I read a really interesting article this past week regarding ways people “steal” domain names before you register them. The article is brief and well worth the read if you have or are thinking about registering domains.

Here are the warnings article discusses:

• Avoid address bar guessing.
• Avoid search engines that don’t make a billion dollars a year in revenue. (i.e. Google, MSN, Yahoo)
• Avoid browser plug-ins that send data back to the Internet.
• Go directly to trusted registrars and whois companies.

Each point is elaborated on in the article which points out how people can use this information against you. Some of it is quite eye opening.