Today we noted a spike in registrations of domains with the term "Ernesto". No surprise given the approaching hurricane by that name. Today, 19 new "Ernesto" domains became live. One of them is just the name of a person and not hurricane related. The other 18 are hurricane related. 17 of these domains are registered by one person.

Today's Names:
cnnernesto(.com)|(.net)
ernestodamage(.com)|(.net)
ernestohurrican(.com)|(.net)
ernestoinsurance(.com)|(.net)
ernestomoney(.com)|(.net)
ernestonews(.com)|(.net)
ernestopipeline(.com)|(.net)
ernestovideo(.com)|(.net)
ernestoweather(.com)|(.net)
thehurricaneernesto.com

Last year, we had a big number of fraudulent sites asking for donations for Katrina victims. We are afraid that similar issues may arise this year. At this point, the domain names listed above are parked. We will keep an eye on them. Let us know if you find any donation-fraud sites.

Graph of "Ernesto" domain registrations:

(click for full size)

Update:

The person who registered most of these domains wrote to say this:

Tell me why I deserve this, or at least help me recover as I have spent hours, barely slept in order to get good news about that situation. I lived on the Gulf Coast, my grandfather's mosoleum was destroyed by Katrina, as well as his house and many family and friends homes and properties.

Yes, I have other domains for sale. This is America, this is capitalism. People buy real estate often with the intent of bettering it and selling it. I own CNNErnesto.com, b/c this is obviously a company that can cover this better than me.

Please, it is really painful to deal with this situation when all I could be putting up valuable information. Annd then, using money earned to build a nice company that will be very beneficial to a lot of people (TheWorldPipeline.com).