Wireless

Politician falls victim to cybersquatting

Oct 8, 2006 8:00pm

The leader of Britain's opposition Conservatives has fallen victim to 'cybersquatters,' and some people trying to access his Internet blog have found themselves entering the world of a little-known Australian poet, a Reuters report said.

David Cameron, modernizing leader of the Conservative Party, launched his blog www.webcameron.org.uk at the weekend in a bid to appeal to younger voters and revamp the image of his party, the Reuters report said.

But the Conservatives did not take the precaution, common in such circumstances, of securing the domains of similar Web site names including www.webcameron.info and

www.webcameron.co.uk, the report said.

Since then, supporters of small rival political party UKIP have leapt on to the www.webcameron.info domain and made it their own, posting a satirical video of Cameron on it.

Meanwhile, Internet surfers who have mistakenly accessed www.webcameron.com instead of Cameron's www.webcameron.org.uk have found themselves on the Web site of a Melbourne-based performance poet called Cameron M. Semmens, the report said.

Semmens, who has owned the domain for some time, has been inundated by Web visitors since Cameron launched his blog, the report said.