To be fair it could be as simple as scanning their user list for a single sign up from one of those domains and then plastering a logo on the front page saying they use their product.
Gives me an idea! Why not go buy up a bunch of these types of names then tell them that they look similar to their login url. THEN when they come to try to buy it they find you own it and then charge them an arm and a leg for the domain?!
It might be fun to F with godaddy.com and start pumping them randomly with domains. Mixing random words in the dictionary and trying combinations in sequence like a typical user would would be effective.
Set this up to happen on a daily basis through proxy servers for different ips, and you might create an interesting way to bleed them a little bit.
Record the domains entered, and see how many times you get them to nick you. It would make for a fun blog post.
Keep in mind, they have to pay ever time they register a domain.
I like the simplicity. I think the challenge is how to get it in front of your target market at the right time. Could you partner with GoDaddy (etc) to catch people right after they buy a domain?
This is called domain kiting or "tasting"[0]. The founder of Go Daddy decried the idea a decade ago[1]. Of course this was after running their own kiting operation for some time using ad placement via Google Ad Sense for Domains (no content necessary, just a domain name). I know, because I worked on the app that serviced 20M domains and fed metrics back to the team that decided to buy or release. The project was shuttered after some employee abuse (buying the domains for themselves) and shortly before Bob declared the moral high ground.
Cool idea. I hope you somehow confirm the listing on the dashboard, otherwise someone can just list some domains under your username to cost you money ;)
I see a great public service business here ... become a consumer advocate and buy a huge number of domains for $9.95/year. Charge the trademark holders a few dollars above that per year and deprive these trolls of the huge fees (> $2,499 per year per domain for premium names) they were expecting (yes, I'd rather they made nothing too).
It should be pretty easy to automate the process. The down-side is that if you're Comcast (or one of the other common targets) you're probably going to have to live with a .sucks site. Try not to incite people into believing you suck so much!
internal-autonation.com is available right now for $10. autonation.inc is also available. I could generate 100 more like this that would fool most of the American population. Tech workers might be smart enough to avoid them, but the average person wouldn't think twice about these.
For example imagine getting an email from recruiting@internal-autonation.com. Again, I know a tech worker who actually is likely to have purchased a domain might know what is happening here, but most Americans would think this is legit.
Do they have a plugin? I feel like that would make life a lot easier - you don't have to go to a second domain, just look at the listing and the plugin puts a big "Don't Buy" banner over it
7) Make the users redirect the domain to you and put a nice notice on it stating that the name is available for trade / swap / a worthy purpose and place some AdWords on it.
You can actually sell it as a value-add and, from what I understand from professional domain squatters / traders, there's a surprisingly decent amount of money in it. The amount of link juice you could give the main domain probably also isn't insignificant...
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