BlackRock Takes Legal Action, Prevents Website Reduction And Domain Names For Crypto Fraud

Investment giant BlackRock. (Photo; Doc. CryptoandGroup)

JAKARTA - BlackRock Inc, a New York-based investment company giant, has taken legal action to protect its brand from counterfeiting attempts that have the potential to harm investors.

They have filed legal complaints to block domain names and websites involved in "typosquating" practices, some of which are linked to cryptocurrencies.

According to a complaint filed at the United States District Court for Virginia Eastern District on October 10, BlackRock took legal action against 44 domain names including words such as "Blackrock", "Aladdin", "securities", "crypto", and "investment".

They believe that these domains are registered with malicious intent to take advantage of customer writing errors and direct traffic to these sites through paid ads per click, malware, email phishing attacks, and other fraudulent tactics.

This complaint reveals that "more than 95% of the 500 most popular sites on the Internet are the subject of typosquating." Typosquating is defined as a registration or use of domain names similar to writing errors from official sites.

Websites involved in typosquating often display ads related to services offered by legitimate sites, and they can be used to spread malware, gather personal information for illegal activities, or email "business deduction."

BlackRock are trying to control these domains, compensate, and ask for court orders against cybersquatting practices and violations of their trademarks.

In an effort to identify domain owners, BlackRock searches for domain registration data through the Whois database. However, the complaint shows that many of these domains are registered by entities whose identities are unknown and use privacy services to hide their information.

Fraudsters often use fake domain names along with ad providers like Google and Facebook. In fact, reports earlier this year showed that fake websites utilizing Google Ads ads had robbed victims of more than $4 million.

BlackRock's legal action underscores the importance of protecting crypto brands and users from fraudulent practices and typosquating that can harm consumers.