Y'know, I'm sure msnbc.co.uk was a legitimate MSN site..... once....

It sure as hell isn't a legitimate site anymore... please, don't go there unless you're using IE7, or a well patched IE6... better still... add www.msnbc.co.uk to your Restricted Sites zone before going anywhere near it (hyperlink neutralised).  I don't know what may happen if you visit that site unprotected (or the links it advertises) ... better to be safe than sorry.

Believe me, this is not the first URL that has been grabbed by search engine purveyors hoping to cash in on "guess-timates" about the URLs of legimate sites.  Ages ago a site targetting MSN Groups (legitimate URL being groups.msn.com) actively attempted to infect users with malware.  The site in question, thanks to my efforts, and the efforts of other anti-malware fighters, was shut down... Another popular site, macemail, that supported users of MAC computers, was taken over by a "pop up stopper" years ago, as was a well known Publisher (or was it PowerPoint) support site.

Please guys, be careful out there ok?  The bad guys will try every trick in the book to fool you into visiting them.. phishing... taking advantage of mistyped URLs... whatever they think will work.

Those of you that own popular domains ... protect them.  Make sure that nobody can steal it from under you, because if the bad guys can grab your domain when it falls due for renewal, they will... and you won't get it back unless you're willing to pay $$$$$ for it.

Published Wed, Feb 22 2006 13:12 by sandi

Comments

# re: Y'know, I'm sure msnbc.co.uk was a legitimate MSN site..... once....

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 7:41 AM by gerlach
Couldnt this site be taken down pretty easily by MS, being as they do use msnbc in the name?

# re: Y'know, I'm sure msnbc.co.uk was a legitimate MSN site..... once....

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 10:53 AM by Alun Jones
It can catch the best of us (by that, of course, I mean "me") - I remember trying to book a hotel once, and visited http://www.doubletree.com, thinking it'd be the DoubleTree Hotel chain's page. Uh... no. It was a rather graphic - and audible - porn site.

I believe DoubleTree now owns that domain, but I'm at work now, so I'm _not_ going to check!

Occasionally, even a popular site falls by the wayside - if a company goes bankrupt, or ceases an initiative, or a web-site owner dies or falls ill. Those sites have been taken over by phishers in the past. Is there a technological or procedural solution to this?

Should a domain be required to "rest fallow" for a year before it is handed over to a third party without the approval of the original owners?