Beware: '.cm' Typosquatters can damage your reputation.

Typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting, which, according to U.S. federal law, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, involves registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with the intent of profiting fraudulently. The cybersquatter profits by offering to sell the domain at an inflated price to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name.

Cybersquatters sometimes register variants of popular trademarked names, a practice known as typosquatting. Typosquatters rely on Internet users to make typographical errors when inputting a Web site address. The incorrect Web site address may lead them to a Web site other than the one they're seeking. Innocent users then land on a site owned by a cybersquatter.

A new ploy of cybersquatters is to use the domain name ".cm," the country name for the West African nation of Cameroon. For a period which ended July 14, the Cameroon government allowed trademark owners to apply for a .cm domain. When the period ended, anyone could register a brand with the .cm. Consequently, this domain name is a hot target for scammers. The scammers' ploy...