The Online Vultures

I think I'm going to coin a new term here - The Online Vultures.

There are quite a few companies out there waiting for a domain, particularly a very highly ranked domain (in search engines) to

expire, and if the owner does not renew it, these companies pound on the domains, analogous to vultures ripping apart a dead

carcus. If you even try to get the domain back, you'll face the wrath of these vultures pecking you to death! Not that you should

let your domain expire, but that's a tale for another day.

How do these companies get money off sites like these?

Simple. They park a website on the expired domain, with a link oh-so-visible to "Enquire about the Domain". Following the link,

you'll be presented with a form which asks you for your contact details and the most important question of all, "How much are you

willing to pay for the domain?" (all these are provided by Domain Parking service).

Companies like the following is an example:

created-date: 2007-05-04 18:16:31
updated-date: 2007-09-06 13:48:52
registration-expiration-date: 2009-05-04 00:00:00

owner-contact: WA-VirtualStockLtd
owner-organization: Virtual Stock House LTD
owner-fname: Andrew
owner-lname: Waggins
owner-street: Midtown Building, 625, D.R. Walwyn Square
owner-city: Charlestown
owner-state:
owner-zip: 001
owner-country: SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS
owner-phone: +18696124652805
owner-fax: +18696124652805
owner-email: vsh.ltd@googlemail.com


This 'company' (whether or not it's real) owns 3,557 other domains.

Try www.micrusoft.com and www.micrasoft.com, or even www.iApple.com - they are all domain parked. Amazing.