People are trying to make a quick buck flogging domains matching the names of suspects in recent terrorist atrocities, but they’re stopping short of including the hyphens.
The 2024 Christmas-New Year period was marked by two vehicular terrorist incidents on either side of the Atlantic: the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, Germany on December 20 and the Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans, Louisiana in the early hours of January 1.
In both cases, domains (almost) matching the names of the alleged attackers were registered within minutes of their identities being revealed.
The suspect in the New Orleans ramming attack, who was shot dead by police, has been named by authorities as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and the .com matching his name was registered even before it was officially announced.
It seems reporters at NOLA.com were the first to reveal his identity, at around 1700 UTC yesterday, and shamsuddinjabbar.com was registered at 1720 UTC, some time before the news conference where he was officially named.
The more correct spelling, shamsud-dinjabbar.com, has not been registered. Apparently, attempting to make money from an attack that killed 15 people is okay, but registering a domain containing a hyphen is a step too far.
The domain that was registered leads to a Dynadot sales lander with a $7,038.94 buy-it-now price. This converts to a round €6,800, suggesting the owner is based in the Eurozone.
The matching .net has also been registered and currently leads to a GoDaddy parking page.
The suspect in the Magdeburg attack , currently in police custody and charged with five counts of murder, was named by German authorities as Taleb A., abbreviated due to German privacy laws, just a few hours after the fact, but his full name has been widely reported as Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen.
The .com matching (almost) his name, talebalabdulmohsen.com, was registered shortly before 0500 UTC on December 21, hours before it had been reported by major news outlets’ live blogs. It’s currently parked with GoDaddy.
Again, the hyphenated version was not registered and is still available. The matching .de has not been registered.
Professional domain investors consider registering such domains for profit not only pointless but unethical. The Internet Commerce Association, which represents domainers, has in its code of conduct:
Respect for Human Suffering and Victims of Tragedy. A [ICA] member shall be respectful of persons and communities involved in tragedy. A member shall not register domains with the intent to profit from a recent tragedy.
The ICA has no policy on hyphens, to my knowledge.
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