Alerts and Warnings
Another Bogus DMCA Infringement Notice based on a forged blog post
Have you received a bogus “DMCA takedown notice” from an individual (falsely) claiming to be a lawyer with the email address “legal.tomasross@gmail.com”? Was the claim based on a dubiously-dated post on a website called “Global News” or “Global Express News?” If so this might interest you. Back in June, 2022 I got a bogus takedown…
Read MoreRead fine print before paying “Domain Listings” $288.00
It must be that time of year again. I just opened a suspiciously invoice-like “offering” from a company called “Domain Listings” that offers to add you to their “Annual Website Domain Listings on Internet Directory” for the low-low unreasonably-expensive price of $288 per year. Please note that Google will do this for you for free.…
Read MoreBogus DMCA infringement notices may be the product of “black hat” PR agencies.
Have you received an email claiming you’ve infringed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) recently? For people with screen readers here’s the relevant text from the screenshot Cloudflare received a DMCA copyright infringement complaint regarding: realbasics.com The information we received was the following: … Work: I, XXXXXXXXXXX, would like to draw your attention towards https://www.realbasics.com/…
Read MoreFix missing Ninja Forms on your WordPress website
So, about the WordPress Ninja Forms plugin and missing forms. If you use NinjaForms and got that forced security update in mid June, 2022, your forms may have disappeared from your Contact page or other places on your site. Chances are the site isn’t really broken. Instead the plugin may have disabled the forms by…
Read MoreRead the “fine print” before sending money to Domain Authority
I’ve discussed this issue before but a lot of my clients get this “Renewal Notice” from a company called Domain Authority. Looks like they’ve updated their stationery but they’ve been sending these things out for years. Almost everything about the letter implies it’s an invoice to renew your domain name until you get to the…
Read MoreDigging deep to find an SQL error in a WordPress site migration
We were approached to help a remote client recover their website after their in-house servers crashed. They had all the files and a recent database backup, which is great! We routinely reload websites from files and databases, so we didn’t see any problem walking the client through the steps over Zoom. But what could have…
Read MorePaying $289 to “US Domain Authority” won’t renew your domain name
I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries from clients asking “do I need to pay this bill?” This morning in a business meeting four members said they’d received one of these notifications from a company called “US Domain Authority” in Hendersonville, North Carolina. In a nutshell: You don’t have to pay “Domain Authority” a penny…
Read MoreMore reasons to use real hosting for websites
Bottom Top line: Never, ever host a public website on your personal or business network. Pardon the mild profanity in the screenshot but this video by network engineer Serena from @serenashenetworks explains why very well. The explanation might be a little more technical than you’re used to, but basically she’s describing the computer equivalent of…
Read MoreShould you get your website ready for a return to “offline” sales?
The short answer is “you probably should.” A number of larger industries like lumber and car-rental agencies are said to have been caught off guard by a resumption of demand as the COVID-19 pandemic is finally beginning to wind down. The problem seems to be more that they weren’t prepared than that there isn’t enough…
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