How Can Typosquatting Affect Your Brand's Integrity?

 

Typosquatting, also known as URL hijacking, is a popular type of impersonation attack on your company’s registered domain. URL hijacking is a preferred method for nefarious affiliates to derail your affiliate marketing program. The threat actors purchase misspelled domain names similar to your company’s URL.

They guess or track the probable mistakes your users will make while searching for your website. Nefarious affiliates may register domain names that are a slight variation of your website. Internet users are unaware they are navigating or shopping on a dummy website.

The threat actors can leverage this dummy website to sell fake products. In worse situations, they may trick users into personal information breaches. Typosquatting can cause significant reputational damage to your brand. Websites with URLs similar to yours can be dangerous for users.

These websites can infect the device of your customers with malicious software. To ensure the integrity of your affiliate campaigns, implement typosquatting protection. Here are some crucial aspects of learning about URL hijacking.

How does Typosquatting Function?

URL hijacking is made possible by misspellings, typos, or misunderstandings of your company’s domain. So, what is typosquatting? It is a type of social engineering attack that targets internet users. If your affiliate program is fetching potential leads, typosquatting can be a significant risk. Here are some ways in which URL hijacking functions.

• Typos

Nefarious affiliates leverage the web addresses of your brand in the browser’s address bar.

• Wrong Domain Extensions

The threat actors may register a fake website with the wrong domain extensions.

• Hyphenated Domains

It is an unfair practice to add or omit a hyphen to direct traffic from your website to a fake website illegally.

• Misspelling

Misspelled domains are a common occurrence that can affect your website’s integrity among users. 

Note that typosquatting is a lookalike domain with the wrong characters. It is a type of affiliate fraud that relies on users wrongly entering a domain name into their web browser. In typosquatting, the reason for the error doesn’t matter.

The main objective of this type of fraud is to land your users on a typosquat website. The nefarious affiliate who has established this fake website can conduct a range of malicious actions.

Reasons why Threat Actors Use Typosquatting

Threat actors may set up typosquatting attacks and websites for numerous reasons. The main objective of typosquatting is to affect your company’s reputation, traffic, and sales online. Fake websites can conduct multiple activities at the same time.

For instance, these websites can steal sensitive information from your users. They can also distribute malware to the devices of your users. Here are some of the common reasons why nefarious affiliates leverage typosquatting.

Phishing Website for Stealing Information

The threat actors can leverage typosquatting to redirect your websites to steal their personal data. The fake website can fool your users into entering login details, email addresses, etc.

Distribution of Malware

The fake website resembling your company's website tricks the user into downloading malware. Some websites don’t even need the user to conduct any type of action. By visiting the website, the users can trigger an attack by downloading malware accidentally.

Steals the Cardholder’s Money

The website advertises your company and claims to sell your products. But it steals the cardholder's money without shipping them anything. It harms the reputation of your brand, and you may face chargebacks from credit card companies. Users believe that it is you who has stolen their money by setting up a fake website.

Nefarious Affiliates may use the Website for Extortion

The threat actors may use the website to extort money from you. They may ask you to pay money to get rid of this fake website.

Monetization of Website Traffic

The threat actors display advertisements or pop-ups on fake websites to generate advertising revenue. They may also divert your website’s legitimate traffic. 

Typosquatting takes the advantage of your company's domain name. The best way to protect your business from typosquatting is by using monitoring solutions.

Your Brand’s Reputation will be at Risk

Besides financial damage, typosquatting can affect your brand's online reputation. You have invested time and effort to build your company’s reputation. Typosquatting can play spoilsport with your company’s online reputation.

Building a brand’s equity and reputation is never easy. It takes time to make your brand superior to other competitors. Here are some ways URL hijacking destroys your brand’s online reputation. 

• Your company will witness a dip in its popularity when hit by typosquatting
• You will lose your legitimate website traffic to these malicious websites
• The risk of losing loyal customers is always higher with typosquatting
• The efficient and experienced affiliates of your company may leave the campaign midway
  

How can Virus Positive Technologies (VPT) help you Eliminate the Risks of Typosquatting?

To secure your website and its reputation, you need to stay protected from URL hijacking. The monitoring solutions of VPT will analyze your website traffic in a continuous manner. It will raise red flags during policy violations.