The WikiLeaks strategy: Bank of America buys up abusive domain names

[Turborama]

Source: Finextra

December 22 2010 - 10:24

According to Domain Name Wire, the US bank has been aggressively registering domain names including its board of Directors' and senior executives' names followed by "sucks" and "blows".

For example, the company registered a number of domains for CEO Brian Moynihan: BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianTMoynihanBlows.com, and BrianTMoynihanSucks.com.

The wire report counted hundreds of such domain name registrations on 17 December alone. They were acquired through an intermediary that frequently registers domain names on behalf of large companies, says the report.

Bank of America has reputedly established a 'war room' to draw up strategy and rebutt allegations likely to emerge from the publication of thousands of internal documents by WikiLeaks.


Read more: http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22124

[MinneapolisMatt]

1. BWAHAHAHA!

:rofl:

[Tunkamerica]

2. Alright, I need some real ideas!

[FreakinDJ]

3. Brian-Moynihan Sucks-n-Blows.com

[Tunkamerica]

4. BrianMoynihanSucks.com and moynihansucks.com do not exist as of now,

[formercia]

5. Waste of money

but, then, it's not their money anyway.

Blows? Nobody but some old fart would say that.

I guess they're worried about elderly backlash. :rofl:

[caseymoz]

31. Spending money on this?

I have an idea: let's make Bank of America suffer the death of 100,000 self-inflicted cuts.

Of course, they have a lot of our taxpayer-guaranteed money to bleed out.

[dipsydoodle]

6. I wonder if there was a

BankofAmericagofuckyourselves ?

[Nordmadr]

24. THIS!

[Tunkamerica]

7. As of now : Moynihansucks.com is 11.99 per year at godaddy.com

Brianmoynihansucks.com is taken

[DireStrike]

12. Oh man

I was hoping they were wasting a substantial amount of money.

But then, even if it were ten times that price it wouldn't matter to them. It's a small price to pay for not being called bad names when you act like a douchebag.

[Buns_of_Fire]

26. Speaking thereof, BrianMoynihanIsADouchebag.com is taken...

BrianMoynihanIsADouchebag.NET, however...:evilgrin:

[behrstar]

8. BOA sucks

We are curently suing BOA for fraud regarding our home mortgage. We applied four times for loan mod...they jacked us around every time. Then, they couldn't produce our documents. So, we went out and hired a smart lawyer who is suing them and trying to get our mortgage wiped out entirely. His fee is 1/3 of our principle reduction, so, no win, no money. The only way to hire lawyers is on contingenncy.

BOA is going DOWN. We can't wait for the wikileaks docs.

[Tunkamerica]

9. yeah, i think you might be cool... he's getting forced into postions he wasn't ready for

[No Elephants]

43. No, there is no "only" way. I knew someone who hired a lawyer that way and the

other side caved after the lawyer wrote a letter. Should writing a letter mean the lawyer deserves up to 40% of the recovery?

When framing fee arrangements, people need to be thoughtful.

[Capitalocracy]

10. I actually checked, and Breitbart has registered bigbreitbart.com.

In other news.

[Pharaoh]

11. BrianMoynihanisaDouchebag.com

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I could do this all day! Morons

[Turbineguy]

13. They'l have to foreclose

on a few homes to pay for it, but who cares?

[Autumn Colors]

14. brianmoynihanisanasshole.com is available! (nt)

[TroglodyteScholar]

51. Also...

BrianMoynihanIsADick.com
BrianMoynihanBlowsGoats.com

Interestingly enough, BankofAmericaFraud.com is taken, but NOT by BoA...

[PhillySane]

15. I say

start buying up whats out there and sell them to BOA for profit!

[Autumn Colors]

18. They ended up with my mortgage

It started with a local bank who sold it to Countrywide and then it of course ended up with BoA. As of about a year ago, my address was listed as one that had been securitized through MERS, but has now mysteriously disappeared out of that database. I'm betting that I'm one of the ones where they service the loan, but never got the actual note from Countrywide.

Perhaps I should buy up a bunch of domain names and offer them in exchange for written confirmation that my mortgage is "paid in full".

LOL (just kidding.... I don't have any extra money to buy even one of these domain names)

[No Elephants]

44. Did you read Reply #8? Maybe you can avoid the mortgage.

[Autumn Colors]

45. I'll wait to see where it ends up and then try for a loan modification

At this point, I don't trust BoA not to f*** things up for me. Will wait and see where the chips fall from all this.

[Amaril]

50. They are truly the devil

My ex-husband & I owned a house -- it was sold several (I lost track of how many) times, and eventually wound up with Countrywide. After we divorced, he ran into financial problems (he was laid off, his new wife had a serious health problem that required surgery and a long leave of absence from her job, etc.), and the house was on the brink of foreclosure. He wound up filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy in order to save the house.

