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This web site is, as always, safe for visitors. However, our internet address, www.ParkPennies.com, is the unfortunate target of a lowly "URL hijacker", also known as a "typo squatter" or parasite. Who, through the use of common miss-spellings or knock-offs (ParkPennys.com, ParkPennie.com, ParkPenny.com etc.) of our ParkPennies.com internet address, has covertly taken some people intending to visit ParkPennies.com to his on-line store. A store that has apparently been challenged in finding intentional visitors and because of customer complaints, is mentioned nowhere at ParkPennies.com except this page.

We appreciate your use of links and bookmarks to www.ParkPennies.com, they defeat "typo" schemes.

This is not a happy subject.
Read on if you'd like all the facts, charges and rebuttals.
Jump to The Summary, for the short version.
Or skip the rest and return to our happy subject page!

Overview:

Recently, we discovered that www.pressedpenny.com, was using twists of the ParkPennies.com internet address, such as ParkPennys.com and ParkPenny.com to take unsuspecting people to PressedPenny.com. (The summary examples below both demonstrate and prove this charge.) When confronted, as he has done to others in the past, he denied any wrong doing and accused his victims. You know, it seems nowadays plaintiffs spend more time defending themselves than do the perpetrators. Which is the reason we had to visit this subject with a page like this in a hobby that is 99.9% wonderful.

Background:

Some time ago, apparently while "Rus", pressedpenny.com, was hijacking our site, but before we found out, he asked us to do him a favor by adding a link on our site to his on-line store. (Can't say he lacks "Moxie" or "chutzpah"!) Unfortunately for us all, experiences we and some of our personal friends had with his store over the past few years regarding merchandise quality, delivery, and refunds were still sore spots. Also, occasional third party posts over the past few years at Yahoo Discussion Groups: Elongatedcoin, Elongatedcoins, and most recently thedisneyelongatedcoinsclub groups sighted similar problems with his business practices had continued. After discussion about the link request with friends familiar with the issue, we all felt it best to avoid anything that could give the appearance of an endorsement or recommendation by ParkPennies.com and declined the link he wanted.

I thought the subject was closed until we heard that people referred to our site, ParkPennies.com, sometimes typed "www.ParkPennys.com" and unknowingly found themselves at "www.PressedPenny.com", the very on-line store that had been declined a link. We quickly contacted the offending party, let him know we had found out, and asked him to stop it.
(You can click or type the ParkPennys.com address above to see how his hijacks work.)

Rus denied hijacking our internet address and claimed the known offending addresses were just random "keywords" etc. Later he stated they are his "hard-earned and well-researched domains".

However, his choices of web addresses like ParkPennys.com, ParkPennie.com and ParkPenny.com etc. are not "natural" words as are pressed pennies, elongated coins, etc. and their similarity to ParkPennies.com seemed a very unlikely coincidence to us. Especially when these address aliases don't go to ParkPennies.com, or ParkPennys.com or ParkPennie.com or ParkPenny.com, they go directly to his store, PressedPenny.com. Referring to these deceptive knock-off ParkPennies addresses as his "hard-earned and well-researched domains" is to us... a new definition for "hard-earned".

He refused to stop hijacking our site unless we gave him "something of value".
(Okay, who saw that one coming?)

Seems he wants one of our web site addresses, pressedpennies.com. No word yet if he wants pressedpennies.com.au, another legitimate, non-deceptive web site with the same name as our site, not his, in Australia. (According to this Wikipedia article, what seems like extortion to me, is typical of hijackers.)

Then, he called us hijackers for using our PressedPennies.com web site name.
(Apparently he's not happy just using "PressedPennys.com" another deceptive miss-spelling of his.)

Our reply: www.PressedPennies.com is a very desirable, legitimate, "natural", correctly spelled name describing exactly what we collect, our hobby, and the subject of our pressedpennies.com web site. You want info about pressed pennies, you type... "pressedpennies.com" and you find what you are looking for. Plain and simple. That's why the folks in Australia have it and why we have it. If Rus's choices of internet addresses were as honest as the PressedPennies.com he criticizes, he wouldn't be in trouble.

Now, maybe Rus of PressedPenny.com, can explain to us why he thinks ParkPennie.com, ParkPenny.com, and ParkPennys.com are web addresses and search words we would use to find his web site?

Summary

"Rus", also known as PressedPenny.com et al, once caught, confused our web sites and some facts in his haste to sling mud at us while attempting to divert our readers and his away from what he has done: Opening web site addresses intended to confuse and divert ParkPennies.com visitors, commonly called URL Hijacking or Typo-squatting. Three currently known www.PressedPenny.com twists of our address, ParkPennies.com, are: ParkPennys.com, ParkPenny.com and ParkPennie.com. One needs only click or type these addresses to see where they lead to both prove and demonstrate what he is doing.

If, as he claims, these addresses are really just "random keywords", and not a sleazy way to hijack unsuspecting ParkPennies.com visitors or extort an envied internet address from us, maybe he could use different keyword combinations or change the order of the keywords? We feel he knows this sort of thing doesn't evidence the trust or professional, successful image that potential customers often look for before sending money or credit card numbers to an on-line seller. We hope he will do the right thing without requiring us to give him "something of value" for doing it.

We're known for www.ParkPennies.com, (This site.) www.PressedPennies.com, (Originally a partner of ParkPennies.com) and www.PennyPressLand.com (Future Vintage Disney EC site.) As you can see, all are easy to understand addresses, none are twists, none are miss-spellings or typos, and none are intended to deceive. I'm told it isn't reasonable for me to demand that of others. I agree, unless their actions involve me or our visitors.

Well, it's getting late. Thank you for your comments and support especially in this matter. Happy collecting!

We've found collecting pressed pennies takes our minds off such things, please join us!

12/31/07 Update: Additional hijack type addresses leading to his store have been reported to us by readers. Also, now "his" ParkPenny.com opens with a temporary screen that says "ParkPenny.com Has Moved" and then automatically redirects to his store. Thoughtful hey?
02/28/08 Reported to us he is also using ParkPennie.com as well. Another random pair of keywords? :-)
05/20/08 We were advised that the hijacker has renewed his offending web site addresses for this next year.

We have nothing for sale here, yet we enjoy the time we spend to bring you ParkPennies.com. The goodwill it has earned over the years has been a valued compliment. It saddens us to see such a business trying to cash in on it. Sorry if I sound a "bit" put out. Ironically, we have always provided courtesy links for friendly, well respected fellow collectors and related businesses.

We are sorry to say, private, discrete requests didn't work. I hope one day I can delete this page. Until then... lets forget about the dark underside of the internet and focus on the fun pressed penny hobby stuff!

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