Typosquatting

Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, a sting site, a cousin domain, or a fake URL, is a form of cybersquatting which relies on mistakes such as typos made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser. A user accidentally entering an incorrect website address may be led to a URL they did not intend to visit, including one owned by a cybersquatter. The cybersquatter's URL will usually be similar to the victim's site address. The typosquatting site could be in the form of: A misspelling, or foreign language spelling, of the intended site A misspelling based on a typographical error A plural of a singular domain name A different top-level domain (e.g., .com instead of .org) An abuse of the Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) (.cm, .co, or .om instead of .com) Similar abuses include: Combosquatting – no misspelling, but appending an arbitrary word that appears legitimate. Doppelganger domain – omitting a period or inserting an extra period Appending terms such as sucks or -suckes to a domain name Once on the typosquatter's site, the user may be tricked into thinking that they are actually on the real site through the use of copied or similar content. Spam emails sometimes make use of typosquatting URLs to trick users into visiting malicious sites.