Someone without authorization made a false website about my business. What are my options?

We are a small family-run business who aren't very familiar with making websites. We had just recently made a site with Wordpress.org. When I searched up my business online, I see someone had recently made a crude site from Wordpress.com. It was very unprofessional but nothing offensive or harmful about my business. What are my options to remove it? This needs a back story. Another business and I were commercial tenant neighbors. I was very aware of their behavior and the violations they had caused. (pouring paint down the sink, fire hazard Ect. They were however friends with the land-lord so got away with it. After I had purchase the property and land I had them evicted. They soon began to make free blog sites about my business. It would contain my contact info, products, and logo. This confused my customers on which site was mine.
Answers

Success

Hire a lawyer and send a cease and desist letter. If they do not take the website down then, if you can prove they have damaged your business, you can sue them. It may be cheaper to try to buy it from them. This is why professionals tell you to 'BUY YOUR NAME'. the same applies to business names. If you open a cleaning business called ZaaZaaZipZoodle and then a year later you go to build a website and you see someone has a website about throwing dog poo and it is ZaaZaaZipZoodle...they bough for and paid for the name and the website so you would have to buy it from them. If they refused to sell then you would have to go and reserve ALL of the similar names and then launch a SEO and Marketing campaign to drive the website that has your name down in the rankings while you pay to have the website you create for your self (ZaaZaaZipZoodie) promoted. You can change your company name OR buy the domain in Dot net, Dot USA, Dot corp extensions and heavily advertise those. Eventually the people who own 'your' domain' name will get tired and let it expire and then you can snap it up. Message me and i'll give up a few more pointers.

babyboomer1001

If you want to sue them, consult a lawyer. You have no control over someone else's website. A lawyer might get it taken down.

Casey Y

Just posting a similar website wouldn't be a crime... I don't really understand the issue here though. Buy a domain, find a host and get your website active. The fake one will end up deprioritized by search engines as less useful.

Steve D

Probably none. Courts have ruled that companies do not own websites until they actually register the name. Unless the web site you found is engaging in some action detrimental to your business, there is probably very little you can do. However, you may want to spend the $200 fee to have a lawyer write a cease and desist letter to the owner of the website asking him/her to remove any reference to your business - that maybe enough to scare him/her.

A Hunch

Did you hire a company to do the website? If so, did you ask them about the situation? Based on the little information that you have provided, I would guess that they were doing a sample that accidentally got released.

Anonymous

"What are my options to remove it?" You can offer to buy the domain name from them (which is why people do this). Or you can write to them and tell them that you will never, ever buy the domain name from them (and hope that they believe you and decide to stop paying for it themselves).

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