Cybersquatting lawsuit filed against AnnualCreditReport.com typos

Company goes after ten 37 typos of popular website.

A company created by the three major U.S. consumer credit bureaus has filed an in rem lawsuit against 10 typo domain names. [Update: The company actually filed four separate lawsuits against a total of 37 domain names.]

Central Source LLC was formed to operate the AnnualCreditReport.com website after the U.S. government passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in 2003. The law mandated that consumers get free access to credit reports once per year.

The site has received a half billion visits in its first nine years of operation thanks to mandatory notices on other credit sites and lots of promotion by the Federal Trade Commission. This has naturally made the site a target for typosquatters.

In fact, Central Source owns 250 types of AnnualCreditReport.com.

The lawsuit (pdf) filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia (Verisign’s home turf) is against ten typos:

annualcreditfreport.com, annualcre4ditreport.com, annualcr5editreport.com, annualc4reditreport.com, annualcreditrwpoi1.com, nanualcreditreport.com, abnualcreditreport.com, annujaIcreditreport.com, annualxreditrepoi1.com and annualcrefitreport.com.

Central Source argues that these are probably owned by the same entity since all are registered at Above.com, Pty. Ltd., all use Above.com privacy, and all lead to pay-per-click pages or forward to third party websites offering services similar to AnnualCreditReport.com.