Gary Hancock wrote:

What is going on? Is this some sort of scam?

Look the domains up at http://geektools.com/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi and
you can see who owns them.

From what I saw, Mr. Slater has been VERY busy. Technically it's
not a scam ... it perhaps gives him some sort of an advntage in
the search engines. I'm getting "connection refused" when I try
to look at the sites, so they might be running an intrusive
JavaScript or be on my list of obnoxious pop-up sites.

Traceroute on AWBROWN.COM deadends with a DNS error at Exodus,
whichleads me to believe it's all running off a home server on
exodus, or on the other side of xodus.

8 208.173.57.21 bpr1-so-6-0-0.LosAngeles.cw.net
9 208.172.44.225 dcr2-so-4-0-0.Anaheim.cw.net
10 206.24.226.100 dcr2-loopback.Washington.cw.net
11 206.24.238.166 bhr1-pos-10-0.Sterling1dc2.cw.net
12 216.33.98.2 csr21-ve240.Sterling1dc2.cw.net [AS3967]
Exodus Communications
13 216.33.99.2 DNS error [AS3967] Exodus Communications
14 204.71.0.13 DNS error

Here is a list of all of the sites I have found like this so far:

http://www.awbrown.com
Registrant:
A.W. Brown
144 Shaker Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028 US
413-525-2115

Admin:
Slater, Andrew
10 Roberts Lane
Ridgefield, CT 06877
US
203 894 9357
Fax:212 858 5778

(Slatre also owns the sellsonic.com domain)

http://www.bayportflower.com
http://www.berkshirenursery.com
http://www.chnursery.com
http://www.countrygardensinc.com
http://www.cousinsgardencenter.com
http://www.daysgarden.com
http://www.forthillnursery.com
http://www.gardenist.com

Organization:
iSCAPE Inc
Andrew Slater
10 Roberts Lane
Ridgefield, CT 06877 US
Phone: 203 894 9357
Fax..: 203-778-5895
Email:

http://www.gloriasgardencenter.com
http://www.great-gardeners.com
http://www.harborgardens.com
http://www.hitherbrook.com
http://www.homegardendirect.com
http://www.hoosierlandscapes.com
http://www.igardenworld.com
http://www.laddsgardencenter.com
http://www.maxwellturf.com
http://www.mcardles.com
http://www.mcnaughtonsgardens.com

Administrative Contact:
Slater, Andrew
10 Roberts Lane
Ridgefield, CT 06877
US
203 894 9357
Fax:212 858 5778
http://www.riverside-nursery.com
http://www.russellsgardencenter.com
http://www.shannonflorist.com
http://www.thegardenspot.com
http://www.tomsgarden.com
http://www.tripleoaks.com
http://www.twomblynursery.com
http://www.zergott.com



Tsu

--
To doubt everything or to believe everything
are two equally convenient solutions; both
dispense with the necessity of reflection.
- Jules Henri Poincaré