http://www.eprairie.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=4434

ComEd Inadvertently Steers Customers to Teen Sex Site

CHICAGO – If you haven't heard of WhiteHouse.com by now, it might be time to become sexducated. To this day, onlookers actually seeking President Bush's WhiteHouse.gov are still hoodwinked into scanning "hot interns," "Hollywood hooters" and a full-course "teen buffet".
Chicago-based ComEd is the latest company whose cyber property has become misappropriated with alleged malice.

About a year ago, ComEd launched a free tool to its utility payers called the Home Energy Audit Challenge. The program was designed for customers to input information online about their residence and energy habits and return suggestions for lowering their ComEd bills through more efficient lighting or refrigerator use.

Now you know why this man is smiling so much!


Along with its bills, the utility has been filling its envelopes with marketing stuffers to advertise the audit tool and other alliances. In addition to accessing the tool on ComEd's corporate Web site, ComEd owned the Web address Energy-Audit.com for a direct shot to the money-saving challenge.

As with any domain name, it needed to be renewed. ComEd didn't get around to it.

"For whatever reason, our license for that domain name was somehow allowed to lapse," ComEd spokesman Tim Lindberg told ePrairie. "A firm called New Gideon appropriated the Web address this Wednesday and linked it to a porn site. It's clearly an oversight on our part. New Gideon jumped in and took full advantage of the situation clearly in an attempt to harass ComEd and our customers."

Lindberg says ComEd is conducting an aggressive investigation into the matter and is exploring its legal options, which could include responding with a lawsuit to the fullest extent of the law. Lindberg declined to divulge any further clarity on ComEd's current plan of action but says the tool can still be found in working order here on ComEd's site.

"New Gideon may not have done anything illegal, but at the very least, it is unethical. We would never condone this intentionally and we deeply apologize to our customers," Lindberg said. "New Gideon is clearly trying to embarrass ComEd. I can hazard a few guesses as to why, but this isn't the first incident in which New Gideon has been accused of misusing or misappropriating a Web site."

New Gideon, which essentially is a company with a post office box in the suburbs of Baltimore, has been hauled before ICANN in the past by the Glaxo Group for misappropriating Glaxo's trademark. New Gideon lost the arbitration.

CoMed.com, by the way, is the home of CoMed Communications, which since 1986 has been all about "strategy-based health-care communications, informational services and promotional and independent programs." Information on ComEd (which is short for Commonwealth Edison) can be found at the Web site of Exelon Corporation, ComEd's Chicago-based parent company.

EnergyAudit.com is the home of an entirely unrelated company.