- Decodo reports a 68% increase in digital squatting scams in five years
- Techniques include typosquatting, combosquatting, TLD squatting, and homograph attacks, tricking users into sharing credentials or payments.
- WIPO recorded 6,200 domain disputes in 2025, the highest number ever recorded; Decodo urges brands to register domains beyond .com for their protection
Digital squatting is becoming increasingly popular among scammers, ruining businesses and their reputations at an unprecedented rate.
This is according to a new report from Decodo, which says there has been a 68% increase in these cases in half a decade.
In a new press release shared with TechRadar Pro, Decodo said that, according to data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), there were 6,200 domain name disputes in 2025, the most in the organization’s history, and a 68% increase from 2020.
Fraudulent purchases
Digital squatting is a type of scam in which hackers register domains that imitate established brands. This can include typosquatting (registering domains that are a typo of a legitimate company, for example “Microsfot” instead of “Microsoft”), combosquatting (adding keywords to brand names, such as “microsoft-login” or “ebay-discounts”), top-level domain squatting (registering a new domain for an established brand, for example “microsoft.ai” when the company is on the .com domain) and homograph attacks. (using visually similar characters, for example “rnicrosoft” instead of “microsoft”).
Cybercriminals can do all kinds of malicious things when they trick people into visiting their websites. They can make you try to log in and steal credentials for important services. They can even get them to “buy” something, as was the case with Decodo.
Using their former brand, Smartproxy, hackers registered fraudulent domains and tricked people into purchasing services they never received.
“We have spent years earning the trust of our customers through reliable service and ethical practices,” said Vytautas Savickas, CEO of Decodo. “Imitators don’t just steal money. They offer low-quality services that are far below what real companies offer. Each fake site makes it harder for honest companies to gain trust and for customers to know who to trust.”
Decodo argues that prevention offers the most cost-effective approach to the problem, urging organizations to register domains beyond their primary .com address.
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