Once Bitten …
This is going to be a quick post. I’m buried in school work right now. I have a many-page project due by this week end, which I’ve been working on from the moment I got up this morning, right on through a few minutes ago. I have an appointment I need to go to tomorrow in Dover, NH - which is a long ride for me, since I’m still up at camp. That will take up another one of my school days. I’m afraid that I’m not going to do a lot of blogging until that “final project” is done. But … just as soon as I upload it to my classroom … >;o)
There is something so important that I decided to stay up past my bedtime so that I could make a quick post about it. My regular readers will remember my recent problem with a blogger who called herself Naked Tomato. If you’ll remember, that clever young woman took me for a ride around the blogosphere … well, I learned a bit from that experience, and now I’m keeping my eyes peeled for other bloggers who, well - just don’t feel right, if you know what I mean.
In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a fellow who calls himself “Dr. David.” He’s been leaving the same cut and pasted comment on many of the blogs I follow. When he left one on Dr. Engel’s blog, I finally decided to take a look at this new “Dr. David” dude … and this is what I found …
His Google ads, which were at the top, side and bottom of his blog were ads for malpractice lawyers … I thought that was a bit odd, but that’s not what got me going …
I began to look over his blog posts, since I couldn’t find anything about a bio … each and every single post on that blog is cut and pasted directly from other people’s websites, blogs and forums. Each one. In one of the posts, he cut and pasted the source code directly from a Google search, and his search terms are still highlighted!
I checked out the better part of the posts he had up at the time, and traced the original posts - which he had not credited anywhere on his blog - fairly easily through a few simple Google searches.
A few places he “lifted” posts from, pictures and all, include: the Journey Through Breast Cancer blog, Fitness Health Articles.com, Gemzar.com, Anne Bennett - Breast Cancer: There is a way through your fears, another article came from Medical News Today … and I could simply go on and on … I don’t even have to be choosy, since there’s not a whit of original material on the entire blog! This is Bitacle all over again, but junior sized …
I left the following comment on what was the most recent post at the time:
2 questions:
1) Why is a physician carrying ads for malpractice lawyers?
2) Are you aware that taking other people’s material and posting it as your own without crediting the author is plagiarism?
I’m concerned that there’s not a single original article on this entire blog, and you’ve been getting my friends to blogroll you …
Could I please get you to address these questions?
Thank you.
I waited a day, and went to take a look at his reply … he had deleted the comment. As you can see if you follow the link to the comment, my name (Moof) is still there, and it’s linked to my email address. He could have emailed an answer if he was embarrassed to reply in a comment … but he didn’t answer … he just deleted the evidence instead.
He also did a lot of work since he deleted that comment … he’s added several posts since yesterday, and he’s begun to put the links to the article he’s “borrowing” in the title. The lawyers have vanished from his Google ads too. He’s even added an email address - which doesn’t work.
I’m comfortable enough with my surmise to blog about it … because I see so many of my friends in his blogroll, and I know that he’s gone to your blogs, saying he’s a doc, and trying to get a link from you. I personally don’t believe him … and I don’t know what he’s up to, but I don’t feel that it would be right to be silent. Being forgiving and tolerant should never be equated with being stupid or weak. If I see this sort of thing, I will say something about it.
You’re welcome to blogroll him if you’d like … but if you’re fussy about who you link to, you may want to go over there and take a gander at his blog for yourself …
Anonymous bloggers are one thing … false bloggers another. It seems as if the latter have been being exposed with increasing frequency. Sincerity is like smarts … if you’ve got it, it shows … and if you don’t … that shows too …
Defend your blog from theft!
October 18th, 2006 at 3:54 am
Oh no…I have been suspecting there was something wrong with him. He got me about 10 days ago I guess. I then started seeing his SAME cut and paste on everyone’s blog. Also the link he leaves doesn’t even work. I had to look his blog up in google to even find him..
Thank you Moof for posting this…I think I am going to turn on commemt moderation while I am gone.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:54 am
Moof,
He asked me too for a link. I went and checked out his blog. The thing that didn’t smell right to me was the absence of a profile (anonymous or otherwise). I didn’t reply to his email and I didn’t link to him.
best,
Flea
October 18th, 2006 at 6:34 am
I checked the blog too, Moof. There sure are a lot of ads, links, bells and whistles on his sidebar for what looks like just 4 posts on the entire blog, dating from only 9/24/06. Not sure if he’s a real doc/neophyte blogger or something more sinister, but he hasn’t had much traffic, so it doesn’t look like he’s getting much of a foothold in the b-sphere. Nice pickup, though.
