Squatting in the Twenty-first Century
Just as squatters in the Old West were worth carrying a loaded shot gun in preparation for, so too are Cyber Squatters, though no firearms are necessary in Cyberspace. Cyber Squatters are unscrupulous individuals who register several domain names for a popular trademark, company, or brand name.
For example, if Spencer-Burns Publishers decides to register its company name on the internet as www.Spencer-Burns.com, a Cyber Squatter would beat them to the punch by purchasing the Spencer-Burns.com, Spencer-Burns.net, Spencer-Burns.biz, etc. Then the Squatters wait for Spencer-Burns Publishers to contact them, and demand a huge sum of money in order to purchase these website addresses. In this way, Cyber Squatters can steal popular web identities and business owners have no choice but to pay these “ransoms” in return for website addresses that are easy for consumers to find.
If this type of Cybersquatting scheme does not work, there are other ways Squatters can profit from web-identity theft. These thieves can also use a company’s competitors against it by selling domain names that sound incredibly similar. Then, with the difference of one or two letters in the website address, customers are directed to alternative products and services, with little knowledge of the original, legitimate business. Therefore, clients who may have originally been searching out your company’s products have now been easily directed to your competitor, and revenue is lost for good.
Checks and balances are key to stopping Cybersquatting crimes. By investigating all possible domain names, a company can be prepared to make changes as needed. Using Whois.net, a domain-based research service, business owners can find out which names are currently registered, and to whom they are registered. They can research those domains which have been deleted, and most importantly, businesses have the ability to see just who has which domain names on hold. By utilizing this research tool to outwit Cyber Squatters, smart companies may purchase many different permutations of particular domain and website names before those names are threatened.
While the Internet has afforded people many different types of information access, with that gift comes a price. A company must always be weary of the ways Cyber Squatters and other information pirates can piggy-back on its efforts to provide legitimate services and products. By understanding how a company can be defrauded on the Internet, modern businesses can stay one step ahead of both legitimate and illegitimate competition.
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