I have a client who has a hotel which has changed domain names several times over the years. He now has one of those old domain names with a new site for the current hotel complete with photographs and booking form. The problem is that the site isn't legitimate. It is in the process of being designed and for now the booking forms are not enabled but it looks as if it is in the works.

 

My question is what can he (probably I) do? The address of the hotel is his and although the name of the hotel has since changed it was his at one time.

Is there an old site that's still active under that domain?

Its only active because someone bought the domain when it expired. I think they just let it fizzle out when they changed the name of the hotel.

So the domain in question, does your client still have it registered in their name?

Nope but the property referred to is indeed his, as is the content of the new site.

Ok so he no longer owns the domain name, but when you go to the domain it shows his old site? If that;'s the case it may be still pointing to the old nameservers?

Not exactly, when you go to his old domain name there is a new (recently designed) site that contains the old content (i.e. text, photos, address etc). Basically it is an illegitimate site using his hotel property to collect revenue. There is a booking form that directs payment to some unknown location (or could if it were working).

So, by the sounds of this someone has grabbed the dropped domain and put a site on it in a hope that they will get people enquiring and possibly booking through their site instead of the legitimate one.

 

I haven't heard of many instances of this from the business sense but I have known of people buying up dropped domains of blogs in a bid to use their high metrics and sell advertising.

 

Can you use a domain lookup and see who owns the domain then contact them as the business owner and ask them to remove any association to the business?

Thanks junior, yes that's what it looks like. I did find the registrant which is a company in the US. I'll have them send an email tomorrow but I'm not sure there is much that can be done without taking legal action

Report to domain registrar and send a DMCA or complain to hosting company and also check whois details and send email to domain owner.