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Cybersquatters Snagging Web Addresses of Newly Merged Banks

by Terrence O'Brien on September 18, 2008 at 04:28 PM

Cybersqatters Target Collapsing Financial Industry
Cybersquatters, people who buy up potentially valuable domain names in the hopes of making money off of them, are rubbing salt in the wounds of the collapsing banking and insurance industries. Web addresses for newly-merged (and possibly-soon-to-be-merged) banks are being bought up before many of the companies even know who is merging with whom.

Barclayslehman.com, hsbclehman.com, hsbclehmanbrothers.com, bofalehman.com bankofamericamerrilllynch.com, bofaml.com, lloydstsbhbos.com, and hboslloydstsb.com have all been bought by squatters, and some of these addresses have already made their way onto eBay. Some squatters are just loading up the sites with advertisements, hoping surfers will accidentally stumble upon the bogus page and click through some of the ads.

The chaos surrounding the collapse of Lehman, AIG, and the near collapse of Merrill Lynch and merger of British institutions Lloyds TSB and HBOS has, as usually happens with calamities, sparked activity from those looking to cash in. At least this time, those who are being exploited are multi-billion dollar companies that have spent the last decade screwing the rest of us. [From: BBC]

Tags: aig, bank of america, BankOfAmerica, banks, barclays, bofa, breaking news, BreakingNews, cybersquatters, cybersquatting, hbos, hsbc, lehman brothers, LehmanBrothers, lloyds tsb, LloydsTsb, merrill lynch, MerrillLynch, wall street, WallStreet, web

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