PR company Portfolio Metrica Group was very surprised to find its Web site had vanished this morning and had been replaced by a mirror of American cuckoos Free2Try.com.

The site, www.portfoliocomms.com, has been owned for years by the company, was not up for immediate renewal and is hardly a catchy title. A company spokesman was confused to say the least and informed us that the legal beagles had been set loose.

He was keen not to accuse the apparent new owner of fraud but admitted that the sudden shift was "certainly suspicious". The current theory runs that the registrar which the company initially went through has either gone bust or been bought by someone else. However, the lawyers have warned of a spaghetti-type whirl of confusion over which company actually owns which at the moment.

The fact that Free2Try.com didn't bother to contact the company is a little peculiar however. "This is the sort of thing you read about, but you never expect to turn up one morning and find it's happened to you," the spokesman told us.

Meanwhile, the registered owner of the site, one M. Duane from Wisconsin is not answering her phone but does have a very nice voice.

Portfolio Metrica has swifty diverted all its customers to back-up URL www.portmet.co.uk, but they are having to rebuild the site as we speak. ®