What do I do with this company

Good Afternoon,

I was just notified by one of our web clients that there was another web site with a url almost identical to ours, they just changed our company name from widgetswildlife to widgetwildlife in the url. I went to the page and they are using the exact keywords we use. The company is ((company name removed)) from ((location removed)),. I called them, they basically buy and sell domains. They set the site up like a search engine using Sponsored Links with all the keywords we use in our site . Looks like they have done this just to make me pay them for the url and ofcourse I know I am not the only business they do this to. They are using our corporate name in the url. No one else would need our name. Can I do anything other than pay them the $700.00 they want for the domain. Man this really burns me up someone would this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I are just a small family business but our main income is from our web site. I really don't need this frustration.

Thanks
David Watson

Welcome to the forums, wwag. (We don't like to get too specific here in these forums, so that's why I edited your post to remove the specifics).

What you're describing happens all the time. You're not the only one that scummy people like that are preying on. Do you own the trademark of your company name? If you do, then you can send those people a letter from your lawyer informing them that they're infringing upon your trademark and you will take further action against them unless they turn the domain name over to you. I emphasize that I'm not a lawyer, so you should see your attorney if sending a cease and desist letter is the right thing to do in this case. (That's typically what people do in these types of cases, and oftentimes it works very well).

If you're interested, you might want to check out the UDRP Domain Name Dispute policy, which should help you get the domain turned over to you.

Personally, I suggest that you do not give into their scummy tactics and be rather demanding that they turn over the domain name to you.