Fast forward 5 years -- his bankruptcy is discharged (all payments made on time & appropriately) by the court. The same month it is discharged, he starts receiving phone calls from Bank of America claiming that he had "late payments" and owed a butt load (over $300) of late fees. Turns out, BoA purchased the loan in September 2009 -- while it was still under bankruptcy protection -- and went back through 5+ years of payments until they found the late ones that occurred prior to his bankruptcy. They then rolled 5 years worth of payments back to those delinquencies and reported 5 months worth of 60 - 90 day late payments on his credit (and mine, unfortunately, because he wasn't able to re-fi the house prior to having to file bankruptcy) between September 2009 and January 2010 (his bankruptcy was discharged by the court on 2/22/10).

He was able to get them to remove the delinquencies from his credit report, and I am in the process of going after them to remove them from mine as well (just picked up copies of all the docs from him over Christmas).......so, it is something that can be resolved, but not without having to go through a whole boatload of drama that neither of us should have had to deal with.

Anybody familiar enough with the Fair Credit Reporting Act to know if this qualifies as a violation? I'm just about irritated enough over this whole mess that I'm willing to go that extra step and file a formal grievance against them. They need to be fined into oblivion over stuff like this. Greedy fucking bastiges!

[T Wolf]

16. Yeah - glad to see they have their priorities straight. Meanwhile, the damage they do

continues.

And not only in the mortgage arena...

When my father died in March, he left a small savings account. BofA is still refusing to release the money to me though I have submitted countless (yes I have actually lost count) documents and even had to hire attorneys to assist me. I hope to have something left after they all get finished.

[BonnieJW]

22. I am truly sorry for your frustration.

My mother-in-law had an account with BOA, but she put my husband on the account and gave him power of attorney while she was still alive so he easily got the money when she died. I know it is a difficult conversation, but it's one every child should have with their aging parents. Parents want their kids to have their assets when they die, not banks or the government.

[shanti]

27. that's what my mother has done

all three of us kids are part owners of her home, as well as a few bank accounts. when she passes, it's seamless, no problemo (i hope).

[T Wolf]

38. He died suddenly after a fall. He had been in excellent health. This was one of the things that

fell through the cracks because of the specific circumstances (did manage to write a check for the checking account before BofA slammed close the door).

I did have PoA as well as volumes of other documentation. But it never seems to be exactly what they are asking for since that changes each time I submit something.

Funny (yet illustrative) that the VA sent his GI Insurance policy payment in less than a week after requiring only my signature on one simple form. Damn those gubmint union bureaucrats and their inefficiency. :sarcasm:

[CountAllVotes]

41. sorry for your loss

I know what you are going through. My late mother also banked with BofA. Fortunately she did not have a lot of assets with them as she'd wised up after my father died and decided to take my advise and bank with my credit union.

When I went to deal with BofA they treated me like a criminal; called out their armed guard etc.! Those SOBs have no mercy! Stay after them and don't settle for anything less than you are due if possible.

I'm real sorry about you father's unexpected death. You certainly do not need this B.S.! :hug:

[bemildred]

17. Fools. This helps understand why they have fucked the bank up so bad. nt

[Myrina]

19. ... I thought every company did that ...

... the insurance co I work for does - and has for the past 7 or 8 years - anyway ...

:shrug:

[xor]

23. yeah, it's pretty common

heh... I hate it when I get an idea, only to find out they are sitting on the name.

[Joanne98]

20. LOL

[Autumn Colors]

21. So can we assume Mr. Moynihan is the subject of the coming Wikileaks? (nt)

[bemildred]

25. We can infer he thinks he is. nt

[Odin2005]

28. You couldn't make this shit up!

[udbcrzy2]

29. What happens when they don't renew them - they go porn

I think that if you don't renew those that they can be sold and could possibly become porn sites:)

[TygrBright]

30. What I really love is what this could do to their SEO....

...like, when "BankOfAmericaSucks" brings up the official BoA site as result #1?

Priceless...

mirthfully,
Bright

[Javaman]

32. How about "Blank of America"? is that taken? LOL

good luck with this BofA, you will never stop the anger you have generated, by trying to wall paper over the internet.

[EnviroBat]

33. BrianMoynihanSwallows.com

Surprised they didn't grab that one...

