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Typo-Squatting / Hijacking / Impersonation
of The ParkPennies Trademark Name
What you should know...

Given our budget, for now, this page must do as our response to the hijacker's actions and allegations.
© 2007-2012 ParkPennies.com Updated as the problem persists. Last update 1/5/12.

Visit The Real, Free, & Non-Commercial ParkPennies.com Reference Guides


This web site is, as always, safe for visitors. However, our established trademark name ParkPennies is the unfortunate target of a lowly "URL hijacker", also known as a "typo squatter", Name Squatter, or parasite. Who we believe, through the use of our trademark name, ParkPennies or common miss-spellings and knock-offs of our name, has covertly diverted some people intending to Tweet us or visit ParkPennies.com to his on-line business instead. (Sneaky heh?) For example, the Twitter username "ParkPennies" was registered by someone other than us [Released to us by Twitter 1/3/2012]. Also, collectors intending to visit ParkPennies.com that happen to make a common typo such as ParkPennys.com [released ~9-2014], ParkPennie.com, or ParkPenny.com, were/are unwittingly, covertly, taken to the perpetrator's on-line business. A business that has apparently been challenged in finding intentional customers and because of perpetual customer complaints (a few examples) is mentioned nowhere at ParkPennies.com except this page.

So why bother with him? His continued actions and claims put fellow pressed penny collectors at risk, question our integrity, and that is why we must bother with him. The perpetrator has publicly posted that we are "haranguing" him and that he is only using legitimate "search words"(!), we want his web address, we are the bad guys... But, of course, what he fails to disclose to readers is that we have caught him using his "legitimate search words" such as ParkPennys etc. as domain names or web site addresses that automatically redirect users to his web site. All that we demand is for him to stop it.

Unfortunately
, because of the high costs of litigation, our humble non-commercial hobbyist web site must depend solely on awareness of this issue by our visitors and the collector community to mitigate damages caused by this person's intentional actions. Needless to say, we very much appreciate your continued support of ParkPennies.com, your visits, your blog posts, and links to the real www.ParkPennies.com. :-)

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


Overview:

In 2007, we first discovered that www.pressedpenny.com, was using twists of the ParkPennies.com internet address, such as ParkPennys.com [released ~9-2014] 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 victims 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:

Apparently while "Rus" of 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: Elongatedcoins, Elongatedcoin, and most recently thedisneyelongatedcoinsclub groups sighted similar problems with his business practices had continued. (a few examples) 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 association, endorsement, recommendation, or approval 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 do to its reputation. We quickly contacted the offending party, let him know we had found out, and asked him to stop it.
(As an example, before 9/2014, you could click or type the www.ParkPennys.com address and the web site name would change from what you typed to the name of his infamous store.)

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, web addresses like ParkPennys.com, ParkPennie.com and ParkPenny.com etc. have no legitimate association with his web site. Many have said the addresses appear to be intentional twists of our trademark, ParkPennies, and not "natural" words as are "pressed pennies", "elongated coins", etc. 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 PressedPenny.com. Referring to these deceptive trademark knock-off ParkPennies addresses as his "hard-earned and well-researched domains" is to us... a new definition for "hard-earned". And is probably why he doesn't mention what they are.

He refused to stop hijacking our site unless we gave him "something of value".
Then, when we refused, he called us hijackers for owning PressedPennies.com.
(Okay, who saw that one coming?)

Seems he wants us to give him our web site address of PressedPennies.com. Apparently he's not happy just using another deceptive miss-spelling of "his", "PressedPennys.com". No word yet if he also wants other legitimate web sites not owned by us such as pressedpennies.com.au and pressedpennies.net? (According to this Wikipedia article, what seems like extortion to me, is typical of hijackers.)

Our reply: Our desirable, legitimate, "natural", correctly spelled domain name, www.PressedPennies.com, describes exactly what we collect, our hobby, and is subject of the web site. You want info about pressed pennies, you type... "pressedpennies.com" and you find what you are looking. It's one of our names and has been for many years. Plain and simple. If Rus's choices of internet addresses were as honest 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 or search words people would use to find a web site named PressedPenny.com? Or why it is honest for the Twitter name ParkPennies to used by someone other than... ParkPennies?


Summary

"Rus", also known as PressedPenny.com et al, once caught, confused our web sites and some key facts in his haste to sling mud at us in an attempt 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 twists of our address www.ParkPennies.com that have been used by www.PressedPenny.com are: ParkPennys.com, ParkPenny.com and ParkPennie.com. One needs only type these addresses into a web browser to watch the address change before your eyes 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, impersonate us, 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 of someone else's trademark, and none are intended to deceive. I'm told it isn't reasonable for me to demand that of others. I agree, unless the actions of others are detrimental to me or our visitors.

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

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

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.
01/09 The misspellings of our web site address mentioned above are currently inactive. Although the internet address names are still held by the registrant, I think you'll agree it's a welcome step in the right direction.
05/12 Per ParkPennies.com visitors, at least some of the hacker's URL's are active again. And he is still claiming that we are diverting his visitors (!)
12/2012 We are working with Twitter to secure the release of our trademark name, "ParkPennies" for our use. It was registered and is currently being held by a lowly typo squatter. Their intent is of concern to us. Please be aware that tweeting "@ParkPennies" or "#ParkPennies" or "#Parkpenny" or "@ParkPenny" will be directed to them, not ParkPennies. Sad. We would much rather be collecting pressed pennies and sharing our finds with fellow collectors.
1/3/2012 Name squatting of trademarks is something prohibited under certain circumstances by Twitter. So, we filed a complaint and request for release of the username "ParkPennies" with Twitter which was granted on 1/3/2012 and is now ours. We did not pursue the additional Twitter usernames of ParkPenny, PressedPennies, etc. Although "PressedPennies" is a registered domain name of our PressedPennies.com, we believe the name is "generic" as is "PressedPenny" etc. and therefore can not benefit from trademark protections even when spelled correctly and used by others.]
9/1/2014 The Domain name "ParkPennys.com" was apparently released by the typo-squatter and no longer redirects to a web site other than ParkPennies.com. Future visitors looking for ParkPennies.com will be directed here.

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 person trying to cash in on it. Sorry if I sound a "bit" put out. Ironically, we have always provided free courtesy links for friendly, well respected fellow collectors and related businesses.

We are sorry to say, private, discrete requests have not worked. 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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