Lay My Hat

It isn't my website.

I've been on holiday and ate at a great little restaurant that also lets rooms. When I asked them about it they said "please don't go to our website, it has been pirated and we don't know how to get it back".

I had a look when I got home and I got a malware warning.

They are the greatest cooks & hosts running a simple restaurant in quite a remote village. Is there any way I can help them, or point them in the right direction to reclaim their website?

Its actually not that difficult to do the basics, but you need direct access to their hosting site and the ability to edit the source code of their website. Without knowing how it was built or where its hosted I cannot be more specific.

That will get rid of the nasty stuff, but then comes the very tedious process of rebuilding the website's trust and getting rid of the warning messages. That requires even more technical prowess and typically the web host's tech support desk will do this for them.

So, my message is:
Don't worry overly, but do take action now.

Not sure what you mean by 'pirated'.

I once had my domain stolen, which I hadn't thought was possible. After working with my service provider, I got it back eventually. It took about two weeks.

Once I got the domain back, I then had to get back the contents of my web site and my email system. Luckily there were backups.

It all arose from an identity theft a couple of years ago - the lesson is never ever ever send a copy of your passport even to people who you think are reputable - it can be used by the unscrupulous to convince domain registrars they are somebody else.

Of course, I had to convince the domain registrar I was who I was.....

It is very annoying when this hapens, but it is recoverable.