|
It
involved a social media influencer
named Rossi Lorathio Adams II
whose company, Social Snaps,
has been attracting over a million
visitors to his pages on platforms
including Snapchat, Instagram
and Twitter. According to CNN,
for two years, Adams had been trying
unsuccessfully to buy a domain he
wanted, DoItForState.com,
from the owner who lives in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa. Adams finally got the
not so bright idea that he could
just hire someone to pay the domain
owner a visit and force him to
transfer the domain at gunpoint.
After all, what could go wrong?!
|
Image
from Bigstock
|
|
Well,
plenty, as the guy he picked for the
job, his cousin Sherman Hopkins
Jr., soon found out. In 2017
Hopkins went to the domain owner's
house, pulled out the gun and
directed the man to his computer
where he was told to log into his
registrar account and transfer the
domain. All the while Hopkins kept a
gun against the man's head.
Unfortunately for him, the domain
owner decided to fight back and
successfully wrestled the gun away
from Hopkins and shot him several
times with his own weapon. To
add insult to insult Hopkins was
sentenced to 20
years in prison last
year. Meanwhile,
authorities followed the trail from
Hopkins back to the guy who hired
him, Adams, who is now in custody
awaiting sentencing himself. As CNN
noted, "he faces a maximum 20
years in prison, a $250,000 fine and
three years of supervised
release." I'm pretty sure he
could have bought the domain for a LOT
less than that though, on the plus
side, it looks like he may get free
room and board for the next two
decades. While
this is obviously a very rare set of
circumstances, it will likely cause
a lot of domain owners to think
about using the WhoIs Privacy
option on their domain names so
their address and other contact info
is not readily available to someone
who wants to pay them a visit!
|
