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Motivations for typosquatting

There are several different reasons for typosquatters buying a typo domain:

  • In order to try to sell the typo domain back to the brand owner
  • To "park" the typo domain and make pay-per-click revenues from direct navigation misspellings of the intended domain
  • To redirect the typo-traffic to a competitor
  • To redirect the typo-traffic back to the brand itself, but through an affiliate link, thus earning commissions from the brand owner's affiliate program. This "typo domain affiliate" is one of the most financially damaging schemes as it siphons profits from the legitimate brand for traffic/customers that the brand would have gotten anyway had the typo domain not existed.
  • As a phishing scheme to mimic the brand's site, while intercepting passwords which the visitor enters unsuspectingly
  • To install drive-by malware or revenue generating adware onto the visitors' devices
  • To harvest misaddressed e-mail messages mistakenly sent to the typo domain
  • To block malevolent use of the typo domain by others
  • To expose users to Internet pornography
  • To express an opinion that is different from the intended website's opinion
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