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iVirtua was affected by the same cybersquatting/unethical domain acquisition and hijacking network that Microsoft are "taking aim at" Maltuzi holdings were who we actually reported to several industry bodies including Microsoft, a while back. iVirtua Internal investigators revealed the network was owned by the same people who owned several other notorious domain squatters, with "offices" and answering machines in Los Angeles (we even tracked the individual claimed addresses), and NameKing, and parent company Oversee.
A simplified extract from the iVirtua Internal Investigation follows:
were all on the same server (revealed through reverse IP tracking technology)
Quote:
What else do these all have in common? They are all hosted by NameKing.com. Who are they I wonder? NameKing is an "ICANN accredited registrar specializing in high quality bulk domain services," whatever that means. I found a thread in Google Groups from 2004 about domain hijacking where NameKing is referenced. But guess what? They were located at the exact same address as LaPorte Holdings.
I found other references to Nameking where a domain they hosted was reported for spam, among many others like this.
My best guess is that these guys have a hook into the whois queries so they can get good ideas for domains. They can register them through their bulk register and then put up ads and do PPC arbitrage while they list them for sale and perhaps use them for bulk email and other schemes. I spent a bunch of time doing this and went about as far as I know. Maybe someone like Chris or Ben Edelman could dig even deeper by following some of the ad trails.
Quote:
Evidently the "holding companies" uses an "automated process" which seems to be another way of saying that they monitor whois requests and use that to decide what to register. When they do, they cover the page with the ads you usually see on parked pages - and the ads were all syndicated through information.com.
iVirtua eventually tracked the companies to an "entrepreneur" Lawrence Ng.
"Lawrence Ng is Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Strategist for Oversee.net. In 2000 at the age of 21, he and his colleague Fred Hsu used their collective expertise in online advertising, Internet traffic patterns and search engine optimization to create the Company."
The domain BritShow.com was hijacked but later reclaimed by the iVirtua Legal team after stern worded emails were sent.
Our case was one of which the whois query made ona dodgy whois search (in this case ukreg.com) is intercepted/somehow gained and automatically registered if it contains certain keywords and its a certain length. These companies are rogue companies taking advantage of a loophole in bulk domain purchase called domain tasting. They can have the domain free, for 5 days, in which time they may a) get an enquiry to purchase the domain or b) make enough revenue on the link farm they plant on the domain. If they make enough to pay off a years domain fees, they keep it, if not, they let it go and you can register it right away.
Assumption for a Domain Taster: If a domain can generate over $6.00 a year in PPC revenue then someone will register it and someone will place PPC advertising on it. Cons: * People who try to register a domain name may get caught up in a large domain taster. If over 1,000,000 domains are held up in domain tasting each day then people trying to register some of those names will suspect someone is spying on their domain queries. * Shady whois records that have been appearing during Domain Tasting period. * Registries claim there is a technical issue. * It gives registrars and "big players" an unfair advantage. This is similar to what Verisign tried to do when they put up parking pages for all mis-typed domains. * Speaking as a geek, I find the process moderately reprehensible. It's exploiting a loophole in the rules to perpetrate massive attention theft. Now, by all rights the loophole should be closed. How long till that happens? * http://www.circleid.com/posts/domain_...quatting_lawsuit/
Con Rebuttal: * People who get caught up in a taster have no expected right to the name in the first place. * Shady whois records are their own problem across the industry, not just tasting. This is a red herring. * Where's the documentation that this is a technical issue? No registry has said so. Verisign has said nothing about tasting in terms of technical issues being problems.
There is no Pros
The latest Microsoft Developments...
Cybersquatters beware -- Microsoft is coming after you.
The software maker said Tuesday that it will more aggressively pursue legal action against companies that create domain names that are misspellings of Microsoft product names in order to capture Internet traffic from typo-prone computer users.
To emphasize the point, Microsoft announced that it has filed a lawsuit against a U.S.-based cybersquatter that operates under the name Maltuzi LLC. Microsoft claims the company illegally profits from its trademarks by registering domains such Winowslivemessenger.com (note the lack of the letter D) in order to redirect wayward Web surfers to sites operated by its partners.
Maltuzi, which Microsoft has sued in U.S. District Court for Northern California, describes itself as "an Internet domain name holding company" and claims it has registered more than 100,000 domain names.
Microsoft also announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the state of Washington to uncover the identities of a group of cybersquatters that are anonymously operating Web sites under names that allegedly infringe on Microsoft trademarks.
Microsoft also said it has reached a settlement with U.K.-based cybersquatter Dyslexic Domain Co. Ltd.
In 1999, Congress passed the U.S. Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which makes it illegal to register domain names that infringe on the trademark rights of individuals or corporations.
Despite such laws, cybersquatting continues to flourish. The U.N.'s World Intellectual Property Organization says that disputes related to domain name registration increased 25% in 2006.
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