Scam Alert II: Domain Hijacking - A third version...
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A third version is a bit more benign. It's common among members of affiliate programs.
In this version names very close to, or even including, the trademark are registered. The sites are created to drive traffic to the affiliates' URL at the main site.
This may or may not be acceptable to the affiliate program owner. If it is, it's a good technique for getting traffic. If not, it could get you into hot water. Check with the owner of the trademark before doing this.
Less benign is an alternative version of this technique where someone grabs domain names that are close to the trademark of a competitor and uses them to grab competitor type-in traffic. This is often done by finding out the most common misspellings of the real domain name or trademark.
Watch for people doing this with your domain.
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Here's the worst version of this -- and it can hit anyone if they have enough traffic and don't pay close attention to when their domain registrations expire.
In this situation, someone grabs expired domain names and points them to "those" kinds of sites. This is a "no lose" for the hijacker, as they will profit from the traffic even if the previous owner doesn't pay the requested ransom for the domain.
Next: The more traffic... >>
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