BALTIMORE -- The Internet can be a helpful tool in building up and maintaining a business, but what happens when your Internet site name goes bad?

Fred Shaw, an accountant who used the Internet for his business, let his domain name ownership lapse. When he did, a company bought his old name and put adult entertainment on the domain.

Shaw and his wife ran a financial services company called KJCFS. Shaw canceled his domain name in March because he wasn't getting any hits and he was losing money.

However, a company based out of Mexico and Australia bought www.kjcfs.com and thought it would make a great place to display adult entertainment.

A friend with the Howard County Chamber of Commerce told Shaw what happened to his old site. He is now thinking about starting a new one just to clear his name.

Once you release your domain name back into the public, anybody can purchase it and do with it what they want. The only way to truly protect yourself is to keep paying for the name even if you aren't going to use it for a Web site.

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