Whois Finder™ is a fast and free
whois lookup and domain search service.

by Nick Papps

Just hours after David Hookes died, a Hoppers Crossing man tried to make money out of his name.

Part-time pet tag seller and prison officer Paul Drunmall has admitted registering the website name DavidHookes

.com and offering it for sale for 00.

Mr Drunmall, who also operates a web design business called screwdogmaggot.com registered the name at 5.45am on January 20, just hours after Hookes' life support was turned off.

"It was one of those names that was everywhere, in the newspaper and no one owned it," Mr Drunmall told the Herald Sun.

"I did it for the fun of it -- when it was available, I thought, 'Let's grab it'.

"It was money-motivated at the start, a chance to make a quick buck.

"It was a once in a lifetime thing. I couldn't understand why it hadn't been taken.

"I buy and sell domain names as a side line.

"It was the day after he passed away, I basically think of names. Because it was in the news I thought David Hookes."

Mr Drunmall said he registered the name for about 2 with a United States company, then offered it for sale on eBay.

But the father of one said he soon realised he had made a monumental mistake when he started receiving aggressive e-mails from people.

"I got a couple of nasty e-mails,' Mr Drunmall said.

"They were saying: 'You're a disgrace, you're trying to cash in'. It made me wake up. I thought it was a bit ghoulish."

Stunned by the comments, Mr Drunmall said he took the domain name off eBay and now wants it to be used by someone wanting to use it for a tribute site to the former cricket star.

"I didn't want to show disrespect," he said. "I'd be happy if I got 0 for it."