:shrug:

[thecrow]

34. I just checked at godaddy.com

Here's some that are available:

asshatboa.com $11.99*/yr Most Popular

asshatboa.info $1.99* BEST VALUE!

asshatboa.co $29.99/yr Premier Choice!

asshatboa.net $12.99*/yr SALE! Save $2.00/yr

asshatboa.org $9.99* SALE! Save $5.00/yr

asshatboa.us $3.99 SALE! SPECIAL!

asshatboa.ca $12.99/yr

asshatboa.biz $5.99* SALE! Save $9.00/yr

asshatboa.mobi $6.99* Save $8.00/yr

asshatboa.me $8.99 SALE! Save $11.00/yr

asshatboa.tv $39.99/yr

asshatboa.ws $14.99/yr

asshatboa.cc $19.99/yr

asshatboa.asia $8.99* SALE! Save $11.00/yr


I love the "most popular" one

[bongbong]

35. Well spent

I'm glad to see taxpayer bailout money being spent so wisely.

[L0oniX]

36. www.skankofamerica.com ...taken of course.

[bhikkhu]

37. So if you have savings with them, that's where its going!

...its always been a mystery to me how corporations can behave as they do, especially elected boards of directors. Secrecy is their main tool, I think, along with intimidation - like a bunch of little banana republics.

[TygrBright]

39. Wow. Do you think BoA realizes that with this stunt, they've just drawn a big, fat, TARGET...

...on the backs of their Oligarchs? Wow.

amazedly,
Bright

[EFerrari]

40. Is that great or what?

lol

[Iterate]

42. BoAhasscrewed.me and BoA-has-screwed.us are available.

In fact, there are plenty of BoA variants and it looks like the brand identity protection company (MarkMonitor, Inc.) was more focused on protecting the brand of the CEO. I wonder what the share-holders will have to say about that one.

A word about MarkMonitor, Inc., the company hired to think up all possible bad domains and protect the Brian Moynihan brand:

Irfan Salim
President and Chief Executive Officer, MarkMonitor
Irfan brings to MarkMonitor more than 20 years of experience growing and leading world-class Internet security, fraud prevention, and domain registrar companies. Prior to MarkMonitor, he was president and chief operating officer of Internet security company Zone Labs, which was acquired by Check Point Technologies. Earlier, Irfan was president and CEO of NameSecure.com, an Internet domain name registrar and services company. Irfan has also held positions including president of US and European operations at TrendMicro; president and CEO at desktop publishing and presentation software company Software Publishing Corporation; and vice president and general manager of the Spreadsheet Division at Lotus Development. Prior to Lotus Irfan spent 7 years with Texas Instruments. He holds an undergraduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College London, and an M.B.A. from Manchester Business School, England.

Jim Sayre
President, Cargill Ventures
Jim Sayre has significant financial advisory experience. Prior to his current position, Jim was the Director of Mergers and Acquisitions for Cargill where he participated in transactions valued at over $5 billion. Key transactions include the acquisition of Continental Grain, Akzo Salt NA and Vandemoortele and the divestitures of Cargill’s seed, rice and North American poultry businesses. Before joining Cargill, Jim was a senior manager with Deloitte & Touche and provided financial advisory services to a range of consumer and agriculture companies including the Northface, Sierra Design, Sunworld, Mrs. Fields and several premium wineries. He also served in various positions in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

http://www.markmonitor.com/company/board.php

Nothing particularly nefarious there, just that our national sovereignty has been taken over by insiders protecting other insiders.

[sarcasmo]

46. These loan sharks sure are paranoid.

[JackRiddler]

47. They forgot about numbers and punctuation marks and sentences and whatnot.

They could go bankrupt just from the infinite variations.

These sites won't do any good in fudging search results, either, unless BoA intends to actually put anything on them (which they can't, obviously).

Talk about panic-stricken IDIOTS. And they're among those who managed to steal the world, because you don't have to be smart to do that when you're given power to create money.

[Devil_Fish]

48. isn't this called cyber squating? NT

[DavidSegal]

49. Megabanks vs Whistle-blowers

Crimes committed by the big banks helped crash our economy -- and WikiLeaks is saying that a whistle-blower has sent them enough evidence to take down Bank of America. So now the big banks are fighting back by trying to get the government to muzzle future whistle-blowers.

They want rules to force whistle-blowers to go to their bosses before going to the government -- giving employers the perfect chance to shut them up! Even the Securities and Exchange Commission admits that its proposed rules could "discourage" whistleblowers.

Will you help us protect financial reform, by telling the SEC to implement strong, pro-whistle-blower rules right away?

http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/whistle...

PETITION TO THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION: More whistle-blowing about corporate crimes could have made the foreclosure crisis and economic meltdown less severe.

Whistle-blowers should never be forced or encouraged to take their concerns to their potentially corrupt bosses first: Those who go directly to the government deserve the strongest rewards and protections allowed by law.