Ask HN: Someone impersonates my GitHub project, what to do?
Someone created a website and social media account for a project I've built two years ago and published on GitHub.
> llocalsearch dot cloud
> x dot com/llocalsearch
> there also is a coin listed on coinbase lmao (might be unrelated)
I'm not aware of any ongoing scams, but I'm concerned about their intentions. Do you guys think I should care? Is this a "normal" thing for semi popular projects?
It's truly amazing how much generated / automated trash it out there, that even GitHub projects get fake social media accounts now.
Unfortunately, such things happen more often than people realize, especially for semi-popular open source projects. You can do a few things about it. One of them is to report to GitHub about your repo being impersonated. Also, you can clarify ownership on GitHub, for example, by adding a note in your README or a dedicated .md file stating which accounts or websites are officially associated with your project
as you noted its even chance tis auto-generated or included in a large batch of copycat activities trying to copycat any repos which have certain engagement with them.
you could contact github about that sid e if there's issues on there, but thats MS so they arent always as helpful. For the social media thats a bit shittier, as people are free to register names, its not illegal or against the EULA.
if you are worried about scams, you could put a note or an additional .md file on your projects which emphasizes these accounts are not affiliated to your project. - depending on the volume of impersonations that might be a bit much bookkeeping, so perhaps a generic message on readme.md that there are people impersonating, and if applicable a list of your own accounts that _are_ affiliated with the project. - then atleast/perhaps people can be aware of the situation from visiting your github.
What was the license in your project?
Someone copied a game I made from GH and published it on their shit crypto platform as DRM-free asset. Mine was a MIT project, but the assets were bought and not MIT-licensed. I was thinking of doing something but didn't since it would eat my time for pretty much nothing.
Could you report this to the GitHub platform? Alternatively, you could add a statement to your own (GitHub) homepage to prevent others from being scammed.
> there also is a coin listed on coinbase lmao (might be unrelated)
Definitely not unrelated as the x bio says "Now on SOL". It's pretty clear that the goal is just to trick people into buying their coin