College massacre sites on eBay
 

From www.metro.co.uk

In the immediate aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre, web opportunists wasted no time in registering dozens of domain names linked to the tragedy – and tried to sell them on eBay from as much as £25,000.

Within hours of the news of the shootings breaking, domain names such as virginiatechmassacre.com, vtmassacre.com virginiatechrampage.com had all been registered.

While some of them, such as virginiatechshootings.com, displayed rudimentary memorials to the dead, at the time of writing many of the sites just displayed adverts.

Several others, such as vtmurders.com and vtkillings.com, redirected to The Etrader, a site specialising in reselling of domain names. They advertised several eBay auctions for the domain names – with a minimum price of $50,000.


This Premium domain name has so much potential, The Movie, The Book and more.

The seller, under the username of parkertrading, advertised them by saying: 'These domains related to the Horrible shootings and murders. This Premium domain name has so much potential, The Movie, The Book and more.'

Numerous other domain names were for sale on eBay, from various traders. One, using the name yogadvds, is selling domains including vtshooter.com (with a starting price of $150,000) and virginiatechterrorist.com (for $99.99).

Yogadvds advertised the domains saying: 'If you are an activist you may want create a website to focus upon GUN CONTROL as a focal point using this event as a showpiece for the worst case scenario of gun ownership.

'Or, and unfortunately more likely, you may just be a clever PPC [Pay-Per-Click] internet guru that simply wants a name that is in the public mindset and that will trigger key words and guide people to your site of “who knows what” (diet pills, online casinsos, Viagra, or better mortgage rates).

'I believe that this will remain a relevant link in the social consciousness for a very long time, and whether ppc, politics, or the Hollywood movie that is coming , you should see a return on your investment. . . no need to say more.'

The seller of VirginiaTechTragedy.com, using the name espressod, requested of bidders: 'Please do not bid unless it's for a charitable cause.'

Hours after the domain names were listed for auction eBay removed them from its website.

A spokesman said: 'They are in breach of our 'offensive listings' policy. If we are made aware of any other similar listings that also breach this policy, we will look to remove those too.'

Following eBay's action, at least one of the sellers continued to offer their domains from their own website - and within an hour of authorities naming the killer as South Korean student Cho Seung-Hui, had registered and was offering domain names such as choseung-hui.com and thechoseung-huimassacre.com for a staggering £250,000 ($500,000).

Many of the sites were registered by the registrar firm GoDaddy.

GoDaddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll, when contacted by Wired magazine's Threat Level blog, noted: 'It's a fact of life that when a major event happens, whether it's positive or negative, people flock to register domain names....We don't have the ability to monitor every site.'

She did however say that the company could intervene in a registration if the site was being used for 'morally objectionable or illegal purposes.'

There are some sick people out there. I have nothing more to add. :sad:

Sicko's! Sad little sicko's

This just shows you the world we live in today. Where are these peoples morals? Anything to make a fast buck. Totally selfish and disgusting. Unacceptable.

I wholeheartedly agree.

My Thoughts Exactly. Why would people be so sick!