MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal logins

[ywsah]

Martin Lewis's MoneySavingExpert (MSE) entire website has been cloned.

The clone is called bigmoneysaving . com (please take care not to inadvertently remove the deliberately-inserted spaces either side of the fullstop here, you won't want to go there by mistake)

LegalBeagles and others (tweets redacted here for copyright) reported the cloning to MSE two days ago Jun 24, and MSE say they already knew about it:-

<quote from Twitter this morning Jun 26 >

• LegalBeagles @LegalBeagles Jun 24 [MENTION=43412]mon[/MENTION]eySavingExp are you aware of ' bigmoneysaving . com ' - seems to be ripping you off a tad to push ' make a million in an hour ' vids
• Martin Lewis [MENTION=37104]Martins[/MENTION]Lewis [MENTION=43412]mon[/MENTION]eySavingExp Jun 24 its a clone we'll get on it. Money Saving Expert
• LegalBeagles @LegalBeagles Jun 24 [MENTION=43412]mon[/MENTION]eySavingExp Good stuff.

<end quote>

The clone is (a) badly-infected which can easily be shown - without risk - by using one of the many online website scanners eg simply clicking the following is safe (https) and will run such a scan ; or if preferred one can browse to a security checker and enter the clone name, same difference[INDENT]

(b) has been thoroughly-indexed by eg google - which has been informed but not removed all search results - easily shown without risk by entering the following plain-text line into a google search box using any browser:

site:bigmoneysaving . com (remove the deliberately-inserted spaces either side of the fullstop to see the results)

- which returns hundreds of thousands of pages copied from the genuine MSE (please take care not to inadvertently click on any result, again you won't want to go there by mistake);

(c) will presumably steal logins from anyone unfortunate-enough to stumble upon the clone by mistake which, sadly, is all-too-easy eg as of this morning a google search - limited by 'search tools' to 'Past week' - on the following unquoted phrase

Hot bargains, deals & steals MSE

returned a result for the cloned site as the second result of about 20.

What can we do to get this sort of thing taken down? I've tried notifying the MSE site-owners, the official crime agencies, Google themselves, etc etc with evidence of only minimal action being taken over the past fortnight since I discovered and reported this scam thereto.

There is also evidence (I won't say where here, yet, to protect that evidence till I know where it will be used) that someone in authority has decided that corporate image is more important than protecting MSE's thousands of users which they could have done eg by putting a warning on the MSE site itself.

I'm well-aware this is not an easy issue eg I noticed a further - smaller - clone starting-up yesterday: moneysavingexpert . xyz (spaces again deliberately inserted, one presumably would not want to go there either)

[Amethyst]

Re: MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal login

It is very hard to get some of these clone sites taken down - I have to admit when I came across it I hadn't noticed if the log in information was there and whether you could attempt to log in ( thus risking your security ). that's my bad for not even thinking about it !!!

If that is the case then yes I'd agree that MSE should run a notice to members about clone sites and if they have tried to log in to a clone site to change their passwords on the MSE site and any other facilities online they use with the same username/passwords - particularly email accounts.

There's a legalbeaglesx. blogspot site which is driving me batty, but it isn't a risk as its not a clone and has no log in area - they are just feeding off our SEO and users postings Buggers.

[Amethyst]

Re: MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal login

Yip they have the login bits working - I'm sure if there was any risk MSE would flag it up to users.

[MENTION=1508]Nibbler[/MENTION] do you know if they are doing that ?




I'll just run a scan on my puter now.

[Nibbler]

Re: MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal login

Yip they have the login bits working - I'm sure if there was any risk MSE would flag it up to users.

@Nibbler do you know if they are doing that ?

Not that I've seen.

It may be a case of not wanting to draw attention to it and boost the Google ranking? I do a lot of searches and I've only had that site pop up very rarely. If they start mentioning it on the site as a risk, then that in turn becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as it then goes up the search engine rankings via MSE's good SEO.

Suppose a general warning to watch what site you are putting your username/password into may be appropriate, but then again who really pays much attention to those?

BTW not tried that login, but it looks live so could presumably farm really usernames and passwords if people are daft enough to try it.

[Amethyst]

Re: MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal login

I've tw@tted them about it anyway - its six of one half dozen of the other with publicising issues like this - draws attention to it helps boost the ranking which puts others at risk. People can't help having a google to check it out for themselves. If you say nothing you aren't warning people of potential issues.

Suppose a general warning to watch what site you are putting your username/password into may be appropriate, but then again who really pays much attention to those?

indeed ! wish more people would !!!

[ywsah]

Re: MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal login

At 14:33 today 26/6/15 Amethyst (siteowner) wrote:

I've tw@tted them about it anyway - its six of one half dozen of the other with publicising issues like this - draws attention to it helps boost the ranking which puts others at risk. People can't help having a google to check it out for themselves. If you say nothing you aren't warning people of potential issues.

ywsah now replies: Thanks Amethyst et al, and yes I see MSE has indeed already tweeted back:

Money Saving Expert @MoneySavingExp Jun 26 We've had reports of a fake MSE site. Please take extra care to check the URL is http://moneysavingexpert.com before logging in.

Which is the first acknowledgement I've seen since reporting this issue to MSE privately by various routes this past fortnight. So hooray for the extra 'weight' (no offence intended) of Legal Beagles.

As a follow-on however, can anyone explain why Google can't simply delete all those thousands of entries for the clone from its index?; or at least flag the results with its 'This site might harm your computer' flags? That was the biggest surprise for me, ie that they didn't do so immediately in the face of such evidence.

OK, so the scammers would doubtless simply 'up-sticks and make yet-another-clone with yet-another-name'. But at least it would then be more a publicly-viewable question of whose nerve would crack first.

As things stand - and bearing in mind as mentioned earlier the whiff of corporate cover-up not unlike those which for so many years hid the 'safeguarding' crimes which have only recently come to light - it might appear some corporations value their shareprice more than the safety of their users.

Which to my mind does nothing to improve that all-important quality: TRUST.

So, let it be known that some of those users will continue watching them, (the corporations) too, and reporting back here if we may ...

[Amethyst]

Re: MoneySavingExpert has been cloned. Clone is (a) infected and (b) will steal login

It takes time to get websites shut down and de-indexing from Google is a nightmare. I'm confident that MSE will be doing all that is in their power to get this site removed asap.

I don't think MSE is publicly quoted.

Trust me behind the scenes we are often going a bit loopy trying to work out what to do about situations when on the face of it we might look like we haven't noticed/don't give a hoot - it's a balancing act xxx I'm pretty certain those behind the scenes at MSE will be exactly the same.