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I noticed that a domain that I don't own or know has been redirected to my site without my permission and has been affecting my SEO. I was able to block some of it by adding the following to the .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
# Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} badsite\.com [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

However, the homepage still shows up. Is there another way I can completely block it?

Vilican
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user3380039
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1 Answers1

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Contact the registrar that the domain is registered with.

You can use any WHOIS search engine to gain the abuse contact details for the registrar, as well as (providing that they haven't made the WHOIS data private) the owner's contact details. I often use the who.is search for WHOIS information (I find that there are a few 'WHOIS search' providers out there who are actually registrars).

The section you'll be interested in is this:

Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 000000_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN 
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.register.it 
Registrar URL: http://we.register.it 
Updated Date: 2015-08-20T00:00:00Z 
Creation Date: 2015-05-20T00:00:00Z 
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-05-20T00:00:00Z 
Registrar: REGISTER.IT S.P.A. 
Registrar IANA ID: 168 
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse[at]register.it 
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +39.0353230310

Obviously the registrar's information will vary from domain to domain, but you'll still be wanting to know this info:

  • Registrar Registration Expiration Date - If the domain is expiring inside a month, I personally wouldn't bother reporting it unless you feel it is doing you serious harm or that the domain's expiration date is extended (the owner will probably get notifications that it's expiring a couple of weeks prior)
  • Registrar Abuse Contact Email/Phone- Here's where to contact to have the domain investigated for abuse (this includes purporting to be another website, which is the case here). If successful, the domain will be suspended.

You will also be interested in the Registry Tech ID: section of the WHOIS record, which lists additional details for the registrar. Depending on whether the registrar is a reseller, this information could be different to the information mentioned above.

If you still can't get hold of the registrar, contact ICANN directly (if it's a domain regulated by them), or the appropriate regulator for the TLD or SLD of the offending website. If the registrar won't do anything about it/can't contact they the regulator will.

AStopher
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