Tenerife Forum
UPDATE – July 2nd 2014
This domain has now been abandoned by the owners and allowed to expire which signals that our efforts were worthwhile.
In the Canaries, we tend to get more than our fair share of scams and fraudulent individuals possibly due to it being a popular tourist destination coupled with unwitting tourists who simply visit to have some relaxation and a ‘jolly good time’.
Unfortunately, some unscrupulous individuals view it as an incredible opportunity to profit without having any sense of decency and in many cases, will even boast to others about how smart they were to rip off their victims. Enter In-Tenerife.net.
Details of the In-Tenerife.net Scam
We’ve been monitoring a website by the name of In-Tenerife.net for a while now which was initiated by their Facebook page stealing content from our page without attributing any credit to us or the image owners.
On closer inspection, we soon discovered that nearly all the content on their main site had been stolen, including some from acquaintances who run reputable blogs about Tenerife.
This information for In-Tenerife.net was sourced from Copyscape which is a standard for bloggers to check if their content has been copied and republished elsewhere without their consent.
I contacted Spain Holiday & Jack at The Real Tenerife to notify them that their content had been stolen and reproduced elsewhere.
They in turn tried to contact the site owner to request removal of the stolen content but the owner refused to respond to their requests.
I went ahead and filed a report to Google on the grounds of plagiarism to which I got a positive response and I also encouraged the other parties to do the same.
It’s not uncommon for Google to remove a site from their index completely if multiple requests are validated.
Registration Details of In-Tenerife.net from Whois
Because Whois details can be edited, a screenshot will make sure the details stay intact in the event of any changes made by the registrant.
Just a few points on the registration details of In-Tenerife.net:
- The name could be anyone as there is no verification process
- Street is stated as “nekada iela” a Latvian term meaning upper street
- State is listed as “no fckin state”
- As for country, it speaks for itself
Uncovered In-Tenerife.net Server Information by Site24x7
The site is hosted in Bucharest, Romania according to Site24X7 and here’s a screenshot.
Property Section of In-Tenerife.net Looks Dubious
What makes this whole story even more intriguing is that in the backend (admin section) of the site, the owner obviously has plans for a property business which should immediately raise a red flag judging by the way it has been approached.
Once again, here’s the link to the hidden section, but another screenshot is necessary just in case it gets edited.
Update…… domain has been allowed to expire and deindexed by Google.
Content Theft by In-Tenerife.net Validated by Copyscape
Listed below are just some of the sites affected by the content theft and I’m sure many are blissfully unaware of it.
Spain-Holiday.com
Real Tenerife Island Drives
Spain.Info
DailyMail
Telegraph
Todo Tenerife
Royal Garden Villas
Final Word on the In-Tenerife.net Scam in the Making
If anyone contacts you and tells you that he lives in ‘no fckin state’ on cuckoo island then you’ll know that it’s the people behind In-Tenerife.net and should be avoided like the plague.
Here’s some sound advice related to common Holiday Scams and an A – Z of Online Fraud.
Stay safe……….
Nemesis!
