Quietly, while no-one was looking, a minor scam on the outskirts of the law has turned into a major business, creating fast-dealing millionaires and causing the world's brand owners an almighty headache.

Typosquatting is now officially big business: it reportedly earns millions a year for scamsters and new research from Out-Law.com has found that every one of the world's 500 biggest companies is affected.
But why is the business such a raging success for squatters? One of the main reasons is the phenomenon of domain 'tasting'. As a well-meaning aid for people who made a mistake when registering a domain, internet registrar Icann introduced the ability for an address to be returned after five days at no cost.

Though a charming concession to those who might have second thoughts over an address, the practice could almost be designed as an aid to typosquatting. With domain costs resting at an incredible $6 a year, a site has to make less money than ever to turn a profit. What tasting does is allow squatters to find out exactly which sites will deliver the goods.

A typosquatter just has to register a name, monitor the income from ads and do a quick sum to see if it makes enough that it will make a profit over the course of a year. If it doesn't, it gets returned at no cost to the typosquatter.

It is the most incredibly accurate, focused market research opportunity, and it's free. It could be custom-designed to help people to exploit the world's biggest brands for their own profit.

Icann could do something about it, and perhaps it is time to do a cost-benefit analysis. Is any benefit in the grace period really balanced by the vast sums that brand owners say they are losing in the dilution of their brand investment? Isn't it time to change the rules, to force a restocking fee on bulk buyers? It certainly should be food for thought over at Icann.