A fraudster will purchase misspelled versions of popular domain names and they are looking to attract visitors with “fat fingers” who may mistype a website address. The fraudster may make money when misdirected victims click on advertising links set up on typo-squatting sites that mirror popular organisations or businesses or divert visitors away from the competition to their business web page. Even worse if the fraudster’s website takes your personal information including credit card or bank account details. Some instances occur where an innocent typing mistake takes you to a contaminated website and if clicked upon, it can lead to malware downloads onto your computer. Fraudsters have copied home pages from legitimate websites and included them on their contaminated website. A 2008 survey identified 80,000 typo-squatting sites covering 2,000 frequently used websites. One popular website for kids yielded 300 criminal sites. 5 Tips To Prevent Fat-Fingers Mistakes:- • Check the address bar in your web browser after the page opens • Use your “favourite” tab for regularly used websites • If you don’t know the website address, google it rather than guessing it • If the site doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t so be careful and don’t click on anything • Type very carefully What questions about fraud prevention do you have? Feel free to contact Paul on +353 (0) 1 677 9000 or by email for a complimentary confidential consultation. Paul Leonard is a Partner at Cooney Carey. Paul has 20+ years of experience working as a business adviser and his areas of expertise are: audit, forensic accountant in investigations and a range of legal cases including family law matters, bank negotiations, business re-structuring, company valuations and dispute resolution. His qualifications include being a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, a Chartered Management Consultant, a qualified Forensic Accountant and an Accredited Mediator.