AUSTRALIA - A South Australian woman narrowly avoided a complete financial disaster after falling victim to a sophisticated business email compromise (BEC) scam that led to the loss of over $800,000. Authorities have since managed to recover a significant portion of the stolen funds, shedding light on the growing threat of cyber fraud in real estate transactions. The victim, who had been in the process of purchasing a property, received what appeared to be a legitimate … [Read more...]
Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Underscores China’s Growing Capabilities in Development
MENLO PARK, CA - DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has rapidly ascended to the top of Apple's App Store charts in the UK, US, and China following its launch on President Donald Trump's inauguration day. This swift rise has raised concerns among tech experts and free-speech advocates, with some labeling it as AI's "Sputnik moment." The application, powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, functions similarly to ChatGPT, generating human-like responses to user prompts. Notably, … [Read more...]
Shopify Snaps Up Pair of Country Code Top Level Domains for Over $500,000
OTTAWA, CA - Shopify Inc., Canada's leading technology company, has acquired the domain names Shop.ca and Shop.us from Toronto-based EMERGE Commerce Ltd. for approximately $500,000. These domains now redirect to Shopify's Shop App website, a marketplace designed as a "digital shopping assistant" that allows users to search for products and brands, make purchases, and track shipments. The original Shop.ca launched in 2011, positioning itself as "Canada’s largest online … [Read more...]
Chat.com Purchased by Artificial Intelligence Company OpenAI for Over $15 Million
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - It was revealed this week that “chat.com” was purchased by San Francisco, California-based artificial intelligence (AI) research organization OpenAI for over $15 million, marking the third time the domain has changed hands in just two years. HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah originally purchased Chat.com last year for $15.5 million; he then flipped it for an unspecified amount reported to be “well over $15 million” – with the entrepreneur writing at the … [Read more...]
Data Leak Impacts Snowflake Customers, Including Advanced Auto Parts, LendingTree
BOZEMAN, MT - In a significant data breach, several major companies have been impacted due to vulnerabilities in their Snowflake cloud storage accounts. The breach, which came to light in early June 2024, has affected companies like Advanced Auto Parts and LendingTree, among others. Details of the Breach: The breach involved unauthorized access to Snowflake's cloud storage, leading to the theft of vast amounts of data. The hacker, known by the alias "Sp1d3r," has … [Read more...]
Omni Hotels & Resorts Suffers Breach, Potentially Impacting Millions
DALLAS, TX - Last month, Omni Hotels & Resorts, a prominent hotel chain, experienced a cybersecurity breach that resulted in the theft of customer information. In an update on their website, Omni confirmed that the stolen data includes customer names, email addresses, postal addresses, and guest loyalty program information. However, financial information and Social Security numbers were not compromised. The breach was detected on March 29, prompting Omni to shut down … [Read more...]
.AI Domain Sales Exceed $5 Million in 2023, On-Track to Hit $10 Million in 2024
WEST PALM, FL - .AI is the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. For years the small island country has been reaping a profit from the rising popularity among companies and projects related to the artificial intelligence industry who have been wanting to register .AI domains for their projects and business ventures. This phenomenon began to hit a fever pitch in 2013, to the point that Anguilla actually … [Read more...]
Top 100 Public Domain Name Sales for 2021 (YTD) According to NameBio.com
PALM BEACH, FL – I haven't done one of these in a good while, since 2019. Lets see what the market looks like this year. Here is how 2021, year to date (YTD) is looking as we get very close to the end of the year. The domains sales are those listed at NameBio.com, a site which keeps track of, and records publicly reported sales. Keep in mind that some sales are private or under non-disclosure agreements or otherwise go unreported for one reason or another. This list … [Read more...]
Somebody Bought The Entire Country of Portugal And It Only Cost $350,000
PALM BEACH, FL – According to a recent report that popped up in my LinkedIn feed, the domain name Portugal.com recently sold through SEDO brokerage and domain sales platform. For those wondering, Portugal is a European country on the Iberian Peninsula, bordering Spain. It’s population, according to the World Bank, is over 10 million. Many geographic domain names sell based on their overall popularity as travel destinations and largely on population size which helps in … [Read more...]
PII Of Up To 4.6 Million Neiman Marcus Customers Potentially Exposed In Breach
PALM BEACH, FL - On Thursday, September 30, 2021, luxury department store Neiman Marcus announced that about 4.6 million of its customers may have had their personally identifiable information or PII compromised in a data breach that occurred in May 2020. The personal information stolen in the breach varied and may have included names and contact information, payment card numbers and expiration dates including virtual gift card numbers. Worse, the cyber-thieves may have … [Read more...]
Hyphenated Domain Name Fetches Over $61k In Latest SEDO Weekly Sales Report
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The hyphenated domain name “TN-I.com” sold at $61,990 this past week according to the latest SEDO.com weekly domain sales report. The web address is currently parked. I've always avoided hyphenated domains unless the words being used are ordinarily hyphenated or it separates two extremely popular words mostly used together. There are some instances where this works well, but with TN-I, let's just say I'm not a fan of this one. Also … [Read more...]
SEDO Weekly Sales List Includes .io Indian Ocean Domain Sold At Whopping $50,000
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The domain name “509.com” sold at $106,500 this past week according to the latest SEDO.com weekly domain sales report. The numeric web address is currently hosting what appears to be a site in the middle of development or using a GoDaddy website builder program. Also notable is the .io domain “swap.io” that sold for a whopping $50,000 and a .club domain “ox.club” which fetched 10,000. The .io is a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) … [Read more...]
Another Five Figure Legacy “.Net” Sale on SEDO Weekly Sales List – Sold at $15k
PALM BEACH, FL – While the four letter domain name Fook.com sold at $15,000 this week according to the latest SEDO.com weekly domain sales report, also notable is the one word legacy .net domain name Limitless.net which also sold at $15,000. Last week Sin.net change hands at $20,000. Each week, SEDO releases a list of domain names which have been sold including highlights of .COM, ccTLDs and notable domains in ‘other’ TLD categories. It is always … [Read more...]
SEDO Weekly Sales List Includes Three Letter .Net Domain Sold at $20,000
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The domain name BetterCare.com sold at $30,000 this week according to the latest SEDO.com weekly domain sales report. Also notable is the three letter legacy .net domain name Sin.net which sold at $20,000. Each week, SEDO releases a list of domain names which have been sold including highlights of .COM, ccTLDs and notable domains in ‘other’ TLD categories. It is always nice to see short “legacy” .net domain names sell. Here … [Read more...]
SEDO Weekly Sales List Includes .Org Domain Sold at $36,523, .Me at $58,437
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – The domain name EditPad.org sold at $36,523 USD this week according to the latest SEDO.com weekly domain sales report. Also notable is .me domain name (country code top-level domain assigned to Montenegro), flow.me at $58,437 USD. Each week, SEDO releases a list of domain names which have been sold including highlights of .COM, ccTLDs and notable domains in ‘other’ TLD categories. It is always nice to see … [Read more...]