Thread: Cyber Squatting

There is a scurilous couple of fraudsters on the coast who have taken my name and added dot com and use it for their own purposes. Can anything be done?
They are owners of a large business and, it appears, have registered my name for their own purposes!!
Not once, but several different domains take you there...
lenoxnapier.com
lenoxnapier.net
lenoxnapier.org
lenoxnapier.es
...in all - seventeen different versions. Has anyone else ever been victimised like this?

Hi Lenox,

What you refer to is "name jacking"...

There's not really much you can do about it though. It appears the Euro Weekly News has an interest in you or something about you....

'Bullying' perhaps. I know they attacked a newspaper - 'The Andalucian Times' and registered their domain as well - The AT eventually closed down after accusing the Euesdens of various underhand tricks - like warning off the advertisers and so on.
I used to own 'The Entertainer' which the Euesdens bought - but never paid - changing the name to 'Euro Weekly' instead.
So - their 'name jacking' is adding insult to injury...

You could try looking at this web-site. ICANN | Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.
Follow the instructions for lodging a complaint.

As far as I understand, the current owners of the domain name would have to put up a convincing argument of why they are entitled to the name. If you haven't sold it to them, I can't see how they would get away with registering your name.

Rather amusingly, some fellow from the Costa del Sol (who I don't know - honest guv) has registered theeuroweeklynews dot com (the Euesdens forgot that one) and if you hit the link, it takes you to me!
Which is no doubt why they changed the name of their paper - again - to 'Ewn Euro Weekly News'.
Well, they started it!

This is very interesting.

Why have you never been paid, did you have a contract or anything to prove they haven't paid you?

Just curious as I used to read the entertainer!

There was a three-year buy-out, following which, instead of paying me, they changed the name of the newspaper.
Try and sue someone in Spain...

3 year buy-out!

I once had a couple wanting to buy by wifes business and they asked for this kind of deal. It wasn't a lot of money and I decided if they couldn't afford it in one go then they wouldn't be able to afford to keep the business running long enough to pay me out.

Their only income would have been from the business itself and I doubted whether they had the stamina to keep it running long enough to pay me the balance.

I take it you have given up chasing the balance then Lenox?

They were working as sales managers and, together with the accountant, made me an offer I couldn't refuse.
I think that there are quite a few people out there who have had discouraging dealing with these people over the years.
For more gritty details, we'll have to explore the PM button...