Cybersquatter faces 20 years jail
 

Threats

A LAS VEGAS man faces 20 years in the clink after he agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud for impersonating an intellectual property lawyer and threatening lawsuits against the owners of Internet domain names.


According to Network World, David Scali registered an e-mail account under an alias and then sent e-mails in which he claimed to be an intellectual property lawyer.

In late June and early July of 2006, Scali threatened to file $100,000 trademark infringement lawsuits against the owners of various Internet website names unless they gave up their domain name registrations within two days.

Scali went after domain names similar to those of big name Web sites. He would then stick an advert on the site and collect cash when people typed in the wrong address.

His cunning plan started to go belly up when an outfit who owned a name similar to citysearch.com smelt a rat and called the coppers. Scali admitted that he intended to obtain these domain name registrations for his own personal financial gain.

Although he could get 20 years in jail, the fact that he has copped a plea means the final sentence will be about six months.
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