Social media biggie Facebook has filed a case against 12 domain names registered by India-based proxy service Compsys Domain Solutions Private Ltd in a bid to prevent fraud and stop the malicious use of its and its product names.
Compsys had apparently registered names like: facebook-verify-inc.com, instagramhjack.com and videocall-whatsapp.com.
This, Facebook said in a statament, was "designed to deceive people by impersonating our family of apps."
Facebook’s director and associate general counsel of IP Litigation, Christen Dubois, said: “We regularly scan the internet for domain names and apps that infringe on our trademarks and today’s lawsuit is part of this ongoing effort to protect people from phishing, credential theft and other methods of online fraud.”
The case was filed in a court in Virginia, USA.
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Facebook Sues Indian Company For Registering Fake Instagram, WhatsApp Domains https://t.co/8Jlp1ezQA9 pic.twitter.com/mxwCKXHDcMJune 9, 2020
The modus operandi of tricksters
It is, however, not clear how the domain names were being used by Compsys to deceive people.
But domain experts say phishing could be one possible use since anyone who visits a site with a Facebook-related domain could possibly be deceived into entering a username and password.
In general, domain name registrars and privacy/proxy services don't investigate or respond to abuse reports, which enables these 'bad apples', and further delays the efforts to fight fraud and abuse.
Despite contacting Compsys about the offending domain names and requesting it to take them down, Facebook said it didn’t receive a response from the Indian firm and therefore decided to file a lawsuit.
Facebook added: “Registrars and proxy services have a responsibility to take down deceptive and malicious websites.
"And we will continue to take legal action to protect the people who use our services.”
Facebook previously filed a similar lawsuit against the domain name registrar Namecheap and OnlineNic for allegedly using the websites InstagramBusinessHelp.com and Facebo0k-login.com in bad faith.
Source: Facebook
