# Term for misdirecting users because if misspelled hostname?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-misdirecting-users-because-if-misspelled-hostname/202475>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 18, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-misdirecting-users-because-if-misspelled-hostname/202475 "2003-09-18T22:05:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-misdirecting-users-because-if-misspelled-hostname/202475/1 "2003-09-18T22:05:56Z")

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Is there a term for websites which attempt to capitalize on people who mistype a real website? For example, you mean to go to [google.com](http://google.com) but type in [ggogle.com](http://ggogle.com) (or something like that) and find yourself at a porn pop-up factory? Or another search engine?

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**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-misdirecting-users-because-if-misspelled-hostname/202475/2 "2003-09-18T22:06:24Z")

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Typosquatting.

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**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-misdirecting-users-because-if-misspelled-hostname/202475/3 "2003-09-18T22:10:14Z")

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[Verisign](http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60473,00.html)

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**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/term-for-misdirecting-users-because-if-misspelled-hostname/202475/4 "2003-09-18T22:29:30Z")

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Thanks! I knew there had to be a term for it.

I just noticed that I have a typo in my subject about misspelled hostnames. Subliminal suggestion maybe.

That’s scary about VeriSign. I wonder how they can get away with that. What if I have my own application where I’m trying to verify the hostname typed in by a user and I do a DNS lookup. Would I get their Site Finder IP address? I might be using the hostname for something completely different than HTTP so a redirection like that would not be transparent to the user.