discuss Does .com Mitigate Fraud?

[Rippa]

Rereading the atom.com atomradar report of a few days ago:
https://www.atom.com/radar/impact-of-premium-domains

They use the terminology "premium domain (e.g., Verasight.com)" and "standard domain or unconventional (e.g., VerasightOnline.xyz)"

They looked at how much .com domains reduced fraud concerns and where consumers feel comfortable, and found .com is highly preferred. No surprise. But a key dimension of this made NO impression on me at first reading.

In some sense, if we consider the primacy of .com then perhaps simplistic imagery noting "non .com" [with poor memory?] opens a big door to fraud. Was that domain .xyz or .biz or .io or .co or .eu? Without strong differentiation, the fraudster can easily substitute one TLD for another. For many NamePros people, self-evident from day one perhaps? ... but not for me...

 

[bmugford]

Rereading the atom.com atomradar report of a few days ago:
https://www.atom.com/radar/impact-of-premium-domains

They use the terminology "premium domain (e.g., Verasight.com)" and "standard domain or unconventional (e.g., VerasightOnline.xyz)"

They looked at how much .com domains reduced fraud concerns and where consumers feel comfortable, and found .com is highly preferred. No surprise. But a key dimension of this made NO impression on me at first reading.

In some sense, if we consider the primacy of .com then perhaps simplistic imagery noting "non .com" [with poor memory?] opens a big door to fraud. Was that domain .xyz or .biz or .io or .co or .eu? Without strong differentiation, the fraudster can easily substitute one TLD for another. For many NamePros people, self-evident from day one perhaps? ... but not for me...

Trust wise, I think most people would tend to prefer a website built on a quality .COM.

However, just being a .COM doesn't mitigate fraud.

In general, if someone has a quality domain in a well known extension they are going to seem less risky than a registration in some lesser known extension.

Most of the heavily discounted registries have relatively high spam/scam usage.

Verasight.com or VerasightOnline.xyz could be scammy, but the second one looks a lot less credible. IMO.

Brad

 

[AEProgram]

.com is great if your customers are 20 or 100 plus years old. The more exotic you get with the extension, the more you will likely pay when it comes to marketing and trust. I see companies invest a lot in advertising, but their domain is costing them a lot of sales, word of mouth and trust. The other group that loses a lot by picking a low end name are startups looking for funding. The nicest pitch deck will not get rid of the stench that a low quality domain gives off. Businesses are lucky that most domainers will be ok with a payment plan and it's secured by people like atom, godaddy and others that are reliable.

 

[fka1080405]

Horrible survey design. The survey results alone discredit the survey. How can 84% of people be more comfortable shopping on a premium domain if 20% of people say that a "strong/premium domain" makes them more concerned about fraud and legitimacy?

"Premium" is impossible for a layperson to define, even people that buy and sell domains would describe different domains as premium. A good survey question would ask specifically about a .com domain vs. a .xyz domain. For example, "would you feel more comfortable buying chairs from chairs.com, or thebestplacetosit.xyz?".

I don't know if it is intentional but it is sort of funny that Verasight is the name of the survey company who use the domain verasight.io, because verasight.com is for sale with Atom.

 

[bmugford]

.com is great if your customers are 20 or 100 plus years old. The more exotic you get with the extension, the more you will likely pay when it comes to marketing and trust. I see companies invest a lot in advertising, but their domain is costing them a lot of sales, word of mouth and trust. The other group that loses a lot by picking a low end name are startups looking for funding. The nicest pitch deck will not get rid of the stench that a low quality domain gives off. Business are lucky that most domainers will be ok with a payment plan and it's secured by people like atom, godaddy and others that are reliable.

Yeah, when it comes to business you don't really want to be swimming upstream.

Sure, with an endless marketing budget you can really "brand" anything. The normal end user doesn't have that luxury.

If you go with an option that is well known by consumers, it adds the least friction.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

"Premium" is impossible for a layperson to define, even people that buy and sell domains would describe different domains as premium. A good survey question would ask specifically about a .com domain vs. a .xyz domain. For example, "would you feel more comfortable buying chairs from chairs.com, or thebestplacetosit.xyz?".

Yeah. You don't need a study to know that all things equal, Chairs.com is going to be a way more credible option.

You don't need the best domain in the world. It's more about not having a terrible option to be honest.

I don't know if it is intentional but it is sort of funny that Verasight is the name of the survey company who use the domain verasight.io, because verasight.com is for sale with Atom.

They put out a study using the domain Verasight.com as a "premium" example, and don't even bother buying that "premium" domain for under $9K.

Brad

 

[Rippa]

Thanks to all. Any insight or thoughts not about A or B (.com vs other) but how C (a similar-looking fraudster) might more easily sneak in?

If first simply & quickly I see .eu with a definition of non-.com I may be ripe for an .io or .co fraudster.
Maybe it's only me, and declining short-term memory of advancing years