The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent entity responsible for the enforcement of antitrust laws and consumer protection, has issued a notice about a new law in making. The Commission has taken into account the growing number of impersonation scams, and is going frame a new rule to regulate it.
The notice is termed as Trade Regulation Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses. The notice asks for public comments against the proposed legislation. The commission wants to give due respect to the general consensus against the issue.
Brand Impersonation is a malicious attack trying to lure victims in the garb of popular Brand names, be it either Government bodies, Businesses or Non-profit organizations. In this legislation, Non-profit organizations will be covered as well, as many such scams try to exploit different charities and donations. Brand Impersonation is carried through similar looking domain names, email ids and fonts. This makes it difficult to differentiate between the original and fake, for a casual visitor.
The proposed legislation is expected to work on a few important issues. These include banning the use of government identifiers, i.e., different fonts and pictures used to create a unique identity. A ban on the use of similar looking domain names and email ids. And a ban on the false implication of a popular Business or a government entity.
At Domain Magazine, we continuously keep you updated with any scams and frauds perpetrating online. The frequency of cases like this has been a worrying signal for us all. It is a noble initiative by the FTC to curb such malicious practices.
The public comments on the law will be valid until 60 days from the issue of the notice.
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