Missing Dot in Email Address Could Be a Costly Mistake

Typo might send personal data to crooks, not company

In this common scam, cyber-criminals buy Internet addresses that differ from big-name ones by just a letter or two, then capitalize on sloppy typing. Someone who wants to go to xyxcorp.com but accidentally types xyzcorp.com ends up at the scammer's site.

Now comes another trick to hook the fumble-fingered, courtesy of a keystroke omission rather than a misspelling: a missing dot in an email address.

The goal is the same: to glean personal information, infect the visitor's computer with a virus or sell worthless junk as a prized brand-name product.

This newly uncovered scheme, targeting the all-important dot in corporate communications systems, can route email into the hands of scammers, giving them any and all confidential information that the messages contain.

The scammers' key tool is a "doppelganger"