.  If someone stole something I wrote, I wouldn't even know it.  Can someone write a post on how to track this stuff?  Like one for totally clueless bloggers like me?

Yay! A Star! I looked everywhere, but I am an HTML idiot, so....

Bummer! I think you should hunt him down and harass him, just for the fun of it. OK. Maybe that's not the best idea. So instead, we'll all just make fun of him here and make sure we use his name Allen Cole enough that if anyone does an internet search for Allen Cole, they'll find this discussion about Allen Cole. How do you like that, Allen Cole? I think Allen Cole probably won't like it very much and then maybe Allen Cole will stop stealing other people's material. Except that Allen Cole's brain probably can't come up with any unique material on it's own. Poor little Allen Cole.

My goodness, he hasn't changed this in spite of being caught red-handed!  About a year or two ago, somone I'd managed and mentored on and off for 20+years copied and pasted one of my posts on her blog, complete with names and stories of my clients.  It surprised me how hurt and angry I felt.

By the way, I like that substitute photo.  :)

Lisa - Hilarious use of Allen Cole.  I do agree that Allen Cole may not want to know what this forum thinks of him.  I'm glad that Mike found out Allen Cole.  Mike - Great job in bringing this kind of behavior to our attention!

Oh, man I feel bad for you.  I would be flattered and mad if someone was trying to get credit for my blogs as well.  I think its funny how you made this very humorous!

Mike that blows, Site thieves and Auto-crawler thieves are just plain lame.  Good job on pointing out how sloppy the culprit is, I find it hilarious that the off site links link right back to you...I guess you could sue them by trying to impersonate you or by tarnishing your good name with their crappy site.

That is horrible. He really is a hack and a bold one at that. His was obvious and blatant. He didn't even try to cover his tracks!

Mike, oh my gosh...what a slime ball. Doesn't it just amaze you with the audacity of some people. They'll stop at nothing.

I love your thief picture - well constructed! LOL

Not that you need to hear it again but that really STINKS (not the actual word I wanted to type).  You are really a gifted writer and don't need your hard work stolen!!

I haave to ask....how do you do all those neat things with the clip art??

Mike,  I just had to comment and say you did a good job of outing this hack.  It will do far more to his chartacter than sueing him.

Why can't people just do the right thing?  I swear it is a get instant gratification fast at someone else's expense. I hope you get this all straightened out.  What a nightmare.

Mike, that's UNBELEIVABLE !!!!!!!!!!  I confess I haven't read all 55 of your responses, but many, but have you tried to contract this scumbag??

OH....and by the way....where in the world did you get that pic of that UGLY GUY?

what a jacka$$. Sorry for your thief!

WOW, Mike, there were references to "Mike" thru-out those testimonials.. he missed way more than one!  I'm surprised his site is not offline yet..  Good luck on whatever you do about this.

This is sad. It's sad that the person is has done this underhanded thing. And its even sadder because it will be difficult for you to get it to stop most likely. All the best.

You've got to already know that if he's that dumb, then he's that unsuccessful. However dumb he maybe, you do need to contact him and let him know he can get caught. If he's gotten away with that, then there's no telling what other fraud he's done.

If you're really, really ticked, put him in Naymz. Then link to this post in your comments.

Ouuuuchh.  

Mike,

I can see why this guy wants to copy you. You are one of the best. I have been following you for quite some time but not copying you!

Good blog.  Credit to you.  I'm sure he can afford to anti up a few bucks for his theft...

Way to catch the guy!!!  I'm going to dig into the Google tracker as well.  Did this guy have the cajones to step up and admit to what he did????????  I cant stop chuckling at his lack of attention to detail by leaving your name in on the that one letter...what an idiot!

Will the real Mike Mueller please stand up!??!

(I've got Allen Cole on line one waiting to speak with you Mike:-)

Flattery my butt! That is stealing plain and simple. I wouldn't tolerate it at all. Good for you!

Wow!  I was offline yesterday - and extremely busy this morning.  I'll get back to comment to everyone later today.

Jason - tell Mr. Cole to stay on hold.  I'll be back to him in a couple of hours!

That's so annoying.  I had something similar happen recently, to a lesser degree.  It was obvious that the other guy had copied my text and inserted his own details.  The worst part was, he posted it where their was a high likelihood I would see it, AND I DID!  I had to laugh... some people just don't get it.

Mike,

It isn't funny, so sorry I'm laughing at how dumb this guy is.  Sue him.

Mike- I have worse ones than that!  We have two sites who steal our name and profile and they are porno sites! YIKES! We have our name and profile stolen by adwords guys and all kinds! I do all the work and they get to use my name! :(

Mike - I run my sites, blogs etc. through copyscape every now and again.  It is a full time job going after all the people that copy the text.  If it is more than a few sentences I send them a cease and desist letter.  Most of the people do remove the copy, but it is a royal pain in the butt.  I tried putting a script that disables the right click button - it says something like - you can't copy this it is copyrighted, but it does not work when using firefox.  

The thing that kills me is when you go to these people's sites and they have not even bothered to change the font of the material they plagiarized.   Half their site is in their font then the copied stuff is in mine, it looks a mess. 

Mike that is just down righrt amazing! Have you asked him to take the stuff down? Totally unbelievable.

Nancy - I think he's a lazy hack.

Terri - See:  Using Google Alerts to find the Slime Balls!  Just for you!

Thesa - The clock is ticking...

Venancio - secret html on outside pages - hidden message in this page (HINT: it's in the graphics)

Neal - Shame on you.  Fighting is never the right answer (except on the ice)  LOL!

Tracy - so far I don't think he's licensed.  I don't think he has a broker.

BB - We'll see what he does.

Charles - There are many out there who will take the easy road.  He's one.

Steve - That's a good one!

Cindy - Go ahead and take anything yo want

Diane - I already have my guys on it. AR too!

Karen - Maybe i just caught him as it was a work in progress?

Jay - This took a lot longer to do than a post - I estimate it was over 5 hours labor.

Ann - Hidden code?  I bet we're talking about a different thing.

Bill - What would you expect them to do? 

Gabrielle - That's too funny!  Actually there is.  Just not him.  I had a wonderful conversation with a short sale negotiator yesterday.  Rob Jacobs    I can honestly say - he's truley an honorable man!

Monika - I will but my primary obligation is to close loans and to close short sales.

Lenn - You are my hero!

Brad - Me too!

Richard - That's true.  There's always a bright and sunny side, eh? 

Renee - Steal a testimonial?  You have to read Bryan & Yvonne Carpenter on the Real Estate Weenie.

Shaun - Thanks!

Jason - Yup.  We all have.

Laura - I'm ok.  No worries here.

Bob H.  - That sucks too!   Maybe more than this does.

Shelly- No response yet.

Jane - I just don't understand

Melina - If AR stood up to protect your posts, who's posts would they really be?

Marlene - check it out:   Using Google Alerts to find the Slime Balls!

Jennifer - It's not in the html 

I have one question... Are some people that stupid?

Mike, he wishes he was you.

The agent in my market who stole one of my posts (and any number of other posts from all sorts of sources) left in a link to an earlier post of mine so I got the track back.  He'd found the link and deleted it but it was enough to make me search his blog. 

The best form of flattery is to have someone copy what you are doing you should be honored that he thought it was so good he wanted to use it. But copyright is copyright so you probably should make sure he stops using it.

I hope that if one day someone admires Mr. Brown's automobile and steals it, he'll just consider it flattery.  That remark always cracks me up.

Mike If only Allen would use his powers for good . . . instead of evil.

Debbie - yes, people are just that stupid!