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<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have just
encountered another example of an old scam: site hijacking and
ransoming.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial size=2>I won't divulge the
domain, but a former web domain used by an Idaho government agency was acquired
by an unknown person or persons in China. There, an 'adult' site was put up
under the domain and then the domain was offered to be sold back again at a fee.
The 'porn' site itself is probably even a bogus one at that, set up solely to
embarrass the former domain owner. WWW users who had put in links to the
government site, or had that URL as a favorite bookmark in their
browsers end up unwittingly going to the porn site instead, so that forms
the incentive for the buy-backs. Now, the governernment requires all
organizations to use a .gov domain, which is controlled through their DNS so
they can be shut down instantly if they want.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial size=2>Be aware too, if you
ever buy domain names for your business or club, that if you just buy something
like "MyMagicClub.org", there will probably be a bot or person out there lurking
and will buy up "MyMagicClub.com" and "MyMagicClub.net" in order to hold the
names ransom and offer to sell it to you at a high price. That happened to me,
though I didn't want the other high level domain extensions anyway, so I
actually got the better of the scam, because it's costing the other guy money.
Ha!</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=687142015-20042007><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bob
Dickow</FONT></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>