October 18th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Sorry about that: there are more than 4 posts, but only 4 dates in his archives. Either way, he appears to be a newbie. Glad you smoked him out early, Moof.
October 18th, 2006 at 9:28 am
In my opinion, if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, it IS a rat.
This person looks like someone who may be trying to make money off ads.
Good for you for calling him out.
I personally don’t link to ANYONE unless I have been reading them for quite some time.Your example here is one reason why.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:03 am
good work moof! i was wondering who he was, left a comment on my site too. so odd.
October 18th, 2006 at 11:53 am
It took half a nanosecond to see that this dude was not the real McCoy. But your excellent detective work proves the point. Nicely done, Moof!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
At least for me, I think it was because of the TNT episode that I explored this further. Thanks for your work on this. No link on my blog from this person.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
You know, stealing the articles is a problem - no one likes their stuff stolen, with no attributions assigned … but seriously, with the quantity he’s posting, he’s not that big of a threat in that way. What I’m more concerned about is what he might be up to … pretending to be a doctor.
There’s a smattering of comments on his blog from people who think he’s the real McCoy … with no answers from him in the comments … is he replying to these people by email? Could he abuse their trust by giving them medical advice, even? Or gain their trust enough for them to reveal something to him which they would only reveal to a physician?
Yes, he’s a plagiarizer … not nice! He deserves a sharp rap on the knucles.
But I’m far more concerned about the “B’logna Bloggy” factor … he’s misrepresenting himself. I can’t believe that he’s doing it just for the handful of hits he might get on those malpractice lawyer ads when people go read his carbon copy posts … so what are his intentions?
He’s been reading this stuff, by the way - since he removed my name from that comment he deleted, and fixed his email address. If he just came clean, he’d make out better … *blink*
October 18th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
As always, my friend, you raise some really good points and the blogosphere is filled with frauds, phoneys, charlatans, sexual predators, and worse. I mean, it’s made to order for the creeps of the world, n’est ce pas? Good for you for scrutinizing more closely and uncovering what you did. Meanwhile, for adults at least, it is a matter of caveat emptor, I guess. For kids, however, I tend to cringe quite often.
Another good one.
Your friend,
Ian
October 18th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
Good work, Moof!! I never perceived him to be that way, but I know now, and will definitely take precautions online. Just needed a little reminder :)
October 18th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Its a shame really that these things are happening… why pretend to be something your not?
October 18th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Moof..I am going to nickname you “SUPER SLEUTH”..it’s sad that you would even have to do any of this..thanks for letting us know…by the way I posted a very special loving tibute that was sent to me by a friend. It’s from a Mother who lost her son in Iraq, tought you might like to read it..take care.m
October 18th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
He is now using comment moderation himself . . . I tried to leave a comment. Grrrrr . . . We should be able to report him to google and keep his site from being searched, though.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
I just emailed google . . .
October 18th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
Ian, thank you, my dear. My usual wont is to overlook that sort of thing, but after TNT, Bitacle, and another situation I haven’t gone into too much detail about yet, I’m not as nonchalant anymore …
Madd … as soon as I can, I’m going to do a complete blogrun, and I’ll be over to see you, I promise. As of this moment, I have 418 unread items in my Bloglines … … … gee, maybe I should quit school and blog full time! >;o)
Ripple, dear heart, I don’t think Google will do anything. We had to contact them by certified mail, and let them know a copy of the information had been sent to the FBI before they took down a blog that someone made in our name … which had our photos, phone number, home address … and so many things which were horrible and crude that they read like bad porn.
We need to remember …
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good to do nothing.”
- Edmund Burke
October 19th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Ugh!
October 19th, 2006 at 12:58 am
Moof, Internet is just like the world itself. There are good people, there are bad people, and there are people with varying shades of gray. And just like life itself, there are people who are complacent and those that are proactive in fighting for justice. Kudos to you for being the latter.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord says “I shall be born again and agaun to reinstall justice when there is a lack of it” (“…Dharmasamsthapanarthaya Sambavami yuge yuge.”) About time He appeared in cyber space, huh?
October 19th, 2006 at 8:04 am
moof, i have an image of you this morning in a cape with a capital “M” on your shirt. super hero today my friend! thanks for this look into the real world. i tend to get caught up in things and put on my rose colored glasses….
bee
October 19th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Ian says,
Ian, I disagree that the blogosphere, or even the Internet as a whole, is “filled” with scum. Yes, it’s out there, but catastrophizing doesn’t help us think clearly. It leads to actions like the ill-advised DOPA act.
