Webwatch is a column published in the Covenant Companion Magazine every month. It is written by Heidi Griepp, manager of Covenant Internet Services and an avid web wanderer. This month, Webwatch offers advice on coping with cyber-squatters.
Recently, a Companion reader decided to visit one of the websites recommended in Webwatch. When he typed in the web address, this reader got an eyeful. Sometime between compiling that month’s column and when the Companion was printed, the owners of the website had let its address expire and the address was snapped up by a cyber-squatter—in this case a porn advertiser. And so the site went from G-rated to X-rated.
Unfortunately, cyber-squatting remains a persistent nuisance, and sometimes horror story, on the web. This month, instead of reviewing websites, Webwatch looks at how cyber-squatting happens and how to avoid it. Domain names are always for sale.
Anyone can register a website address—known as a domain name—that is available on the Internet. If your church changes its web address, the old address could be purchased by anyone who wants it. Porn and advertising companies like to purchase old website addresses because they are guaranteed free traffic. People often have bookmarked these sites, and so unsuspecting web users get an eyeful of porn or unwanted advertising when all they wanted to find out was what time church started. Cyber-squatters or “typo-squatters” purchase addresses of famous people and companies—or common misspellings of those names—so that when you visit www.famousperson.com you end up not at that person’s website but at the site owned by the cyber-squatter. The company or person then has to pay off the cyber-squatter to regain the domain name. In some cases, cyber-squatting is done for fraud. For example, cyber-squatters set up the site “nelsonmandelafoundation.com,” which claimed to be collecting donations in the name of the former president of South Africa. In reality, the donation went to a bank account in Cyprus set up by crooks. It took some hard work by a copyright lawyer to shut down the site. Sometimes, people have paid exorbitant sums of money to save their name or company’s name from slander or from being associated with a porn site just because someone purchased the domain name first. There are laws that protect against cyber-squatting but they have not eliminated the problem.
Several years ago, notorious typo-squatter John Zuccarini set up more than 5,000 phony web addresses, many similar to children’s shows or companies like the Wall Street Journal, Bank of America, and Victoria’s Secret. For example, if you mistyped a show like Bob the Builder, a porn or ad-ware site would pop up. Zuccarini, who earned millions from his sites, also was a master at “mousetrapping”—websites that spawned an unending chain of pop-up ads and new browser windows. Zuccarini was eventually shut down and fined millions under the Truth in Domain Names Act. The Truth in Domain Names Act, in combination with the PROTECT Act, forbids the use of a misleading domain names intended to attract people into viewing sexually explicit material online. The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act also protects against cyber-squatters. What can I do?
One of the best ways to avoid cyber-squatting is to think through all your options before purchasing a domain name for a website. Make sure the domain name is one that will work well over the long term. Don’t choose something that is temporary. If you have a website address and you changed your church name or want to switch, first make sure it’s worth it. So let’s say your church decides to change its web address from “www.a-covenant-church.org” to “www.new-covenant-church-site.org.” The switch might make sense, but once the church lets go of the old address, anyone can buy it. The best solution is to add the new address and advertise the change, while keeping the old address and redirecting visitors to the new address. Domain names don’t cost a lot of money. It’s better to pay the $15 a year to keep an old address than have it bought by a cyber-squatter. A cyber-squatter or typo-squatter has targeted my website. What do I do now? A few tips for battling cyber- and typo-squatters from Wikipedia.com.
- Send a cease and desist letter. The letter may cause the cyber-squatter to shut down their copycat site to avoid the hassles of legal action.
- Offer to purchase the site. This might have been the squatter’s aim all along, but if the cost is reasonable, it might be a prudent solution.
- File suit. If the squatter won’t cease or sell, it might take a lawsuit to shut them down.
- Preempt the typo-squatters. Google, for example, has purchased a number of misspellings of their site—like www.gooogle.com, www.goolge.com, www.gogle.com,
- www.gewgle.com—and redirected visitors to www.google.com. The best strategy may be to beat squatters at their own game.
- Microsoft offers software called “Strider Typo-Patrol” that scans and shows third-party domains that are allegedly typo-squatting. It also lets parents restrict access to typo-squatting domains that show sexually oriented ads on typos of children’s websites.
All Webwatch reviews are for informational and resource purposes
only. The Evangelical Covenant Church does not endorse any
website, organization, or content. From time to time some of these
links will go dead or they will be sold. When we learn about this we
will take the link off. If you see a dead link please let us know. Copyright The Covenant Companion.
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