How do I get my URL out of the wrong hands?

Serious question: if you log into Blogger, do you have access to the blog? It was my understanding that even if you delete a blog the URL is never available to anyone else (to avoid situations like these, for example), so is it possible that this person somehow gained access to your Google account?

how sure are you that the person you contacted is actually responsible for the new blog? just because their name appears below the posts means about as much as your name appearing above them in the header.

Telegraph - no, I do not have access to it and if I try to type it in to claim it or launch it, I am told that the URL is not available [aka, being used by someone else]. So I assume it was grabbed in some defunct blog sweep. Sparklemotion - thanks. I am doing that, too. You are right. It is just SO galling.

My former blog also recently came back to life in the hands of spammy marketers, but http://goodbadetsy.blogspot.ca/. I didn't do anything, but it seems like Google might be having some weirdnesses with their system.

She's not really clueless, she's a spammer who is playing dumb to make you go away. You say you've reported her using the forms for "identity theft," do you mean you've used the If so, you might also try reporting the blog for spam and encouraging others to do the same, it's possible the spam police are more active (or automated) than the impersonation police. If it's really important to you and you don't have a big ethical problem with giving money to sleazeballs, you could offer her payment to relinquish the name. She's not making much on what is probably one in a large fleet of spammy crapblogs, so I would make an offer to vacate that is just large enough to be interesting, say $100. I would be civil and not accuse her of identity theft or anything of the sort, and be clear that I was not interested in negotiating a higher price. "Dear Spammer, I see that you are the current holder of my old Blogger subdomain at myname.blogspot.com. I'd like to have it back and would be willing to offer you the sum of $100 in exchange for ownership of the account. I will place the money into an escrow account, payable once myname.blogspot.com is back under my control (you will provide me with the password for the account and I will log in and change it.) Please get in touch only if you're willing to do the transaction just as I've described, I'm not interested enough in this to go higher than $100."

It was my understanding that even if you delete a blog the URL is never available to anyone else It was quite a few years ago now, but my blogspot URL was definitely taken over by another user when I deleted my blog there.

When I contacted her, she responded that we must have our two blogs "cross-indexed," which I do not think can happen, as mine had to be actively reinstated. Someone could have scraped her content into it, which was my first guess, but I have run Copyscape searches and the content is not duplicated anywhere else, aka it's live on only on 'my' blog and not on any of the many other marketing blogs she owns or anywhere else. I asked her if she or someone else with whom she worked was placing that content under my URL, and she never responded. I don't have to take her silence as an indication of guilt, but that's where I am.

You said you've filed requests via Google's online forms. Is that via the "Report Abuse" page? If you log in to Blogger/Google and go here ... https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/76315?hl=en&id=812559&url=http://[SUBOUTYOUROLDBLOGURLHERE].blogspot.com/ ... there are links to specifically report spam/phishing/malware and impersonation. Sorry if that's what you're already doing. I like contraption's idea of having all your friends report the blog as spam, but I'm evil that way.

I have prosecuted cybersquatting claims. I question whether or not you have any sort of legal entitlement. I think the Blogger TOS agreement is going to be key here. You may have relinquished any sort of property rights in the X.blogger.com subdomain name. The argument that you have a right to inkstained.com is much better than the argument that you have a right to inkstained.blogger.com. While I have not read the Blogger TOS on this issue, I suspect that x.blogger.com is their property, not yours. I do see that "Unfortunately, Blogger is not in a position to determine ownership of nicknames, handles, or screen names." I think that is exactly what you want them to determine. I know you haven't asked about legal issues, but I am just looking ahead to the question of "what do I do if Google keeps ignoring me." The answer might be that they ignore you because they can.