Whole websites can be cloned for nefarious reasons. Other times, websites might steal your design, logo, or intellectual property in an attempt to impersonate you.
In the case of bigger companies, the crooks do this to target customers with phishing attacks. In these cases, the impersonators are simply casting a wide net, knowing that some of the random recipients will indeed bank with (or use the business) they are impersonating.
The most likely issue small businesses face, though, is where fraudsters, or even competitors, open a similar kind of shop or site to theirs in order to trade off of their positive reputation. This can be difficult to counteract, particularly if they make it just about different enough (using some lookalike features, or similar, but not identical, logo or name).
The Internet is awash with such cases of stolen pictures and text. But when a whole website is mimicked, using your text, images, logo, or even personal identity, there is more you can do. First, make contact with a ‘cease and desist’ letter. You can find free templates available for these online. They are essentially a formal request for someone to cease what they are doing or risk further legal action.
Clearly, in cases that go beyond this, you need to report the website. Firstly, find out the hosting company. You can do this by going to the ICANN lookup tool and typing in the website you want to find out about. Then, if a contact email address isn’t listed on ICANN already (it usually is), you can look up who to contact about abuses for that hosting company.
The hosting company should conduct an investigation to see if a violation has occurred. There are various other processes you can try if you are unhappy with the result. There are also legal firms that specialize in helping with these sorts of cases.