Despicable Squatters Reserve the Domain Names of those Killed in VA Tech Shootings

  • Comments: 8
  • Written on: April 18th, 2007

Garry Conn reported on his blog this morning that domain cybersquatters are reserving the names of the people killed in the Virginia Tech shooting incident, as well as the names of their family members. The squatters then plaster ads all over the pages and offer to sell them back to the family members at exhorbanent prices.

According to Conn, Joseph Parker of Christiansburg, Virginia reserved the name of the Virginia Tech gunman, Cho Seung-Hui. Upon further investigation it appears that the domain names of many of the victims have also been reserved. The owner(s) of those pages are attempting to make money with advertisements on the sites. In addition they are attempting to sell some of the sites to anyone who is interested.

This is a developing story, so check back to Conn’s website for breaking news on it. He is currently assembling a list of the victims names who have had their online identities stolen. It is sick and disgusting that someone would do this after a tragedy of this magnitude, and anyone who is caught doing it should be flamed all over the web for doing so.

  1. Bill TonesNo Gravatar
    Bill TonesNo Gravatar said on April 18th, 2007 at 9:33 am

    This is disgraceful and disgusting. Shame on people who try to profit on tragedy.

  2. GauravonomicsNo Gravatar said on April 18th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

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  3. Josh the AspieNo Gravatar said on April 18th, 2007 at 12:53 pm

    You can find some more information on additional VT related domain names on my blog.

  4. Josh the AspieNo Gravatar said on April 19th, 2007 at 4:50 pm

    Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to double-pump the link, I just didn’t see it incoming, and thought the ping-back might not have worked.

  5. TeamTutorialsNo Gravatar said on April 20th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    That is just sad. I wouldn’t even stoop that low.

  6. djman69No Gravatar
    djman69No Gravatar said on April 21st, 2007 at 7:27 am

    So low as to scam some free advertising by double pumping a link, or so low as to reserve a dead kids name? Both are scum-like, but the domaion name thing is a bit worse.

  7. [...] found out about this through Thor Schrock’s Technology Blog, and Thor found out about it from Garry Conn, a blogger who talks about ways to make money [...]

  8. SurfFoo for April 23rd • modifoo said on April 24th, 2007 at 9:30 am

    [...] Despicable Squatters Reserve the Domain Names of those Killed in VA Tech Shootings - Domain cybersquatters are reserving the names of the people killed in the Virginia Tech shooting incident, as well as the names of their family members. The squatters then […] offer to sell them back to the family members at exhorbanent prices. [...]

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