Jump to content

US Homeland Security mistakenly seizes British ad agency's website in prostitution probe gone wrong


steven36

Recommended Posts

They got it back – after reneging any claim against Uncle Sam for damages

 

 

A Brighton-based ad agency is scratching its collective head after its website was effectively seized by US Homeland Security.

 

The agency stopped receiving external emails and turned to its IT support company Ingenious for an answer. They discovered that anyone trying to visit the company website – designate.com – met a landing page with America's Department of Justice, Homeland Security and New York Police Department logos and the stern message:

 

This domain name has been seized by ICE-Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

 

138543711_ice_cold_dns_block.jpg

US cops had seized control of the site's name servers so they could redirect traffic to their landing page, as well as snaffle emails. The agency received no warning and has still not received an explanation.

 

Ingenious said: "We've never seen anything like this and to do it without any prior contact, or even the most cursory investigation, is pretty bad. And then hold it to ransom until you signed a form. As to why, it's anyone's guess, although I suspect clerical error or someone just not paying attention to what they were doing."

 

Jason Triandafyllou, director at Designate, finally got hold of a special agent at Homeland Security and discovered the site had been seized as part of an investigation into illegal prostitution.

 

After persuading them that it was a case of mistaken identity, it was a simple matter of dealing with a US attorney and signing a waiver reneging any claim against the US government for damages. Oh, and waiting for a court hearing in New York after which the company got its website back. Easy, no?

 

It will take time for all the domain name servers to update but Designate.com is back online and the company is receiving emails again.

 

Triandafyllou, which is a Greek name (not Welsh as this ignorant reporter suspected), told us: "We noticed it on 12 February but suspect it happened on the 11th. We had the domain released on the 19th but it felt a lot longer than a week I can tell you."

 

He added that it was hard to quantify the damage done. "Anyone looking for a creative agency who headed for our website during the 10 days that this was going on might well have been spooked (pun intended). And we may have missed important emails from prospective clients too. Our SEO has also been floored – we'll have to build up our rankings from scratch." (The Reg wagers that'll soon change though...)

 

He said they had no intention of switching to a .uk domain, in the hopes that lightning will not strike twice.

 

Source

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 1
  • Views 420
  • Created
  • Last Reply
zanderthunder
1 hour ago, steven36 said:

After persuading them that it was a case of mistaken identity, it was a simple matter of dealing with a US attorney and signing a waiver reneging any claim against the US government for damages. Oh, and waiting for a court hearing in New York after which the company got its website back. Easy, no?

What an epic fail for the ICE. They should compensate the innocent company for their own mistake instead of telling the company to sign a waiver reneging any claim against the US government for damages.

Besides, did US talk to UK counterpart first about domain seizure? Nope. The company is bounded under UK law, not under US law.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...