Good work, Moof, on catching “Dr. David” on his antics.
October 19th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
I was half-way through your post when the thought occurred to me that he was a new graduate lawyer who was trying to drum up malpractice business for himself. Or he could be an older lawyer that’s a little short on business.
It is possible that those ads on his site are part of his alternate ego.
He would play the caring physician and tell the patient that what had happened to them was ‘lawsuit worthy’. When asked what to do, he would point to his sidebar and state that he knows these guys *personally*.
Either way…
I’m glad that you found him out. Now what we all need to do is collaborate a post together (or copy this one??) and everyone post it on their blogs. That way, when anyone searched for him they would get an “earfull”.
You know that he’s commenting on a LOT of different blogs that none of us see or know about.
later…
October 20th, 2006 at 3:07 am
hmmm…I thought I typed out a comment last night. Anyway, I went to check his blog and it’s different from the previous one. I haven’t checked his archives though.
October 20th, 2006 at 10:13 am
This is his blog too:
http://doctor-it.blogspot.com/
I found it on technorati.
October 20th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Ripple - thank you … I checked that out. He started that blog at about the same time as the “Doctor Health” blog. Same stuff on there - mostly news articles about IT with no attribution back to the original source.
Good detective work, Ripple! Thanks for letting us know! :o)
October 20th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Will it ever end? Thanks for the heads up. Good luck on your project.
October 20th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
He hit me too. I didn’t like how he worded his email. Very forceful and condescending. I’ve since taken my email off of my profile.
October 21st, 2006 at 12:57 am
Thanks for this, Moof (and the hugs!) Earlier on in the week, I did link to ‘Dr. David’ until Dr. Anonymous kindly gave me a tip-off!
October 21st, 2006 at 10:51 am
Once again, Moof shows her brilliance. I got the comment from him a while back, went to his site, and decided to pass. Didn’t give it much more thought, other than to wonder if I should feel guilty for not linking as requested (it’s the only such request I’ve ever seen.) I really appreciate this post, Moof. What a weird world.
October 22nd, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Hello , I’m here to tell you some explain about my weblog .
If you just looked to the web log title! ( daily news and article about health ) Many of your problems will be solve automatically.
We collected the best news and article daily and organized them in dr-health weblog .
I never said that the news and article is mine , and I don’t think anybody guest that one person can write scientific article every day !!!
I always respect copyright law and if I find the main source link of the article I post theme ,,,, you can re check my posts , to see this fact.
I reject your comment from my weblog because I didn’t liked your attitude !! and it’s my right !! that I managed the comment when they come to my weblog !
now I have a question from you : if your weblog context was scientific ! and you wanted to send the article daily ! did you changed the articles context or you just copy the main source ?? ( with the backlink to master site ) .
I don’t think the advertisement or template color of other blog it was your business .
for Exchange link comment in other weblog I should to tell you . the exchange link request don’t need different post in different blog ::
I am really sorry to see someone how calls himself ” Blogger ” can’t change the (at) to @ and type the post in his weblog that My email is not work !!
I hope this post is terminate here .
because I never ever do that again ( send the comment post like this to your weblog ) .
if you have the other question you can email me ,,,
dr.mailler(at)gmail.com = dr.mailler@gmail.com !!
Regards,
dr.David from : http://dr-health.blogspot.com
October 22nd, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Sorry, can’t understand you due to some grammar issues with your post. I don’t believe a real doc. would respond like that anyway.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:39 am
“David” … Thank you for your comment. Let me address a few things you’ve written.
“David”, when I went to your blog, you had 2 months of articles with your name underneath them, and absolutely no attribution. It wasn’t until after I left that comment on your blog that you began to include a linkback in your post titles. I haven’t been there today, so I don’t know what you’ve done lately, but the last time I looked, you still didn’t have any attributions in your posts, and your older posts still didn’t have links to the original articles in their title.
Hey! Go for it! Like you say … it is your blog. I asked you two questions in that comment … regarding issues which were quite valid. If you had a problem with my questions - like not wanting to answer them, then you have every right to delete the comment. Likewise, on my own blog, I have the right to post a quote of what I asked you in the comment, to publicly note that you deleted it, and to let people come to their own conclusions. You’ll note that I haven’t deleted your comment, and that I am answering you, however.
Here are some examples of how to use other people’s articles, and give them the proper legal attribution:
Dr. Bennett’s Case Finds a Conclusion - of Sorts
Ahhh’m Gonna Build Me an Ark!
