Philip Morris Uses "Account Masking"

In an effort to distance itself from the stench of its reputation as the world's worst tobacco company, Philip Morris recently changed its name to "Altria." To guard the new name against parodies, the company then sneakily bought up the domain name registration for "AltriaSucks.com." Bret Fausett,
an Internet watcher interested in legal issues, discovered that AltriaSucks.com was registered to "Account Masking," which turns out to be a special service offered by Register.com available only to customers that spend at least $10,000 a year on Register.com services. For these high rollers, Register.com promises to "anonymously secure domain names that will conceal the registrant information from the public until the time is right." However, Fausett discovered that the nameservers for AltriaSucks.com belong to Young & Rubicam, Philip Morris' longtime advertising agency.