Well, Microsoft can’t be too thrilled about this one. The domain rnicrosoft.com is up for sale, for the low price of 3,500 Euros. Now, the domain in and of itself is worthless, but the way that its ‘r’ and the ‘n’ pair make it appear quite similar to microsoft.com.
What could it be used for? Spammers and scammers and phishers galore could use the domain to trick innocents and greenhorns into thinking that they are on microsoft.com, when they are in fact not. They could then be bamboozled into dropping passwords and other bits of sensitive information.
So, what will happen? I suspect that Microsoft will pick up the domain name, and quietly kill, or redirect it to the proper Microsoft website. You can check out the listing here, if you are so inclined. Now, because we are incorrigible, here are a few other domains that could be used to trick careless web browsers:
- rncdonalds.com
- ibrn.com
- nrinecraft.com
- sarnsung.com
You get the idea. Now, how suave is this sort of deception? Not at all, but everyone is in a hurry online, meaning that a trick like this could do better than you might expect. People fall for ridiculous scams all the time, and they are often less sophisticated than this little ruse.
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Now, think of the domains that you own. Do they contain an ‘m’? If so, you might want to pick up the ‘rn’ version of that URL. Hell, maybe I should buy alexwilhelrn.com.
H/T @Mikko
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