no.6 - cybersquat

For the uninitiated, here is how cyber-squatting works:

Someone buys a domain, (a web address, like puppies.com) and then sits back like a spider on the in a web until someone else wants it. They offer to sell it, nearly always for some insane amount, hoping they will become rich.

While they wait for the fly, the cyber-squatter might put nothing up. But more frequently they put up a "helpful" search page, which is really just a way to generate a little money. Pretty much everything you click on a cyber-squater's page is going to be an ad.

It's one thing to sit on a domain for a while because you plan to do something with it. It's quite another to hold it so you can extort a ridiculous sum.

The term squatting is something of a misnomer. In real life, squatters take up residence in abandoned spaces and use them. Even if they are using the space to get high on smack, they are still using the space. Cyber-squaters don't use the space at all. In fact, they own the space. It's kind of the opposite of squatting. They are more like parasite's latching on to the name you want.

The sad part is that if you wanted to post a little site for your Grandma Mimi and their squating on GrandmaLili.com, they will ask for far more money that you are willing to pay. They don't want you. They want the International consortium of Grandmother Mimi products to shell out big. Sure, they don't exist, but they might one day and that's good enough for squatting. (BTW: GrandmaLili.com is still available)

Lurking behind the the cyber-squater is an even an even lower creater - the Typo-squatter.

The Typo-Squatter buys a domain name that is literally a typo of a popular site - yahoo.cm for example. The user is then lead in to a world of hidden ad-clicks. (and, invariably, pop-ups and porno ads.)

In fact, the entire nation of Cameroon is typo-squatting on the ".com" suffix with their own lucky ".cm" suffix, redirecting every single ".cm" typo to an ad-based web search. Way to go Cameroon! What a goldmine!

For the geographically impaired, Cameroon neighbors, Nigeria, innovators in the field of long distance spam-scams. Perhaps this scheme was dreamt up at a border party.