Unscrupulous businesses are cashing in on the interest in the internet campaign to find Madeleine McCann by attempting to trick the millions of visitors with bogus websites.

By yesterday afternoon the Find Madeleine website, findmadeleine.com, had received more than 75 million hits in its first 48 hours, making it one of the most popular destinations on the internet. It gives details of the search for Madeleine since she was abducted from an Algarve holiday apartment 16 days ago.

However, more than 20 websites with similar names have been created in the past three days to promote businesses including chat rooms, estate agents and dating sites.

The McCann family has condemned the “typo squatters”, who make money from advertising links on the bogus websites. John McCann, Madeleine’s uncle and a director of Madeleine’s Fund, branded the people behind the websites “parasites”. He said: “We are incredibly disappointed that [they] are taking advantage of people’s generosity and using it for commercial gain.”

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Calum MacRae, a director of the company running the official site and a friend of the family, said that it had registered another website address and was consulting lawyers.

Straun Robertson, a technology lawyer with Pinsent Masons, said: “Each of these bogus websites will generate a small amount of revenue. It is selfish and mean-spirited but there is nothing illegal about it and it would be very diffiult to stop.”

Emily Taylor, a lawyer with Nominet, said that if a website had been registered with a view to taking advantage of another site’s popularity, then the internet service provider hosting it could take it down for breach of an “acceptable use policy”.

The campaign to find Madeleine has been backed by companies across Europe. A potential television audience of 450 million people in 160 countries will watch a video of her to be shown during half time in today’s FA Cup Final.

The priest who married Mr and Mrs McCann and baptised Madeleine spoke yesterday about how the public support they have received over the past two weeks had given them the determination to lead the search for their daughter.

Father Paul Seddon, speaking outside the apartment from where Madeleine was abducted, said that the couple had found enormous strength from the support of the church and community in Praia da Luz and the international interest in the abduction. The appeal’s website has so far received more than 22,000 messages of support, many from the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Detectives have to date been unable to find sufficient evidence linking Robert Murat to the abduction. Mr Murat, 33, who insists he is innocent, is the only official suspect. He had worked as a police interpreter for witnesses including Mr and Mrs McCann. His mother, Jennifer, was a leading volunteer in the search.

Yesterday Mr Murat’s estranged wife, Dawn, said that she was convinced her husband was not involved. “I sincerely believe that Rob is totally innocent. I just hope and pray that Madeleine is found quickly.”

Mrs Murat lived in Norfolk with her husband and their daughter Sofia — who resembles Madeleine — until he started a new life in Portugal two years ago. She and Sofia joined him on the Algarve but returned to the family home in Hockering, near Dereham, when she became homesick.

Mrs Murat, who is getting divorced, has put up a poster proclaiming her husband’s innocence in the window of the house where she is staying with a friend.

Concern about the Portuguese police investigation was raised last night when it emerged that detectives had failed to check film from the security cameras that monitored the motorway leading from Praia da Luz.

Coverage

553,626 Views of Times online stories about Madeleine McCann from May 11-18
127,222 Views of Gordon Brown leadership stories in the same period
339 British daily newspaper articles written about Madeleine since she disappeared
1,725 International newspaper and magazine articles
1,930,000 Google searches for “Madeleine McCann”

* Donations to the Madeleine Fund can be made over the counter in branches of NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Postal donations can ube made with cheques payable to "Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned" can be sent to People are asked to send cheques to Madeleine's Fund, c/o The International Family Law Group, 26 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 7RS.

Internet donations can be made to "Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned", Sort Code 60 40 05, Account Number 32130058. All donations will be processed free of charge.

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