Latest charity-related domain name to be linked to porn
Howard Lake | 28 November 2002 | News
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is the latest charity to find that a related domain name has been registered and linked to a Web site containing pornographic material.
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is one of the largest independent grantmaking foundations in the UK. You can find its Web site at www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk.
Unfortunately it has become the latest UK charity to be targeted by porn site owners. The esmeefairbairn domain name has been registered with a different suffix and the resultant Web site contains pornographic content. We are not even going to specify the Web address because a visit generates a series of new Windows that open automatically as you close another browser window. More dangerously, when we visited the site it resulted in at least two automatic diallers being downloaded and installed on our PC. These then tried to dial up to premium rate telephone numbers. As a result we strongly advise you not even to visit the site to check it out for yourself.
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The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is not the first UK charity to find its name used in this way. The British Heart Foundation and the National Deaf Children’s Society both experienced similar use of their initials in .org Web addresses.
The new variant on the esmeefairbairn domain name appears to have been registered by Enom, Inc, and the registrant contact is listed as Carl-Hugues Leblanc of Quebec. The domain was registered just a week ago on 20 November 2002.
Sadly, this new development simply serves to confirm our long-standing advice that charities register the main top level generic domain name variants of their name and initials. The chances of someone targeting your charity are small, but if it happens it is both embarrassing and can lead to costly legal action.
Websense Inc reports that 1,500 commercial Web addresses have been taken over by porn sites in the past six months.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.