Domain-me.com: One scam or another, front running is gonna get ya’
Written on May 22, 2008 – 1:15 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Because of its malicious effect on our beloved web industry, we’ve discussed the practice of domain front running a lot on The Next Web. We have to get rid of it, that’s why we try to raise awareness. For those of you who don’t exactly know what is, Eric Litman from WashingtonVC once gave a good definition in the comments section of this blog:
Front Running: when a registrar purchases a name for themselves that someone either attempted to purchase or researched through that registrars web site.
So when you check the availability of thisdomainserviceisonebigscam.com at a domain company that just loves front running, chances are high they’ll register it for you. Even Network Solutions is has been accused of this practice once.
Yesterday I wrote about the popularity of the new .me domain. And when you think about it, it’s not that weird that these front running types also try to make some dirty money in this new area. Well, my co-editor Patrick has just discovered on of the first signs.
If you do a Google-search for “Register Me Domain“, one of the top results is Domain-me.com, a site that tries to appear as a trustworthy domain name registration service. They even have the dull stock photos thing going on. Yet when you check a domain, any domain, they say that your desired domain has already been taken. Even the thisdomainserviceisonebigscam.me one:
Let’s hope Google’s head of the Webspam team Matt Cutts will find this out soon and ban this “Market-Tek Enterprises” company from the search results.
I hope you like that post!
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