Domain Snapping and Domain Grabbing - what do the terms mean?

A domain now holds a similar significance for many businesses as a postal address does for traditional commerce - it serves as the primary means of contact and purchasing products and services. It is therefore crucial to protect it from third-party access. Some common ways to appropriate a foreign internet address include domain snapping and domain grabbing, also known as domain squatting in various forms. The goal is almost exclusively to register or acquire attractive domains and sell them to the original interested party at a high profit. Sometimes domain occupation or cyber squatting is combined with behaviour aimed at driving up the sale price.

What types of domain grabbing exist?

There are various approaches that can generally be summarised under the term domain grabbing, although the term is sometimes also used in a narrower sense to refer to a specific variant. In its general sense, it includes the following types:

• Domain grabbing: Registering numerous (attractive) addresses without the intention of actively using a domain for (relevant) content
• Domain snapping: Registering previously used domains where the registration is open again either regularly or accidentally
• Cybersquatting or domain squatting: Illegally occupying a domain by registering a domain with brand or personal names for resale
• Typosquatting: Registering a domain that is similar to an existing one but contains a (common) typing error
• Reverse cybersquatting: Attempting to legally deprive a rightful owner of a domain through tricks or false statements

All variants of domain grabbing have in common that the registering owner has no specific interest in using it for a website, but merely reserves it to generate maximum profit from it. As an internet address is usually an intangible and freely tradable asset, the perpetrator only needs to pay the regular fee demanded by the provider for the domain registration and can then sell it at any price or auction it off. Two special cases are domain snapping and typosquatting: Here, it is also possible to profit from a released address of major platforms or popular websites by displaying a large amount of advertising or setting numerous affiliate links to receive a commission from online retailers for customer acquisition.

How do perpetrators proceed with domain snapping and domain grabbing?

For a lucrative domain grabbing strategy, those responsible try to register a large number of potentially interesting domain addresses at minimal cost, in order to later freely sell them to interested parties. This method is also used by reputable providers such as well-known domain providers, who offer their customers, for example, relevant terms or short domains with only two or three letters as a "premium domain" for which they charge multiples of the regular fees. In domain snatching, on the other hand, the perpetrators specifically monitor an internet address in the hope or assumption that it will be released in the near or distant future. The reason could be, for example, that a large company has declared bankruptcy, a website is shutting down its operations, or simply that the costs for renewal were neglected in a timely manner.

Unlike these two types, domain or cybersquatting involves a targeted approach aimed at a specific victim - usually a successful company. It involves occupying a domain, where addresses that may be attractive to the affected party, legally entitled to them, or associated with them in the general perception, are registered and then sold at an increased price.

What can be done to combat abusive domain grabbing?

For example, in 2021, an Argentine web designer was able to register the national address of Google in his name for less than three euros after a search engine outage - however, the Network Information Center Argentina (NIC) revoked the rights from him within a few hours (Source: T3N). The safest and simplest way to combat such practices is therefore to register interesting internet addresses early on and ensure that domains you have registered are always automatically renewed.

Image credit: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay