Generous cybersquatter
A Canadian student who offered the domain name TSUNAMIRELIEF.COM for $50,000 has sold it and donated the money to relief efforts.
A Canadian student who offered the domain name TSUNAMIRELIEF.COM for $50,000 has sold it for $10,000 to a gaming company and donated the money to relief efforts.
Josh Kaplan, 20, branded a “wave rat” by the New York Post, which suggested he was trying to profit from the disaster, sold the domain name to the Montreal-based Internet gambling company for $10,000. The entire amount was given directly to Chabad of Thailand, a Jewish relief agency, the company said.
Kaplan’s mother Linda said last week her son had always intended to donate the money from the online auction to charity and had not tried to profit from the Indian Ocean tsunami, which struck on Dec. 26 and has killed more than 150,000 people.
A spokesman for the gaming company said Monday he also believed Kaplan had the best intentions. “We spoke with him, and we wanted to verify his story. We believed him to be quite sincere about not trying to profit from the sale of the Web site,” said spokesman Drew Black. “He was helping to raise as much as he could for those in need.”
Tsunamirelief.com now lists 13 charities, including the American Red Cross, CARE USA and Save the Children, with direct links to their Web sites to make donations.
The domain name had been initially registered to Michelle Tirado of Southbury, Conn., the morning she heard of the tsunami disaster. She listed it for sale with an asking bid of $99, but donated it to Kaplan, who she said claimed to represent an international fund-raising effort.
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