Boston Marathon bombing generates dozens of domain names

MANILA, Philippines – More than a hundred domain names claiming to be possible charitable website for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings surfaced on the net hours after the deadly attack.

TheDomains.com (http://www.thedomains.com/) said that at least 125 domain names related to the Boston Marathon bombing have been created. It said the “registered domains” sound like they can be used for fundraising efforts for the bombings’ victims.

“While some of the domain were registered under privacy some of the registrants were brave enough (or stupid enough) to put their name as the registrant of these domains,” TheDomains.com editor Michael Berkens said.

Berkens eventually released some of the registrants’ information on their website.

A fake Twitter account with username @_BostonMarathon also took advantage of the tragedy, posting “For every retweet we will donate $1.00 for the #BostonMarathon victims #PrayforBoston”. Due to numerous complaints by other users, the account was shut down by Twitter. Read more