Domain names related to recent bank mergers are already being hoarded and sold online reports BBC News. "Domain names for the merged Bank of America/Merrill Lynch as well as for Lloyds TSB/HBOS have been snapped up. As reports of Lehman Brothers' intent to sell itself first surfaced last Friday, cybersquatters had already spotted Barclay's, HSBC and Bank of America as potential buyers… Accordingly, barclayslehman.com, hsbclehman.com, hsbclehmanbrothers.com and bofalehman.com had been acquired."
Read full story: BBC
Related topics: Cybercrime, Cybersquatting, Domain Names
Comments
... how do they distinguish those bought for phishing from those bought for squatting?
In the UK we have reserved second level domains for Limited Companies and PLCs which are a real pain as no one ever tells Nominet (or their registrar) when they are taken over. Perhaps ".bank"'s time has come if only to save the irritation of getting the right domain name. Of course no one wants to pay ICANN big bucks for a domain name that they'll only let a small number of folks register in it (even if those folks have (had?) a lot of money).