cybersquatting
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Facebook is suing over domains that could be mistaken for its products
Facebook is once again attempting to take down domains that may have been used to scam and phish people. The company says it has filed a lawsuit against domain name registrar Namecheap and its proxy service, Whoisguard. According to Facebook, the latter registered 45 domains that were made explicitly to confuse people into thinking they were affiliated with its app and products. Some of the domains Whoisguard allowed include instagrambusinesshelp.com and whatsappdownload.site.
Facebook sues domain name registrar over cybersquatting addresses
Facebook wants to brings down cybersquatting domains that may be used to scam and phish people. The social network has filed a lawsuit against domain name registrar OnlineNIC and its privacy/proxy service ID Shield for registering addresses that were clearly created to appear as if they're affiliated with Facebook. Among the 20 URLs mentioned in the lawsuit are facebook-pass.com, facebook-pw.com, www-facebook-login.com, www-facebook-pages.com, iiinstagram.com, m-facebook-login.com. As you can see, those domains could easily be used for phishing schemes, fooling users who aren't as vigilant in checking links sent to them via email before clicking them.
Apple wants to evict domain squatters
Apple has had a continuing problem with domain squatters over the years, often paying good money to grab such internet domain names as iPhone.com, iMac.com, and others from people who have nabbed those names. Now the company is filing a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in order to try to gain ownership of Applecom.com and ApplePrinters.com. Applecom.com points to a site that asks you to fill out an online survey for a chance to win "valuable prizes," while ApplePrinters.com just shows a common holding page. We do not recommend filling out the survey, by the way. What's odd is that Apple chose to hit these two domains, while others -- including iPad.com and MacBook.com -- are still in the hands of cybersquatters who are apparently waiting for Apple to pay them a lot of spendolas for those domain names.
Apple cybersquatter is ousted from Twitter, but still no sign of @apple
Despite the huge number of companies and individuals that have Twitter accounts, our favorite Cupertino-based company has been strangely silent on the "social media" scene. While some conspiracy theorists out there might take that as proof that Apple is going to create their own Twitter-like notification service or, even worse, buy Twitter outright, we'd like to believe that it's just because they don't need to blast out 140-character screeds every few minutes to get attention. If Apple ever decides to join the crowd and tweet news blasts to several hundred million followers, they'll be able to pick up @apple as their Twitter handle. According to 9to5Mac, a cybersquatter had taken over the twitter.com/apple username, but just recently the message you see above started appearing. Not only does this indicate that the squatter has been forcibly removed from his/her former inhabitance in Twitter-ville, but attempts to sign up as Apple on Twitter are rebuffed. Whether this indicates that Apple will soon join the ranks of Twitterites or if it's just Twitter being nice to the coolest computer maker on the 'net, it is nice to see that we won't be seeing tweets from "Fake Apple" in the near future. [via Cult of Mac]
