Domain hijacking (cyber squatting) is rapidly on the rise in today’s internet-ruled world. What is domain hijacking or cybersquatting and why is it such a threat? Most people are unaware what this is. According to the cybersquatting definition, it is the act of registering a popular Internet address, most often a company name, with the aim of selling it to its rightful owner at an exorbitant price. In other words, taking control over domain names illegally is what domain hijacking is. A cybersquatting example would be if someone bought the domain name "cadburys.com" and then try to sell it back to Cadburys.

Statistics show that domain name hijacking crimes have risen by 25% in the last year. Illegally hijacking a domain or taking control of a domain is now considered a serious violation and there are stringent cybersquatting laws to deal with offenders. Cyber squatting or domain hijacking was made illegal in 1999 by a federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. From then on, any cybersquatting legal issue became punishable by law. Cybersquatting cases became a major concern as many large companies were pressurized to pay enormous sums of money to buy their domain names from third parties who practiced domain hijacking without restraint.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) dispute resolution procedure has helped in solving a large number of domain hijacking (cyber squatting) cases, ranging from well-known companies to smaller organizations and even individuals. In a cybersquatting recent case in August 2006, the Red Lion Hotels chain had become a victim of this menace. This domain hijacking (cyber squatting) case was solved by ordering the transfer of the domain name to the trademark owner. Domain hijacking (cyber squatting) is not just limited to domain names; email addresses on popular services such as MSN, Yahoo!, Gmail, and AOL can be stolen too.

GoDaddy.com is a Domain registrar and web hosting firm, and it provides a huge list of names for companies or individuals who want an online presence. It is the world's largest domain name registrar, with approximately 14.6 million domain names. GoDaddy has been named as an offender in many domain hijacking (cyber squatting) cases. Godaddy.com is alleged to be making illegal profit by forcing customers to renew expiring domains at their site instead of allowing them to be transferred to another registrar. The GoDaddy cybersquatting case became a legend in the history of internet crimes.

If you receive a domain renewal reminder from a company, reminding you to renew domain registration with them, it would be advisable to ignore it and renew with whomever your domain is already registered. Now that you know what is cybersquatting, it is advisable that you take some precautions to prevent it.