Desmogblog sinks into murk

Richard Treadgold | September 22, 2012

via Watts Up With That?.

WUWT asks: Forget to pay your bill, fellas?

Jim Hoggan’s flagship propaganda outlet, releaser of the Gleick stolen files, Desmogblog.com – is D.O.A.

Go to their site and you get an advertisement from their domain name registrar.

UPDATE 23 SEP 1230 PM NZST

Ralph, in a comment, advises that the site is up again. But when I visit there’s no real site there. Just plain-text climate links which lead to lists of plain-text advertisements. It’s not real.

Where have they gone?

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12 Responses to “Desmogblog sinks into murk”

  1. David says:
    September 23, 2012 at 7:35 am

    Perhaps the letter from Heartlands Lawyers arrived regarding Gleicks lies?
    Or maybe it’s simply that no one actually visits it, as the Alexa data indicates.

    Reply
  2. ralph selman says:
    September 23, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    I just checked the website and it is up with the usual trash.

    Reply
  3. Bob D says:
    September 23, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    The DNS servers take time to update apparently, perhaps we’ll see it up again soon too.

    Reply
  4. Andy says:
    September 23, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    John Lefebvre is the chief benefactor of DeSmogBlog, and has an interesting history other than being some kind of musician

    Lefevre first garnered public attention in 1999, when he co-founded NETeller (now known as Neovia), an online money transfer facility. Though a publicly traded UK company, the firm’s involvement in transactions serving the then-fledgling online gambling sector led to U.S. charges of possible money laundering against the company and his arrest in January 2007.[4] Lefebvre plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to conduct illegal Internet gambling transactions and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify if necessary

    Reply
  5. Stanley says:
    September 23, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    It’s gone now. Just a note saying the domain WAS registered at ‘namecheap.com”.

    LeFebvre sounds like he would have become a carbon trader in this enlightened age. Might have gone down the tubes.

    Reply
  6. Rob Taylor says:
    September 24, 2012 at 9:56 am

    Desmogblog are active on Facebook, maybe that is their new home?

    http://www.facebook.com/DeSmogBlog

    I also recommend their excellent book, “Climate Cover-up”.

    http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Cover-Up-Crusade-Global-Warming/dp/1553654854/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348437306&sr=1-1

    Reply
  7. Andy says:
    September 24, 2012 at 10:22 am

    Thanks Rob, I checked their Facebook page and it leads to a list of “related searches”
    http://www.desmogblog.com/

    Each of those links leads to a bunch of paid Google ads

    No sign of the old site

    Reply
  8. Andy says:
    September 24, 2012 at 10:29 am

    The keywords in the page source are interesting

    All about cash advance and credit refinance

    Definitely a hack, I’d say

    Reply
    • Andy says:
      September 24, 2012 at 10:37 am

      These link only sites are also known as MFA – made for adwords.
      The hackers will be generating quite a bit of revenue from people clicking on the sponsored links

      Reply
  9. Rob Taylor says:
    September 24, 2012 at 11:22 am

    In a way, that’s flattering for DeSmogBlog – it must be a popular site to warrant being taken over by hackers for for click farming…

    Reply
  10. David says:
    September 24, 2012 at 11:49 am

    Popular? The evidence on Alexa suggests otherwise. But you dont worry about evidence eh Rob

    Reply

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