Bank Of America Buys Up Nasty Domain Names In Defensive Move

Corporate Executives often pursue multiple strategies when it comes to maximizing shareholder value. Sometimes they try to provide the public with products of real worth. Sometimes they deploy complicated accounting schemes to create fictitious value. And sometimes, they just try to keep people from calling them nasty names on the Internet.

Beseiged by allegations of rampant fraud, Bank of America appears to be making a big push on strategy number three. The company seems to be buying up scores of domain names that portray the financial behemoth and CEO Brian Moynihan in a negative light. Want to start a website slamming Moynihan? Too bad! URL addresses like "BrianMoynihanSucks.com" and "BrianMoynihanBlows.com" are already gone.

According to a Monday report by Domain Name Wire, a company that frequently purchases domain names for large company has snapped up "hundreds" of URL addresses that are critical of Moynihan, BofA CFO Charles Noski and members of the bank's board of directors.

In addition to allegations that it has committed widespread fraud in the foreclosure process, Bank of America will be the subject of a new release of sensitive documents by international muckraking clearinghouse WikiLeaks in January. One Bank of America mortgage borrower has even claimed that the company broke into her home and stole the ashes of her deceased husband.

BofA wouldn't be the first megabank to make a big stink about domain names instead of, say, addressing real problems. Back in 2009, Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs attempted to shut down "www.GoldmanSachs666.com" after the site became a hotspot for criticism directed at the investment bank. Somehow, people managed to keep disparaging the company.

Comments

[Ted Bouklos]

01:16 PM on 01/15/2011

and who pays for all of this? BofA customers do in added fee to cover costs of new spending.

[Conk]

04:09 PM on 12/27/2010

How about BoAandtheirkindcontrolCongress.com

[AlsoSarah]

03:53 PM on 12/27/2010

"If Citibank and Bank of America were going under, that would be a problem," said Mark Blyth, a political economy professor at Brown and a fellow of the Watson Institute for International Studies. "The bailout was meant to deal with a global systemic crisis. It was not to make sure that some bank in Utah with dodgy commercial real estate would be okay."

I am so sick of this. I went into a 3 month HAMP trial with BoA in June 2009. In August I was told I was modified as of November 2009. Today I called to check my status. I have still not been officially modified although BoA continues to report me delinquent to all the credit bureaus and pad my mortgage with fees and late charges. Today when I spoke with a BoA supervisor he told me that BoA will take care of all the fees and late charges when they modify me. THEY WILL ROLL IT ONTO MY MORTGAGE PRINCIPAL. yeah, that means that since Novemember 2009 they have been padding my mortgage LEGALLY. What's wrong with this picture? is this fraud?

[zyxwvutsrqpo]

10:49 AM on 12/27/2010

BrianMoynihanBlowsRustyTrombones.com

[zyxwvutsrqpo]

10:47 AM on 12/27/2010

BankofAmericaCanSuckMyWank is going to have to buy up a lot of domains...
I'm sure they can afford it though.

[UberdanSounds]

10:37 AM on 12/27/2010

BankofAmericaSucks.com seems to be up & running for long long time!

[Alex Zhang]

11:08 PM on 12/26/2010

Right. By these actions, BoA DEFINITELY doesn't have anything to hide... smart move.

[LONDON3]

11:26 AM on 01/05/2011

Brilliant isn't it ! ........ I sooooo cannot WAIT for WikiLeaks...... come on with the DIRT and FAST..... lets get that exposure right out front!!!!!! ....but moreso lets see what will ACTUALLY be done about it !

[logicanada]

04:52 PM on 12/26/2010

I think I'll start buying up TheFed sucks.com They are next.

[logicanada]

04:49 PM on 12/26/2010

Want to start a website slamming Moynihan? Too bad! URL addresses like "BrianMoynihanSucks.com" and "BrianMoynihanBlows.com" are already gone.

How about BrianMoynihansucksandblows.com ?

[baileywick]

11:19 PM on 12/26/2010

I didn't know he played harmonica.

[ChristopherJones]

08:21 AM on 12/26/2010

They aren't in the creativity industry. What a waste of time on their part.

[whirlybird]

02:22 AM on 12/26/2010

Is SkankOfAmerica.com still available?

[baileywick]

11:21 PM on 12/26/2010

Blank Of Amerika?
Shank Of America?
Flank of America?
Cank of America?
Sank America?
Stank of America?
Walk the Plank of Ameri......................oh well.

[UKNOWHOW ICM]

01:05 AM on 12/26/2010

The energy they dissipate buying domains they could spend doing ummm errr working out foreclosures. Here's a domain to buy: www.effboa.com.

[inyourname]

11:21 PM on 12/25/2010

Domain squatting anyone: I wonder how much they paid per site?

[njgal4obama]

07:16 PM on 12/25/2010

The folks at BOA must have extremely small vocabularies if they think they can buy all the domains that could possibly spell out how bad they are.

I can personally think of about twenty million different ways of saying what I think of them.

[njgal4obama]

07:05 PM on 12/25/2010

This reminds me of the Paul Newman movie, "Absence of Malice" where Teresa Peron tried to prevent everybody from reading about her having in the newspaper by going up and down the street stealing everybodys' newspapers off their doorsteps.

Like if BOA buys all the domain names proclaiming that BrianMoynihanSucks...that no one will know that BRIAN MOYNIHAN SUCKS!!!!!