CYBERCRIME
Like the rest of us, cybercriminals love public holidays and festivals. But as Andy Churley explains, they have very different reasons to look forward to certain times of the year.
I started contemplating this subject in December and at the time of writing it is now past Valentine’s Day and rapidly heading towards Easter. T e year ahead for cybercriminals is a busy one, bouncing from one public holiday to another, using any excuse as an opportunity to dream up another too-good-to-be-true online off er. T e past three months have produced a staggering range of cybercrime.
December
December was a busy time for online counterfeiters, fraudsters and other digital criminals. On ‘Cyber Monday’—December 17, 2012—$1.25 billion was racked up in online sales. At this time NetNames saw a huge increase in the number of online off ers for sale for the most popular toys such as the new Furby, the Leap Pad 2 and the Nintendo WiiU. NetNames discovered more than 88,000 listings for popular Christmas toys on one well-known marketplace site alone—a good proportion of which off ered counterfeit products from well-known brands.
T e reason online sale of counterfeit goods is so abundant in December is simply because the legitimate online sales outlets all off er reductions in order to stimulate sales, which makes it more diffi cult for the online shopper to discern the legitimate off er from the illegal one. Also, with the more well-known shopping sites selling out of the most popular items, shoppers desperate for those ‘must-have’ products will cast their net further than usual.
Other types of illegal or infringing activities particularly strong in December include:
• Traffi c diversion: Diverting traffi c away from a legitimate website to an illegitimate website. T is is achieved by exploiting AdWords or other keyword search platforms, using keywords and brands’ trademarks illegally to divert traffi c away from the legitimate site. One example is diverting traffi c searching on a premium watch brand to a website off ering other watch brands which do not include the brand in question.
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• Rogue affi liates: In the run-up to Christmas many well-known brands off er short term deals to entice prospective buyers. Rogue affi liates may continue to off er these deals past their end date or off er deals not sanctioned by the brand owner.
• Domain registration infringements: At this time of year, there is typically a spike in domain name registrations by criminals misusing others’ trademarked brands in order to set up attractive-looking websites off ering counterfeit products. Due to the time scales and costs involved in domain recovery processes such as the Uniform Domain- Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), many brand owners are reluctant to go down this route to recover a domain name that the brand owner doesn’t want in its portfolio; in some cases, brands simply do not have enough time to legitimately recover the domain name before the damage is done.
January
T e New Year is when we all decide to take stock and put ourselves through a stark self-analysis and New Year’s resolution torture. One popular resolution is to look for another job, and it’s one that the criminals profi t from, particularly in January.
With the ubiquity of the Internet, broadband communications and mobile devices, from laptops to tablets, in many professions it’s easy and convenient to work from home. Internet criminals use the desirability of work-from-home jobs to exploit those seeking better employment. T ere are over 50 variants of Internet recruitment scams but many follow a familiar pattern.
Typically, a job seeker will receive an email from a seemingly legitimate recruiter with the enticement of a senior position in a well-known multinational company. It will usually tell you that the company is interested in you aſt er reading your resume online. In order to progress your candidature you will be required to reply to the email and provide certain personal details
Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 2, Issue 1 31
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