Getting started with Recon

Recon protects your Shopify store from copycats. It finds clones of your store, prepares the reports you send to have them taken down, and checks your email and domain settings. A clone is a copy of your store on another web address. Scammers use clones to take orders and payments from your customers.

Setup takes about five minutes. After that, Recon works in the background.

Install Recon

1. Open Recon on the Shopify App Store.
2. Click Install and approve the app in your Shopify admin.
3. Recon opens on Set up Recon. A bar at the top shows the four steps: Brand, Clone detection, Alerts and Done.

If your store only has a myshopify.com address, Recon asks you to connect your own domain first. See Why Recon needs your store's own domain.

Step 1: Tell Recon about your brand

1. Check the Brand name. Clones use your name, and Recon puts it in your reports.
2. Check Your domains. Recon watches every domain listed here.
3. On the Pro plan, you can add a domain your brand uses outside Shopify. Type it in Add a domain your brand uses and click Add.
4. Click Continue.

Your first scan starts now. It runs in the background while you finish setup.

Step 2: Turn on clone detection

Clone detection is a small app embed in your theme. When someone copies your store and opens the copy, Recon sees it within minutes. It only sees clones made after you turn it on, so do this step now.

1. Click Open theme editor. Your theme editor opens in a new tab, with clone detection already switched on.
2. Click Save in the theme editor.
3. Come back to Recon. When it sees the embed, it shows Clone detection is on. Click Continue.

You can click Skip for now and turn it on later. For details, see Turn on clone detection in your theme.

Step 3: Choose where alerts go

1. Check the address in Email for alerts. You must give an email to finish setup.
2. Click Save and finish.

Step 4: You're set up

The last screen sums up what Recon does from now on. Click Go to your dashboard to open the Overview page.

If the first scan did not finish, Recon says The scan didn’t finish. Click Try again, or go to your dashboard and run a scan from there.

What happens next

Recon keeps working while you run your store:

• Scans. Recon scans your domains every day on Pro and every week on Free. Each scan checks for clones and lookalike domains, your email settings, and whether browsers trust your store. A lookalike domain is an address with a name like yours.
• Clone detection. The embed in your theme reports new clones as they go live.
• Clone alerts on Pro. Recon groups new clones into one email after about five minutes, and sends at most one clone alert an hour.
• Summary emails. Recon emails a summary when something changes, and a short check-in once a month. On Free, new clones arrive in this summary.
• Prepared reports. For every clone, Recon finds who to report it to and writes the reports. You review them and send them. This is on every plan.

Recon does not remove sites itself. The host or registrar decides whether to take a clone down.

Finish the setup guide

The Overview page shows a Setup guide until every step is done. It has four steps:

• Scan your store
• Turn on clone detection
• Confirm where alerts go
• Add your takedown details

Hosts and registrars only act on a report that names the owner and gives a postal address. Add these details now, so your reports are ready when you need them:

1. In Recon, open Overview.
2. In the Setup guide, open Add your takedown details.
3. Fill in Your business name, Your full name, Postal address and Email for replies.
4. Tick the box to confirm that you own your store's photos and product descriptions, or may act for the owner.
5. Click Save details.

You can change these details later in Settings, under Takedown details.

Related articles

• Turn on clone detection in your theme: what the embed does, and how to check it is on.
• Your Overview page explained: what each card and badge on your dashboard means.
• Recon Free and Pro plans: what each plan checks, and how often.