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Typo Squatters are people who register domain names with spelling variations from a real domain name with the intent to deceive people. The purpose of typo squatting is to trick the unsuspecting surfer into going somewhere they do not wish to be.
This may be a so-called "search engine" that is nothing more than sponsored links offering shopping or gambling./ It may also be a direct link to a site featuring pornography. There are several ways this can be accomplished:
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Using a different "top level domain" - The squatter registers domains with the name of a popular site but a different top level domain, i.e., Org or Net or Gov or US. Hits for the bogus name are sent to a search or porn site.
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Deliberate misspelling - A misspelling of a popular name is used. Entering Seers instead of Sears or Goggle instead of Google might take you to a bogus site.
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Using a "fumble fingers" spelling of a popular name - Entering an extra character in the name is used to trick the surfer. See the story below..
A Ziff-Davis Article, excerpted below, warns of a particularly evil application of the "fumble fingers" trick. Do NOT visit any of the addresses mentioned!!!!!
When googkle.com is opened in a browser, two pop-up windows are immediately launched with redirects to third-party sites loaded with scripts. One of the sites, ntsearch.com, downloads and runs a "pop.chm" file, and the other, toolbarpartner.com, downloads and runs a "ddfs.chm" file...
Both files are downloaded using exploits and they contain exploits themselves to run embedded executable files. One of the Web pages of the 'toolbarpartner.com' website downloads a file named 'pic10.jpg' using an exploit. This JPG file is actually an executable that replaces [the] Windows Media Player application..."
The typosquatters also launch a steady stream of pop-up Web pages with different .exe files.
One batch of exploits loads a malware package that includes two backdoors, two Trojan droppers, a proxy Trojan, a spying Trojan and a Trojan downloader.
Article by Ryan Naraine, eWEEK Wed Apr 27 200
http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/150820
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Sounds like a lot of trouble, doesn't it. A write-up by F-Secure describes the problem in greater detail. The amount of damage that one mistyped Website address can inflict is mind boggling.
Hopefully, the authorities will track this one down and put it out of its misery, and put the perpetrators in jail. The problem is that tracking down this type of operation can take weeks or months, but it only takes a few days or hours to set up a new one.
Some of our other articles describe other types of situations computer users may encounter, and how to avoid them. We also have a page with links to a number of popular products including firewalls, anti-virus scanners, and spyware scanners. If you are not protected you are ripe for an attack. There are many good, free products so you have no excuse for going unprotected.
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