Escrow.com Report: “Fake Websites Selling Coronavirus Masks Are Scamming Organizations out of Millions”

Escrow.com sent me a research report (.pdf) the company compiled discussing a growing problem involving businesses purportedly selling masks and other supplies to people concerned about the coronavirus outbreak. Various law enforcement agencies and legal teams have also been working to reduce or eliminate these types of scams. For instance, the New York Attorney General sent a letter to GoDaddy to determine how the largest domain registrar in the world is working to protect people from being scammed.

Here’s what the Escrow.com report focuses on:

Disney Hiring Technical Project Specialist, Domain Names

In August of 2019, I wrote about a job opportunity involving domain names at Disney. Yesterday, Disney posted another job opening on LinkedIn that has a focus on domain name management at the company. Disney is looking to hire a Technical Project Specialist, Domain Names. This Mid-Senior level position is based out of Disney’s Burbank, California headquarters, although I don’t know if the company would hire a remote employee given today’s social distancing circumstances.

Here’s the description of what this job opportunity entails:

After Packet.com Acquisition, Packet Acquired for $335 Million

One of the comparable sales I use when someone inquiries about select one word .com domain names in my portfolio (like Docket.com) is the $350,000 sale of Packet.com. Braden Pollock sold the domain name in 2018 in an all-cash deal. Packet acquired the domain name right around the time the company secured a $25 million Series B round of funding. The company had previously raised a $9.4 million Series A round of funding.

Yesterday afternoon, Crunchbase news reported that Packet was acquired by a company called Equinix:

Yellow Pages Canada Hiring Domain Name Specialist

Yellow Pages Canada posted a job opportunity on LinkedIn that might be of interest to someone with domain name experience, particularly those whose roles included customer service and support. Yellow Pages Canada is looking to hire a Domain Name Specialist in its Burnaby, Canada office.

Here’s what the Domain Name Specialist job functionality will be:

Story Behind FlattenTheCurve.com Domain Name

Yesterday, I published an article about FlattenTheCurve.com, a hashtag match domain name that was registered and developed into an informational website in a short period of time. I thought it was neat that an exact match domain name like this was being operated by an expert who is sharing useful and timely information rather than sitting with pay per click advertising.

Sean Markey, who I had the pleasure of meeting at NamesCon this year, alerted me that there was a bit more to the story than I could have known when I published my article:

Julie McMurry, who is operating the website, confirmed Sean’s involvement in the website:

Sean emailed me to share a behind the scenes look at how FlattenTheCurve.com went from a domain registration to an active website within hours. In addition, he shared that the site has seen over 300,000 pageviews in the last few days! Here’s the story Sean shared with me that he okayed for publication:

#FlattenTheCurve – FlattenTheCurve.com

The hashtag “#FlattenTheCurve” has been trending on Twitter of late. The idea behind the “flatten the curve” saying is that by flattening the coronavirus infection curve, essentially delaying some cases, it will go a long way to helping fragile healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed by new patients who become sick with Coronavirus infections.

Typically when a hashtag is trending, someone scoops up the matching domain name. Sometimes the domain name is put up for sale, and other times the name is somehow monetized. For #FlattenTheCurve, it looks like the matching FlattenTheCurve.com was just registered, and it looks like it is in the right hands.