Domain Names - Small Needlework Shops

I wanted to warn some of you small business owners who have on-line
shops. The following was posted to my forum this morning. This will
probably affect her business, since some advertising in older magazines
will still contain the "old" name. Message follows:

I just got a phone call from a business friend in Australia alerting me
to an alarming situation and thought I'd better send it on as a warning
to all of you.

As you may know, when I started my own business several years ago it was
called Jan-Marie. My website was www.jan-marie.com (don't click this!).
Then about two years ago I decided to change the name to The Wooly
Thread to better reflect the focus of my business. I kept the jan-marie
name for 1+ years during the transition and all inquiries to the old
site were bounced over to the new site.

When the domain name came up for renewal this spring, I let it go,
because I felt enough time had passed and the new name was well
established and why pay for something I wasn't using.

Well, I found out that in June of this year, a porn company bought the
name and when you click on my old address, you get bounced to a porn
site. The imagines pop right up on your screen. Then you try to get out
of it, these disgusting pop-ups come up on your screen. I guess they
think since you went to a porn site, you want to see more.

I contacted my web designer and she says I can't do anything about it,
since I gave up the name and they legally bought it. I would never have
released the name if I thought this would happen.

Just thought I'd warn you all about what can happen.