Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes
While the Swine Flu outbreak (read Swine Flu Virus 101 for more information) has been all over the news worldwide, just in time before the news blew the center stage, it has been quite alarming as well in the internet world of domain name registration wherein most domain names with “swineflu” on it had been taken massively. In fact, F-secure has compiled a list of these newly registered “swine flu” domains.
Currently, there has been no detected spam site yet but watchful eyes are already on to these lurking opportunists taking advantage of the situation. Black Hat SEO practices could be used behind unhealthy means of getting on top of search engine results as well as taking advantage of people and the current situation by selling fake drugs and all other sorts of evil cyber tactics.
One proof of this came into public as F-Secure declares that there was this website, noswineflu.com (see homepage screenshot below including check out page.)
Swine Flu Guide
Swine Flu Survival Guide Checkout
which happens to sell a PDF file (an ebook) entitled “Swine Flu Survival Guide” for $19.95. Why buy this ebook when you can have this information for free from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)?
Beware, be in the know and help spread the word!
Suggested for further reading:
- A suspected letter from a scammer to Software Critics Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes In relation to my post “Beware of Swine Flu Domain Names“, I have mentioned that F-secure has compiled a list of these newly registered “swine flu” domains which include noswineflu.com which happens to be mentioned as well in news websites and other blogs. I’ve also mentioned...
- Purchasing Localized Domain Extensions Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes Currency can sometimes play a factor in acquiring Domain Name Registration for a website you’re planning to build up. Users of a particular geographic area will most likely prefer buying a domain and hosting using their local currency for ease of use. Domain extensions...
- Beware of Paypal Account Blocked Emails Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes If you’re a Paypal account holder then you better read on. As a morning routine, I normally start-off the day checking my emails and filing them out after reading them on my folders. As part of the task, I also check the spam folder...
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I bought a Swine Flu related site and uploaded a blog to it (was removed, long story). I only think of buying these type of websites because they could sell for quite a bit of cash.
Hello Seb, thanks for the visit. I understand your intention to buy the domain but due to the massive increase of registrants with swine flu related domains, you should expect that “bad” guys might ride the issue and thereby creating schemes that would take advantage of the situation just to make money. I think, the best thing you can do here is to auction your domain, I’m just not sure if it could sell right away but you can still try or may be just come up with some writings about swine flu and have the links pointing to reliable sources just to prove that your domain is not a scam/spam. You mentioned earlier that you tried to install a blog but you said it was quite a long story but whatever that is, you can try coming up with a better blog or site that would not make anyone assume that it was a scam/spam site. So, make your content informative, helpful, and try to link to authoritative sites. I hope that helps. If you still have questions, feel free to contact me.