AntiLeech Plugin: How I Fed RSS Scrapers Junk (and What Works Now)

When I switched QOT to full-text feeds in 2008, scraper sites started republishing our posts within minutes. The antileech plugin for WordPress was my answer: it fed scrapers junk text instead of our articles. This post shares how it worked, what happened to it, and how to deal with RSS scrapers today.

Quick answer: AntiLeech detected known scraper IP addresses and user agents and served them fake, useless feed content full of links back to the original site. The plugin is no longer listed in the WordPress.org plugin directory, so don’t install old copies. Today, add a copyright line and links to your RSS feed, block abusive bots at your host or firewall, and file DMCA takedown requests for copies that matter.

How the AntiLeech plugin worked

After readers shared tips on dealing with feed thieves, and after reading Jonathan Bailey’s advice at Plagiarism Today on switching to full feeds, I tried AntiLeech on our worst scrapers. Instead of blocking a scraper outright, the plugin produced fake content for it. You could add specific IP addresses and user agents to a block list in the plugin options.

My experience blocking scrapers

It worked very well. As soon as I published a post, a splog republished it in full, and I got a trackback ping from the scraped copy in my WordPress comments. I noted the IP address from the trackback and added it to the AntiLeech block list. When I published the next article, the scraped copy was total rubbish: the useful content was gone, replaced by junk text, a warning about republishing without permission and lots of links back to our site.

I blocked a few more IPs that regularly scraped our content and could stay with full feeds with confidence. Other plugins at the time, like CopyFeed and Digital Fingerprint, took a similar approach, but CopyFeed has since been closed on WordPress.org and Digital Fingerprint is no longer listed there either.

Is the antileech plugin still available?

No. AntiLeech is not in the official WordPress.org plugin directory anymore. An old, unmaintained plugin can break on current WordPress and PHP versions or carry security risks, so it’s best not to hunt for old copies. Scrapers have also changed: many now rotate IP addresses or use cloud servers, so blocking single IPs is far less effective than it was in 2008.

How to deal with RSS scrapers in 2026

• Add a feed footer. SEO plugins such as Rank Math and Yoast SEO let you add text and a link to the original post in your RSS feed, so every scraped copy credits and links to you.
• Consider a summary feed. In WordPress, go to Settings > Reading and choose to show an excerpt in feeds if full-text scraping is a big problem.
• Block bad bots at the edge. A web application firewall such as Cloudflare can challenge or block abusive bots before they reach your site.
• Find copies. Search a sentence from your post in quotes on Google, or use a tool like Copyscape Premium.
• Protect images. Stop image hotlinking so scrapers don’t use your bandwidth.
• File takedowns. Send DMCA requests to Google and to the scraper’s web host for copies that outrank you.

Our full guide, 7 steps to stop RSS feed scraping and content theft, covers each step in detail, and our tips to prevent and detect content plagiarism go further.

FAQ

Does RSS scraping hurt my SEO?

Usually not much, because Google tries to identify the original source. It can be a problem if a scraper copy outranks you, which is when a DMCA request is worth filing. Read more on why duplicate content matters.

Should I switch to a summary feed?

Only if scraping is a real problem for you. Full feeds are better for readers, and a feed footer with links already turns most scraped copies into backlinks.

Is there a modern replacement for AntiLeech?

There is no direct WordPress.org replacement that we can recommend. A firewall service plus a feed footer from your SEO plugin covers most of what AntiLeech did.