They Tried to Hijack Goldrush
If you’ve ever lived in Jozi, you’ll know what it means to check you six, watch your mirrors. You drive with one eye on the road and one on the side mirror. Because hijacking in Joburg isn’t just a risk—it’s a reflex. We feel it in our bones. Carjackings, smash-and-grabs, phones snatched mid-WhatsApp. It’s not paranoia, it’s muscle memory.
So when we see it happen in other places—online, for instance—it’s familiar. The same skelm tactics. The same smash-and-grab mentality. Only instead of your Corolla, it’s your brand name being jacked. And just like at the robots, it’s often over in seconds.
Welcome to the wild world of brand term hijacking, where scammers, affiliates, and keyboard cowboys copy your name, throw up a cloned site, and bank the clicks from your reputation. But not every brand rolls over. Some brands, like Goldrush, come from Jozi too. And when the hijacking started, they didn’t just call a lawyer—they got creative.
They went full vengeance with humour. And the result? A swarm of official Goldrush-branded sites, all packing a cheeky Whack-a-Mole game designed to do one thing: mock the fakes and amuse the real ones.
Brand Term Hijacking (for the Normies)
First, a definition. Brand term hijacking happens when someone registers or advertises on a brand name that doesn’t belong to them, usually to:
- Siphon off traffic (e.g. people looking for “Goldrush Login” end up on a fake site)
- Push their own agenda (affiliates, fake bonuses, phishing)
- Confuse users and ride the wave of someone else’s hard-earned clout
It’s the digital version of painting “Uber” on a Corolla and hoping for drunk passengers.
And it’s everywhere. If you’re a legit brand in South Africa, you’re being targeted. If you haven’t caught on yet, someone else is probably cashing cheques off your name already.
Got Hit—Then Hit Back
Goldrush, if you’ve been living under a rock, is one of SA’s fastest-growing online and land-based gaming groups. Big footprint. Big brand. Big target.
As their online presence grew, so did the freeloaders. Search “Goldrush Login” or “Goldrush Register” and you’ll see what I mean. Ads, lookalikes, weird .info sites, even outright scam pages all trying to intercept players on their way to the real deal.
And while most companies would respond with the usual boring compliance playbook—DMCA takedowns, angry emails, maybe an eye roll—Goldrush got weird. In a good way.
Fight Fire with Moles
Instead of whimpering about the hijackings, Goldrush went full tactical chaos. They registered a family of legit Goldrush domains—each tailored to the kinds of phrases people were typing into Google while trying to find the real site. Think:
Member Login, Join Goldrush, See Promotions, Create Account SA and Access Account SA
Each one leads to the real deal—and serves as a kind of decoy for people who were about to click the wrong link. But that wasn’t enough. They wanted to poke fun, too. So they built a browser-based Whack-a-Mole game and slapped it on their sites.
Yes. Whack-a-Mole. You know—the arcade game where moles pop up and you smash them with a mallet. Except this time, the moles are metaphorical. A little wink to the endless game of “whack-a-scammer” that legit brands have to play.
The Goldrush Whack-a-Mole game is brilliant in its simplicity. You don’t win money. You don’t need to log in. You just smash some moles.
It’s fast, oddly satisfying, and completely unhinged—in the best way. And more importantly, it makes a point: We see you, fakes. And we’re laughing while we outrank you.
There’s something delightfully South African about turning a brand security headache into a browser game. It’s the equivalent of getting hijacked at the robot and responding by buying a second car just to confuse them. And maybe running them over in it. In 8-bit.
Goldrush’s approach works for three reasons:
- They owned the joke – Instead of panicking about reputation, they leaned into the absurdity. That makes people trust them more, not less.
- They built a moat – Every new decoy site gives them another foothold. The fakes now have to compete with actual Goldrush pages—each with their own purpose and value.
- They had fun with it – You’d be amazed how many brands forget they’re allowed to be human. Or funny. Or even slightly self-aware. In a market full of desperate bonus spam and fake casinos, being the one with the mole mallet is a flex.
Living in Jozi, Playing Online, Staying Sharp
If you live in Jozi, or have ever tried to pay for parking at Montecasino with a tenner and hope, you already know the rules: Keep your head up. Don’t trust too easily. Always double-check your surroundings.
Online, it’s no different. The predators aren’t at your window—they’re on your screen. And just like real hijackers, they’re slick. They use real logos. Real-looking bonuses. Real ads.
That’s why seeing a brand like Goldrush take the fight public—and turn it into entertainment—is so refreshing. It’s not just about winning clicks. It’s about outplaying the imitators and reminding players that the real deal has a personality.
Most South African companies wouldn’t dare go this route. Too risky. Too playful. Too not boring. But that’s why Goldrush stands out. They understand that online audiences adn they are a frikkin gaming company —especially gamers and gamblers—are sharp. They can spot fakes. They enjoy a little chaos. And they respect a brand that can hit back without hiding behind legalese.
Want to protect your brand? Fine. Lawyer up. But if you want to protect and grow your brand? You need to fight dirty—but with a smile.
This Is the New Normal
We used to worry about brand consistency. Today, we worry about brand survival in a search results page that’s flooded with clones, clones of clones, and AI-generated half-brands.
The internet isn’t polite. It’s Joburg in pixels. And if your brand isn’t ready to throw a punch—or a mallet—it’s going to get hijacked.
Goldrush figured that out. They turned an annoyance into content, a threat into traffic, and a hijacking into a game.
And to the fakers still out there trying to steal logins, mimic promos, or impersonate the original?
Keep popping up.
We’ve got moles to whack.
