Domains & parking · also called URL hijacking, typo domains, lookalike domains
Typosquatting
Typosquatting is registering misspelled versions of well-known web addresses to capture people who make typing mistakes.
People mistype web addresses constantly. A typosquatter registers the likely mistakes, a dropped letter, two letters swapped or a wrong ending, and waits. Everyone who makes that error lands on the squatter's domain instead of the real site.
Historically the payoff was parking: the typo domain showed ads, often for the brand's competitors, and earned from clicks. Today the outcomes are frequently worse. Infoblox research reported by Krebs on Security in December 2025 described one actor holding nearly 3,000 lookalike domains imitating banks, technology companies and other well-known services, with visitors on home internet connections redirected to scams or malware. One lookalike of a popular email domain had been set up to receive misaddressed email.
Typosquatting on a trademark is unlawful in many places. Brand owners can use ICANN's domain dispute procedure, the UDRP, or anti-cybersquatting law in the courts to take such domains, and feed and parking policies prohibit monetising them under their trademark policy.
For advertisers, typo traffic is low value: the visitor wanted a different site. It is one of the clearest examples of traffic that exists only because of a mistake.
An example
A user means to type "examplebank.com" but types "exmaplebank.com". The misspelled domain belongs to someone else, who forwards the visitor through a chain of redirects to a fake "your device is infected" page.
Related terms
Parked domain
A parked domain is a registered web address with no developed website, typically showing a placeholder page of ads or links.
Direct navigation (type-in traffic)
Direct navigation is reaching a website by typing its address into the browser bar instead of searching for it or clicking a link.
Trademark policy
A trademark policy sets out when an ad may use someone else's brand name, and gives brand owners a way to complain when it is misused.
Zero-click parking
Zero-click parking is monetising a domain by instantly redirecting each visitor to a paying advertiser's site, with no page shown and no click required.
Domain spoofing
Domain spoofing is falsely claiming that traffic or ad space comes from a well-known, trusted website when it really comes from somewhere else.
Malvertising
Malvertising is the use of online ads to spread malware, scams or forced redirects, so that simply viewing or clicking an ad harms the user.
Sources: Krebs on Security: Most parked domains now serving malicious content (Dec 2025), ICANN: Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy