Facebook Sues 12 Fraudulent Domain Names

09 June 2020

Facebook Sues 12 Fraudulent Domain Names

Facebook on Monday announced that it filed a lawsuit in Virginia against 12 domain names for their deceiving behavior.

The 12 fraudulent domain names are registered by India-based proxy service Compsys Domain Solutions Private Ltd. and the social platform sued them for impersonating Facebook apps and services such as facebook-verify-inc.com, instagramhjack.com and videocall-whatsapp.com.

This is the second legal action the online platform takes against fraudulent domains this year. In March, Facebook sued domain registrar Namecheap and its Whoisguard privacy protection service for refusing to share details on 45 domains impersonating Facebook and its services.

Last year, the company sued domain name registrar OnlineNIC and its privacy/proxy service ID Shield for similar reasons. At the time, Facebook was looking to take down domains such as www-facebook-login.com and facebook-mails.com.

The company is constantly scouring the Internet to identify domain names that infringe on its trademarks. The newly filed lawsuit is yet another step the social media giant has taken toward keeping users protected from phishing, credential theft, and other methods of online fraud.

On Monday, Facebook revealed that it decided to file the new lawsuit after reaching out to Compsys about these fraudulent domain names without receiving a response.

Although they can take down deceptive and malicious websites, many registrars and proxy services often refuse to investigate or respond to abuse reports, thus delaying efforts to fight fraud and abuse.

“We filed similar lawsuits against Namecheap and its proxy service this past March, and OnlineNIC and its proxy service in October 2019. And we will continue to take legal action to protect the people who use our services,” Facebook also said.