A couple of weeks ago, a 19 year old boy hijacked eBay Germany through the simple expedient of applying for a domain name transfer – to sites he didn't own like Google.com, Web.de - and eBay Germany. Somehow the eBay transfer slipped through the cracks and was approved, although the others were not.

This isn't an isolated incident. For instance, 65,534 addresses belonging to the County of Los Angeles suddenly became the property of Emil Kacperski, who used the space for “low-interest mortgages, bargain ink jet cartridges, an abundance of 'sizzling teens' in adult situations.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/11/cracking_down_on_cyberspace_land/

Back to the "whys" of domain stealing? Perhaps it's just for the thrill of doing it – although having the cops show up at your front door is a little too much excitement for most folks. Or perhaps there is some fleeting profit. Seems like a pretty foolish crime to me, especially due to the short-term nature of the gains. Most companies will notice if they lose control of their domain name. If they don't notice, we can be sure the domain name isn't worth stealing.