Being curious about phishing, we decided to look into the number of domains that mimic banks. Just how many are out there? Well, lots.
We did a simple search across com/net/org/us/biz/info top-level domains for common bank names.
Keyword
Number of domains
citibank*
497
bankofamerica*
407
lloyds*
994
bnpparibas*
41
egold*
691
hsbc*
1258
chase*
6470
paypal*
1634
ebay*
8057
When someone in, say, Nigeria wants to register a domain name that starts with the name of a well known bank, why are the registrars so willing to let them register it?
Some examples of existing, active registrations, using Citibank as an example:
Some of these are probably perfectly legitimate. Others probably are not...like citibank-account-updating.com, registered last Friday to Ms. Evelyn Musa in Arlington, VA?
