Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting - the unauthorised use of a brand name in a domain which accounts for the majority of online abuses recorded. This is normally the starting point for other forms of abuse, such as e-commerce fraud or click fraud.

According to Fred Felman of MarkMonitor, a leading online web analysis and reporting firm: "Brand abusers are employing online marketing techniques such as search engine optimisation to siphon traffic from reputable sites. Our analysis identifies cybersquatting as a driver leading to other abuses that further degrade brand value, customer loyalty and revenues."

Regular monitoring of the WWW for misuse of your company or product brand name(s) is vital to avoid substantial loss of sales and profits by fraudsters.

Auction web sites like EBay offer keyword monitoring services and advice on domain and trade mark fraud protection see  http://pages.ebay.co.uk

Domain kiting

This is the practice of using the ICANN five-day grace period at the beginning of a domain registration to test the marketability of a domain name, and is used for PPC scams.

The system gives registrars a grace period in which domains can be deleted without being charged. However, some unscrupulous registrars are using the system to register a domain, assess its pay-per-click ad revenue potential by serving an ad-filled page, and subsequently delete the domain if it is unlikely to generate enough.

'We have become aware with .com that high volumes of domains were being registered and then cancelled as a way to assess their pay-per-click potential,' said Eleanor Bradley, Director of Operations at Nominet.

US registrar GoDaddy has highlighted the issue in the past. Go Daddy's CEO and founder Bob Parsons said that in April 2006, some 35m .com domains were registered, but only 2.3m ended up as permanent registrations. That means a large percentage of these were used in this ephemeral stage to serve ads until they were deleted.

Phishing

Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use 'spoofed' e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers.

A recent report measured a 105% increase in phishing incidents. 41% of these attacks were directed at financial brands, while 38% were against online auction brands.

Some reports suggest that up to 5% of recipients of phishing respond.

Best practices

Useful web sites