Identity theft via a domain name associating GROUPE with a company
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After Vinci in November 2016, Chantelle lingerie took action in December 2016 against identity theft via a domain name associating it with groupe.
On November 22, 2016, identity theft via a false press release targeted Vinci, leading to a spectacular fall in its share price. The emails used to spread false information were constructed by associating VINCI with GROUP in domain names owned by third parties. An out-of-court ruling on December 5, 2016 reveals that the French Chantelle group was also a victim of identity theft via the groupe-chantelle.com domain name.
Detour of bank payments
The lingerie company discovered that e-mail addresses had been created using this disputed domain name, impersonating employees of Chantelle’s accounting department. These false e-mail addresses were used to send e-mails to partners, justifying a change in the Chantelle group’s bank details. This attempt to hijack bank payments to Chantelle was made possible by using a cybersquatted domain name that added the brand name to the group.
The Chantelle Group communicates on the www.groupechantelle.com website by omitting the hyphenated script. This correct script www.groupe-chantelle.com was available until it was filed by the first malicious third party on September 21, 2016.
Following the high-profile Vinci affair, there has been an upsurge in brand registrations of domain names with the terms group(e) and/or directly in the new .GROUP internet extension. Bolloré registered the domain name bollore.group on December 2, 2016. A preventive strategy to limit the dangers of cybersquatting, because zero risk does not exist.
A consistent naming policy and an efficient domain name monitoring system are the two foundations of a curative treatment against cybersquatting.
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