(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Thousands of patriotic Maryland license plates unwittingly point to Philippine gambling site [1]

['Rusty Blazenhoff']

Date: 2023-05-31

Oops! Nearly 800,000 license plates from the state of Maryland, designed to commemorate the War of 1812, have taken on a new role as billboards for an online casino based in the Philippines. These license plates, introduced between 2012 and 2016, feature the URL www.starspangled200.org, a site initially meant to shed light on the historical conflict that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the U.S. national anthem. The commemorative license plates, once a nod to Maryland's history and patriotism, are now inadvertently promoting online gambling.

The situation came to light when a sharp-eyed Redditor discovered the unexpected website transition. Records indicate that the URL has been re-registered and transferred several times in recent years. Until December 2022, the website still served its original purpose of enlightening visitors about the War of 1812 and its significance. Today, however, it directs to a distinctly different online realm, globeinternational.info, a site touting itself as the "Philippines Best Betting Site."

Motherboard:

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2023/05/31/thousands-of-patriotic-maryland-license-plates-unwittingly-point-to-philippine-gambling-site.html

Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.