Typo Squatting Runs Rampant During 2012 Olympics

[Blake]

While athletes participating in the 2012 Olympics may be looking to cash in on some medals for the countries they proudly represent, some online users are seeking to cash in using a much more deceitful tactic.

According to a report released on Friday by cloud security company Zscaler, an astounding 80% of websites using the term “olympics” in their domain names represented spam and scams. It’s a tactic known as “typo squatting” where spammers register sites based on commonly mistyped web addresses.

For example, say you’re trying to access an actual Olympics-affiliated website such as nbcolympics.com but you accidently type “mbcolympics.” Oops! You’re then redirected to a fake page operated by spammers.

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Courtesy of: Ping! Zine Editor @ PingZine.com

This is seriously crazy 80%! .....as an industry I just wish there was a way to stop this nonsense. I guess starting at the registrar level will never happen which would be the only stopgap for this.

What are you thoughts?

 

[iowadawg]

Well, unless there is some law, typos will always be there.
64 character domains mean lots of room for typos.

Heck, look around this forum.
Appraisals, and domains for sale.

 

[HeyNow]

Perhaps DnJournal.com will feature the most successful typosquatter on its front page in a glowing article, as it featured the infamous Kevin Ham in the past.

 

[DU]

Well, unless there is some law, typos will always be there.
64 character domains mean lots of room for typos.

Heck, look around this forum.
Appraisals, and domains for sale.

Errr... there is.

1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act

 

[SK1990]

Heck, look around this forum.
Appraisals, and domains for sale.

THIS^

It's quite sad.

 

[enlytend]

Pathetic.

It would be great to deal with it at the registrar level. Problem is, you really cant, since squatting is determined by usage not simply registering a domain. There could possibly be some kind of screening process, but from a practical standpoing it would be labor intensive,prone to legal ramifications, and would surely raise reg. fees.