14 DAY TRIAL // Instead of taking over existing websites, hackers prefer to create their own using free .tk domains. More than 6 million names were discovered which at one point or another led to a fake online store that was setup to spread malware.
Zscaler researchers revealed that because these .tk websites are free it's natural for an abuse to exist. Scammers and spammers have been making good use of them lately by setting up fake online stores which pretend to provide all sorts of products at extremely small prices, thus making them very accessed.
Most of the bait sites are the same and even though the registrar took notice of them and started taking them down, most of their names are still indexed in Google as being legitimate virtual shops.
Currently, most of the dummy sites were redirected to a harmless domain parking site owned by dot.tk.
So you might be wondering how come hackers decided to build their own websites instead of hijacking existing ones?
I would imagine this happening because it takes a much higher level of knowledge to hack an already available website than to create your own.
On one hand, it's far easier to create a new page but on the other hand, cybercriminals who manage to take over existing websites have a higher chance of succeeding in their malevolent quests as no search engine and no registrar will take down a website just because part of it contains some traces of spam.
Even though it's difficult to tell apart such a fake store from a real one, most people probably learned by now that offers which seem to good to be true, usually are. It seems that dot.tk and Malo Ni Advertising Limited, another owner of such domains, are doing a great job in taking down spam sources but the cautious thing to do is to install an add-on to your browser that will warn you if there is something wrong with the shop you want to purchase from.