Typosquatting
Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 6:27pm Monday 13 April 2009
You've probably noticed this yourself - You quickly type a URL into the browsers address bar, hit enter and arrive at a site that doesn't look like the one you were expecting. Then you notice that you entered a typo in the domain name.
Typosquatting (also called URL hijacking), is a form of cybersquatting which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by users when inputting a website address into the web browser. Should a user accidentally enter an incorrect website address, they may be led to an alternative website owned by a cybersquatter.
Some clever cybersquatters has anticipated this and registered the domain name with the typo. So every time someone enters this misspelled domain name (and it happens more often than you might think), they land on his page instead of the page they were looking for.
We did a quick search on 3 job board domain names - MyCareer, CareerOne, and JobsJobsJobs (We couldn’t ascertain the registered domain names for SEEK). It's best to be proactive and register the typo's of your domain name/brand before others do. The list below is only a small sample of those purchased by the real domain name.
If you believe your domain name has been registered by typosquatters, you should refer to auDA’s Prohibition on Misspellings Policy (2008-09) while you are there, make sure you check out the list of prohibited misspellings.
