Screenshot: Gizmodo
Tons of of hundreds of Maryland autos are unknowingly a cell commercial for a Filipino on line casino after a license plate URL not too long ago started redirecting to the playing corridor.
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Vice reviews that in 2012, Maryland launched a brand new license plate to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Warfare of 1812. That license plate was apparently the default license plate for Maryland automobiles between 2012 and 2016, and featured a URL on the backside to www.starspangled200.org. Someday final yr, nevertheless, that URL started to redirect to globeinternational.data—the homepage of a Filipino on-line on line casino. There, a scantily-clad lady advertises “Phillippines Greatest Betting Website.”
Maryland Division of Transportation didn’t instantly return Gizmodo’s request for remark. Gizmodo additionally couldn’t attain out to the on line casino on the web site’s “Contact Us” web page 403’s.
A Redditor seems to be the primary individual to publicly discover the difficulty, posting on the Maryland subreddit two days in the past. The Redditor additionally posted proof that the area has modified arms just a few occasions, however that these webpages had been all tied to authorities organizations just like the state or the Nationwide Park Service. A spokesperson from the Maryland Division of Transportation instructed Vice that just about 768,000 license plates bear the URL.
As evidenced by the Wayback Machine, the redirect first occurred a while between August and December 2022. The earlier model of the web site took guests to the homepage for the Star-Spangled Banner Nationwide Historic Path, which runs all through Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. In keeping with native reporting, the Maryland Motor Automobile Administration is conscious of the difficulty and is working with the company’s IT division to try to restore the URL.