Facebook files lawsuit against Namecheap for selling malicious domain names

Facebook filed a lawsuit this week against Namecheap for allegedly registering domain names pretending to belong to Facebook. Proxy service Whoisguard, a business unit of Namecheap, is also mentioned in the complaint.

According to the social medium, Whoisguard has registered or used 45 domain names that pretend to be a service of Facebook. This includes domain names such as instagrambusinesshelp.com, facebo0k-login.com and whatsappdownload.site. Such URLs are often used for phishing purposes, for example, where the user does not realize that the website is not legitimate.

Facebook says it sent reports about the malicious domain names to Whoisguard between October 2018 and February 2020. According to Facebook, this company is obliged to provide information about these infringing domain names. However, Arizona-based Namecheap would not have handed over this information yet. That is why the social medium is going to court.

In a statement to ZDNet, Namecheap says it takes seriously and investigates any allegations of fraud and abuse. The company says it will remove cases of active abuse from the platform, if there is evidence of this. Where there is no evidence of abuse or trademark infringement, Namecheap follows ‘standard market protocol’. Namecheap claims the lawsuit is an “attack on the privacy of Namecheap users.”

This is not the first time that Facebook has sued a registrar for such malicious domain names. At the end of October, the company also sued OnlineNIC and its proxy service ID Shield. Facebook says it wants to impose consequences on companies that want to harm Facebook users. That is why the company also scans ‘regularly’ for domain names and apps that infringe Facebook’s trade rights.