Cybersquatters are back in town

Whether you are the Prince of Wales, Sting or Homer Simpson, no one is safe from the internet racket having an unexpected resurgence.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, complaints about “cybersquatting” - buying a website with a trademarked name and selling it to the owner of the brand at a high price - hit a record of 2,156 last year, a 16pc increase over 2006.

Victims included The Prince’s Trust, the British Museum, books such as JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit and hit TV show The Simpsons.

The WIPO said the jump in complaints was linked to the increasing ability of squatters to profit not just by hitting a website’s rightful owners, but by putting paid links on the sites on which they were squatting.

Read the full article at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/31/cnweb131.xml