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I own the domain gimmeanswers.com unfortunately I've become aware of a browser hijack which uses the gimmeanswers.org (which I don't own) domain as a redirect.

Searches for my legitimate domain name now return a large number of results for this exploit with my .com version attached. As far as I can see the legit dns for my domain is intact and having checked from several remote servers the page I expect to appear, does. So I'm assuming if people with the hijack are being sent to what appears to be my domain then it must be messing with the hosts/dns cache too.

Obviously I have nothing to do with the hijack nor the .org but I've started getting emails from people assuming I do.

Is there anything simple I can do to get the association with my legit name removed from the search results/any advice from someone who has been in a similar situation?

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  • Good news is that this means your site is popular enough to attract attention from disreputable persons! I had the very same issue with craigslist the other day, I accidentally mashed two keys together and my anti-virus went off like crazy.
    – Mark Henderson
    May 21, 2012 at 0:21
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    Since your site is just a picture of a cat, why not instead put up instructions for how people can remove the virus, or protect their computers? That might at least stop the emails.
    – Louis Waweru
    May 21, 2012 at 8:07
  • Not a bad idea @Louis. The cats are just a default holding page, there are other parts hidden from view.
    – clubbedseal
    May 21, 2012 at 11:21

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In addition to what Silviu said, I'd also like to suggest contacting ICANN or the Domain Regisrar about the issue, if you can prove that the domain (gimmeanswers.org) is behind the browser hijack.

A quick whois search for both the .com and .org domains reveal they are both registered at GoDaddy (although you already knew that yours is registered at GoDaddy).

A quick Google search for "gimmeanswers" did give me quite a bit of information about the virus- seems a lot of people are talking about it. Maybe you could use that as leverage to get the domain registrar to suspend the domain?

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  • Thanks. I will do a bit more research as I don't want to assume the owners of the .org are behind the hijack, though it doesn't seem like it's the most useful site in the world. It worrys me slightly that it may backfire and I'd end up with my .com disputed too which would be a right pain.
    – clubbedseal
    May 20, 2012 at 21:16
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This is one of those cases in which you wish you would've done what you should have. It's always good practice if you have a (promising) business, to register as many domains as possible in order to protect your company/brand/etc. Also the registrars encourage you to do so, by offering reductions for the same name but different domain (.org, .info, .net, etc).

From another point of view, the attackers might have exploited your site which could now contain malicious code serving malware via drive-by downloads.

A suggestion would be to notice for example Google (for Chrome) and Mozilla (for Firefox) about the malicious website.

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  • First thing I checked was that my site wasn't infected in anyway. And yep with hindsight registering the other domains would have been a good idea, however back when I was originally buying the domain it was a much simpler time ;)
    – clubbedseal
    May 20, 2012 at 21:07

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