Cybersquatters hoping to cash in on Susan Boyle’s popularity

LONDON - Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle is being targeted by cybersquatters, who want to make money from the global interest in Britain’s Got Talent’s contestant.

Boyle is among 33 of the 40 talent show contestants, who have had their domain names registered unofficially and fake Twitter accounts created by web savvy fans keen to cash in on their popularity.

The cybersquatters have snapped up a host of potentially valuable web addresses, such as susanboyle.co.uk, susanboyle.org and susan-boyle.com.

An American artist with the same name is also making the most of the singer’s fame - Susan K. Boyle from Texas is offering her domain name for a mere 25,000 dollars.

Sedo, the company marketing susanboyle.com, said the price was likely to have been set by the domain owner.

“Names like this are not really something we would recommend,” Sky News quoted director of business development Nora Nanayakkara as saying.

“The value of it really depends on the sustainability of Susan Boyle’s popularity and whether she’s just a one hit wonder,” Nanayakkara added.

Meanwhile, fan site susanboyle.co.uk is directing visitors to betting and bingo sites and seven Twitter users are pretending to be Boyle.

Nominet, the company responsible for.co.uk addresses, registers 50,000 domains a month and receives 50 complaints about the unfair use of domains.

Senior legal adviser Nick Wenban-Smith said: “The idea of offering a domain for sale has tended to die out. The most common use has been with words and brand names which attract a lot of internet traffic.” (ANI)