tertullian.net – fraudulent use by cybersquatter

Just to warn everyone – my site is tertullian.org, not tertullian.net.  I used to hold the latter domain name, but I let it lapse last year.

Now I discover that some sleazeball has registered the address for a year (carefully concealing his name), created a website on that address, in blog format, and, two days ago, filled it with content from my site.  The intention, obviously, is to mislead the public; but, I imagine, the real aim is found on the “contact” page here, which is not quite like mine, and reads:

We would love to hear from you. Please contact us with any questions or concerns that you might have.

Our customer service team delights in responding and will reach out to you very quickly.

“Concerns”?  “Our customer service team”?  Oh yes?

It is telling that the author posted a comment on this blog with a link, by way of letting me know about his efforts.

In other words, the person responsible expects me to write and complain, and will then demand money to push off.  They will be disappointed, I might add, if they hope to get money out of me.

There is a name, “Jeena Hony”, but I don’t suppose this means anything.

Why did I let the registration lapse?  Well, it was an annual expense, and I am getting older, and my pennies will get fewer.  It was only used right at the start of my career online, before I got tertullian.org, and after I found a cybersquatter had registered tertullian.com.  I naively thought that someone might pick it up for genuine purposes.  It had not occurred to me that trying to extort money might follow.

It’s a bit sad, rather sick, and a sign of what the internet has become these days.  There’s no good reason why domain registrations should cost anything.  It’s merely a scam.  Worse yet if you are thereby committed for life.

Anyway, steer clear of tertullian.net.

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3 thoughts on “tertullian.net – fraudulent use by cybersquatter

  1. I hope you don’t have additional problems from this. You have been a great resource for Christians trying to learn more about what the early Fathers taught about Christianity.

    Please keep us informed about any threats against you for copyright infringement, etc., etc.

    You have been a faithful for God over the years.

    Robert

  2. Happily with DuckDuckGo, The Tertullian Project with tertullian.org is the third thing to show up, while I did not encounter the other in a lot of scrolling down!

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