Glossary
What is typosquatting?
Typosquatting is the practice of registering domain names that closely resemble a legitimate one — using misspellings, swapped letters, extra characters or different extensions — to impersonate a trusted brand for phishing, fraud or malware.
How typosquatting works
Attackers register a lookalike of a real domain — say, swapping an “l” for a “1”, adding a hyphen, or using a “.co” instead of “.com”. They then host a convincing copy of the real site or send email from the spoofed domain.
Visitors who mistype a URL, or who trust a link at a glance, land on the fake site and may enter credentials or payment details.
Typosquatting and homoglyphs
A more advanced version uses homoglyphs — characters from other alphabets that look identical to Latin letters — encoded as punycode. To the eye the domain looks real, which makes these especially deceptive.
How to prevent typosquatting
- Monitor for newly registered domains that resemble yours.
- Register common misspellings and key alternate extensions of your domain.
- Teach users to check the full domain, not just the brand name.
- Request takedowns of malicious lookalike domains quickly.
How HookPhish helps
HookPhish typosquatting detection continuously watches for lookalike and homoglyph domains that impersonate your brand, scores their risk, and gives you the evidence to act fast.
Frequently asked questions
Is typosquatting illegal?+
Registering a domain isn't automatically illegal, but using a lookalike domain to impersonate a brand for phishing or fraud is, and brand owners can pursue takedowns.
How do I detect lookalike domains?+
Use continuous monitoring that watches for typo, homoglyph and alternate-extension variations of your domains and alerts you when one appears.
What's the difference from phishing?+
Typosquatting is a technique that often enables phishing — the lookalike domain makes phishing links and pages appear trustworthy.
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