This is a very important issue that affects everyone who has published book(s) on Wattpad. You may also refer to the chapter "Important Note" (the very first chapter) which touches on this subject as well.

WHAT ARE MIRROR SITES?

According to Wikipedia, "Mirror sites or mirrors are replicas of other websites or any network node. The concept of mirroring applies to network services accessible through any protocol, such as HTTP or FTP. Such sites have different URLs than the original site but host identical or near-identical content."

An example of mirror sites is 123Movies (also known as GoMovies, GoStream, MeMovies or 123movieshub). The original 123movies had been shut down way back in 2018. However, there are many proxy sites (clones/copy sites) and mirror sites that work the same.

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

In case you don't know, Wattpad has many mirror sites. Such websites display Wattpad stories, including Paid Stories, for free and anyone can copy and paste everything elsewhere. Wattpad has disabled the Copy/Paste function, but the mirror sites do not. As such, anyone can easily steal your work via mirror sites. The mirror site that everyone is talking about now is Teenfic. There is also another website called Truyen ("truyện" means "story" in Vietnamese).

WHAT CAN BE DONE

As Wattpad ambassadors have suggested, you can include a message in the summary of your story. "If you are reading this story on any other platform other than Wattpad you are very likely to be at risk of a malware attack. If you wish to read this story in its original safe form, please go to [Wattpad User Link]. Thank you."

However, mirror sites will remove "wattpad.com" to their own link as a weak attempt to hide their tracks. As such, it is more effective to write this: "If you wish to read this story in its original safe form, please search for @[username] on Wattpad." This is because the word "Wattpad" does not get changed, but rather only the website. I have tested it out on Teenfic.

MORE INFORMATION

Reads on mirror sites DO NOT reflect on Wattpad. If your book is read 1k times on Teenfic/Truyen, you will not gain 1k reads on Wattpad. They are still separate entities.

@Sim-AntinI (letter i, not L) has a book regarding mirror sites and ways to protect your book. It also talks about other forms of plagiarism such as people selling your books on Amazon or Goodreads under their own name (using the exact same story and same cover).

Similarly, @SuperSuspicious has a book about Truyen.

BUT THAT IS NOT ALL: MANUAL COPYING

There are also websites that copy your books and post them online. These are NOT mirror sites. Your work is blatantly plagiarised (though you are still credited with your Wattpad username. But then again, no one knows it's from Wattpad unless they search your username). An example of such a website is NovelHD. They have admins who look for books to copy and update on their website.

On NovelHD, I found the admin who posts my books. As of now (7 September 2021), they have 21 followers and posted 330,933 books. That's a lot. And I think he's the sole admin of NovelHD. You can also create an account on NovelHD (please don't).

Similar websites are those that provide unofficial translated novels/comics/manga.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR WORK

You can unpublish your story from Wattpad. Mirror sites reflect what is seen on Wattpad. When your book is off Wattpad, it will be off mirror sites as well. However, for websites that copied your book and posted it online, whatever changes your make will not reflect. If you remove your book from Wattpad, they will not be removed from such websites.

IF YOU ARE CURIOUS?!

You can visit these websites to check it out (I have multiple times). But please install antivirus software and AdBlock (blocks popups and filters malware). And use a MacBook if possible (there are fewer viruses designed to infect MacBooks, though it does not mean you are completely safe). If you don't have an ad blocker and you see tons of ads, cross them all out (or simply ignore them) and don't click any links. If another tab opens, close it immediately.

Websites: teenfic dot net, truyen4u dot net, novelhd dot com. (Do note that "dot" refers to actually dots, and these are not all the websites available online) They are supposedly all from Vietnam, but @Sim-AntinI has found evidence that Teenfic is hosted in the United States (look at the first chapter of their book).

NOTE that this is for authors who want to check it out for themselves.

And for everyone's sake, please don't read books on illegal websites. Even if you have all the precautions put up, there is still a risk of getting a virus. Your call. Besides, most books on Wattpad are free. Even if you don't have a Wattpad account, your reads still count. It means a lot to the authors :)

IN CONCLUSION:

To the readers, support the original authors by reading them on their original websites (i.e. Wattpad). Even if you are tempted to read Paid Stories for free on such websites, remember that you can get 3 coins a day by watching ads on the app. You can definitely unlock a whole book after a month or two. Patience is a virtue <3

To the authors, there's nothing you can do about it other than putting disclaimers and messages for any readers on unofficial plagiarising websites. Mirror sites will keep popping up even after they are taken down; just look at 123Movies. And there is nothing we can do about it.

It's okay, my friends. Don't panic. Don't cry. Everyone is affected. Me too. The Internet is full of illegal things. There are many immoral people in the world with access to the Internet, so you cannot expect it to be clean. And remember: you are not alone~