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We have a list of 240 domains (look exactly the same) linking to our site for a certain keyword. over 3000 links in total. It means that 50% of our keywords are this keyword and it's not a branded keyword which can affect us in the long term.

I have done a WHOIS search and found a name, email and number. Vikas Kumar. I linkedin searched him and found his "legit" SEO site which has EXACTLY the same registration details as the spam sites.

I emailed him and he said it would cost 5$ a link removal. I phoned him and he DENIED these emails. He then denied owning these sites etc.

We have disavowed them but the anchor text % is still affecting us. Is there anything we can do? I know negative SEO isn't illegal but it's really frustrating.

Anyone else had any problems with this type of thing?

That's great feedback Monica! Thanks for your insight.

Our view was also that if it's good for the user then it should be good for SEO. It feel like the right thing to do.

We're hoping that word will get round each of these communities that we are trying to locate every location and they will pull together and help us out trying to find as many places as possible.

We hadn't thought about including the USA, but I guess we could! We'll see what would be involved.

Thanks again for your response.

Ye I think I will draft up a legal document to send to him. He has really rattled my cage with his responses.

The issue I have isn't so much the links because I know Google (should) will know it's negative SEO. It's just that our anchor text is now 50% "table tennis tables" which comes from all his sites. Correct me if I'm wrong but disavowing will simply tell Google not to count those links but will my anchor text still be negative in Googles eyes because technically the links are still there?

I will be drafting a legal letter today and sending it to him. He is an absolute joke, people like him really annoy me.

His "official" site and all the spammy ones have the same IP, email, number, location how can he possibly deny it... rant over. Thanks for the reply!

Thanks for the detailed response, appreciate it!

We have disavowed them so hoping they won't do us any harm in the future. It's reassuring to know you've done a study like that. Very interesting.

I will still proceed to send him a legal document out of principle, he needs to be shaken up a bit.

thanks again