Typosquatting
Look-alike web addresses that exploit small typing and reading mistakes to catch you out.
Typosquatting is the registration of web addresses that closely resemble real ones, banking on the small mistakes people make when typing or skim-reading a link. A single swapped, dropped or doubled letter — or a different ending, such as .co in place of .com — can send you to a fraudster's copy of a site you trust. Some typosquatted domains host phishing login pages, others fake shops, and a few simply harvest traffic; all rely on you not reading the address closely.
The danger is that the fake can mirror the real site pixel for pixel, so nothing on the page itself gives it away — only the address does. Defend by looking at the domain deliberately before you enter anything, focusing on the portion that sits right in front of that first single slash, and by reaching important sites through a saved bookmark or the official app rather than a typed guess or an emailed link. Our guides to checking whether a website is legit and the tell-tale red flags of a fake site show how to read an address with a sceptical eye.