“Do Women Have Male Intuition?â€
This Gives a Whole New Meaning to Wife Swapping!
Another Journey at Its End
Being a “scientific site” does not give a person to liberty to steal other people’s intellectual property, and post it with their names on it, with no linkback, and no proper attribution. If you can’t write a “scientific article every day,” then perhaps you could post only as often as you write an article?
Or take an example from the excellent Kevin MD … who has an amazing scientific blog, writes very little of his own material, and never steals any of his articles …
Of course, you can do anything you want with your own blog … I’ve just never seen a doctor advertise for malpractice lawyers before. Isn’t that a bit like the a pig holding an “eat more pork” sign?
I noticed that you’ve since fixed your email address … when I said you had an email address that didn’t work, I meant the first one … here is a cut and paste I made of it in preparation for writing this post: “at dr.mailer.gmail.com” … now, it could well be that you had a hard time figuring out how to do it, since you did change it afterward to a proper format.
No, I’m not going to email you. I’ve had my say. I am concerned about a person going from blog to blog, leaving cookie-cutter requests to get a link, who signs his name as if he’s a physician, plagiarizes the information he pastes into his blog … and is using a western name when he’s logging in from Iran. All of of that together makes me wary.
I consider many of the people in the medical blogosphere to be my friends. So many of them very recently stood up for me, and encouraged me, when another false blogger found her way into our midst … and caused me, and others, a considerable amount of grief. Besides that, several of us are, at this very moment, having all of our original articles stolen by another conscienceless fellow. If I’m suspicious about someone … suspicious enough to be reasonably certain that I’m not hurting an innocent person … I will warn everyone.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:10 am
Amen, Moof.
October 24th, 2006 at 2:05 am
Salut Moof:
I think you are right. At any rate, Dr. David’s grammar, judging by his post above, is so atrocious that he had better not be a doctor. I know medical schools have very little in the way of liberal arts requirements for admission, but heavens! The SAT does have a verbal section, and the MCAT (Medical College Application Test) does too, for crying out loud.
Some of his sentences read like they were written in a foreign language and translated with a language software program.
What the . . .
October 24th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Bonjour, Dr. Hébert! Beaucoup de merçi pour votre visite et votre commentaire!
Your comment hit me in a very ticklish spot, I’m afraid. It was a while before I could catch my breath again …
Since the fellow (Dr. David Mailer? … or more likely - Uqbah, or Musad, or Abdul) logs in from Iran, you could well be right! >;o)
However, after the TNT and Bitacle experiences, his poor English is secondary to his self-misrepresentation. You know, he has an IT blog too … we would be so fortunate to be experts in so many fields …
October 24th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Holy cow, I just read what he wrote here and I couldn’t even understand it. Thank you Moof for doing this!
October 29th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Once more: good job, Moof. You got him to shoot himself in the foot. He’s either severely dyslexic or not a native English speaker. Once I [tried to] read that response it was all over. I wouldn’t have even bothered responding, if I were you. Either way, don’t sweat it. I do not believe he represents a credible threat, even to the terminally stupid people who roam the internet, and I’d say his hit count (or lack thereof) backs me up on this.
The greater threat IMHO to the emotional well-being of legitimate bloggers like you (who tend to get very involved with your blogging friends) is from those who do write well; a la TNT. Wasn’t it the quality of her writing that drew you to her, played a large role in establishing her bona fides, and made it so difficult for you to believe she wasn’t what she said she was?
I feel a post coming on…
Stay tuned.
(Yikes: playground rhyme alert:
Moofie, Moofie, Super-Sleuthie
Now have to figure out the rest of it.)
October 30th, 2006 at 2:31 am
Cathy … it just upset me to see him trying to pass himself off as a physician. If he’d created exactly the same sort of blog, but cited his sources properly, or just referenced the material with a summary and a link … and then didn’t try to pass himself off as something he isn’t, it would have made all the difference in the world.
I wouldn’t have been particularly interested in a blog that’s nothing but a mishmash of copied articles, but it would still have been more acceptable.
Dr. Dino … you’re right, of course. TNT had me completely fooled because of her excellent writing skills. She and I exchanged quite a few emails once all of the confusion began, and I remember thinking that her excuses for what seemed to be going on were so well written that she couldn’t possibly be lying.
Finally, what convinced me was an apparent logical contradiction … a rather convoluted one … which dealt with IP addresses. I realized that all of the comments, the blog hijacker, the “friend,” were all her - she was a “one man” team.
I will certainly “stay tuned” for that post which is coming on …