How to fight with typosquatting?

May 2015 | Domains

A study by iMinds-Distrinet Stony Brook University and suggests that sites that are popular are usually the casualty of typosquatting. This can be the deliberate registration of domain names that resemble a current web site, but having a typo. Instead of reaching the site that is specified, the surfer arrives in the web site of the typosquatter.

Whenever the study took into account among these mistakes in the URL:

Losing one letter
Changing 2 letters
Characters that are doubling
Pressing on a key that is wrong

The outcomes are shocking: typosquatters are targeting 477 of the top 500 sites. In total, more than 17.000 of these ‘bogus’ sites are in the control of only 4 parties.
Even worse is the reality that a few of these sites are being used for phishing, where you arrive in a fraudulent site which asks for your own personal details. This is going to cause you to be a simple target for frauds and viruses. It’s astonishing that 3 out of banks or 4 large firms are not taking any measures to prevent this problem.

There’s a difference, nevertheless, on the basis of the cost of a specific TLD (.jp is pricey and understands very little typosquatting) as well as the presence of an alternative dispute resolution process (.pl and .ru have none and reveal lots of typosquatting). This deters typosquatters to file these kinds of .be domain names.

Based on Pieter Agten, defensive enrollments are a defence mechanism that is potential. For smaller sites, like private sites, defensive enrollments are a bridge too much with regard to the damages that are small they risk.

Pieter Agten believes that registries and registrars could offer an option. They are able to assess every enrollment that is new to judge whether the domain name in question seems to be typosquatting a web site that is popular. This kind of test could deter domain names to be registered by typosquatters. Registrars will have the ability to utilize this service to differentiate themselves from the rivalry as well as a registry could utilize it enhance or to preserve the standing of the TLD.

DNS Belgium does not screen new enrollments especially but does offer a free tool which enables you to assess whether versions have been registered by someone else to your domain name. More details on domain name variations.

Tags: typosquatting