The Serpanos family, owners of Niko's Gyros in Magnolia, was puzzled by customers this week.
“They tell me, ‘Oh, we heard about your new delivery service.’” said Niko Serpanos. “That's quite strange. We don't have a delivery service.”
Niko's has never had a website, but nikosgyors.net popped up and customers found it this week. So Niko looked it up.
“There's a website with all our information on it, items from the menu, our address,” said Niko, who even saw pictures of the restaurant. “The only thing that's different is a California area code and not our number.”
NIko said whoever was behind the website was taking orders online at higher prices, then buying food from his restaurant at the lower price, and delivering it to the web customer.
As first reported in the Magnolia Voice, the Serpanos family tracked the orders to OrderAheadApp.com, which does have a legitimate relationship with some Seattle restaurants -- but it doesn't with Niko's. The family eventually got in touch with them but said Order Ahead refused to take down the website.
The president of the Washington Restaurant Association, Anthony Anton, told KIRO 7 it took a phone call from him to get OrderAhead to take down the fake Niko's website.
This isn't the only case. Ivan Collins runs Reservation Genie and said several of his customers have been “Google profile hijacked.” The hijacker calls Google to access a company's Google profile, and Google calls the actual business' phone to verify it with a code.
“The hostess answers and all they have to do is tell her, 'Hey, I need you to give me that code so we can fix that web issue for the restaurant,'” said Collins. “We do it all the time, but to fix the website. Others are doing it in a way basically to hijack the site.”
The Serpanos are now considering legal action.
“That's not acceptable to steal someone's hard work and good will,” said Niko, "and masquerade it as their own.”
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