A Colombian university student has succeeded in causing a real tangle for this year’s presidential hopefuls – by buying up internet domains with the names of electoral candidates, and re-directing them to the pages of their opponents.
Type Rafael Pardo dot com dot co into an internet server, for example, and expect to be taken to the page of Partido de la U. A search for Sergio Fajardo dot com dot co will land you on the site of Bogota mayor Samual Moreno, while if you type in Juan Manuel Santos dot com dot co you will be directed to the page of his former party, Partido Liberal.
Responsible for this tangled web is student Luis Onofre, who told news website UNO, “No one thought about it and, as the saying goes… they were asking for it.”
“I’ve got alvarouribe.com.co, I’ve got Samual Moreno, Naomi Sanin … I’ve got partidodelau.com.co and partidoliberal.com.co…” said the young trickster.
Rest assured that if any of the politicians or parties want to gain control of their namesake domain, negotiations will have to go through Onofre himself.