Lookalike domains and your brand protection suite

Brand protection suites (sometimes sold as digital risk protection, DRP) watch many channels: social media, marketplaces, the dark web and domains. We do one part of that, lookalike domains and copies of your website, and get them taken down, alongside a suite or on our own.

A common assumption

“We already pay for a brand protection platform, so lookalike domains are covered.”

They may be. The brand in our e-commerce case had an enterprise brand-protection provider that, in its experience, found fewer fake stores than we went on to find. With us, 14 fake stores were taken down in its first two weeks.

Already happening?

Report a live attack

Free to report. No account needed. One of our team calls you back, usually the same working day. Out of hours, email security@defenddomain.com.

Check for lookalike domains

Out of hours, email security@defenddomain.com.

What a broad suite covers, and what to check

Suites differ a lot. These are the questions worth asking about domains.

What suites usually do well

Watch social media, app stores and marketplaces
Search the dark web and paste sites for leaked data
Track mentions of your brand across many channels
Offer analysts to handle takedowns on those channels

What to ask about domains

How often are lookalikes of our domain re-checked?
Is a lookalike set up only to send email, with no website, flagged?
Are new certificates watched as they are logged?
Where does a takedown report go, and who follows it up?

We answer them in the next two sections. The free scan gives you a first comparison: our list of your registered lookalikes beside your suite’s.

What happens to a new lookalike with us

We run every step except one: at step 4, you confirm the attack.

Step 1
Registered
A lookalike of your domain is registered. It is flagged at our next hourly check.
Step 2
Set up
It gets a mail server, a website or a certificate. Each change updates the finding, with screenshots, who registered it and where it is hosted.
Step 3
Sorted
Findings are sorted automatically: threats are alerted, doubtful ones go on a watch list and the rest are marked safe. On Enterprise, our analysts check every alert.
Step 4
Confirmed and reported
You confirm a live attack with one click, and the evidence goes to up to 12 places at once. Most takedowns take between 2 and 96 hours, depending on the registrar and host involved.
Step 5
Followed up
If they have not acted, we chase the registrar and host again at 48 and 96 hours, then go to the registry at 120 and 168 hours, and tell you at 30 days if it has stalled.

What we do for lookalike domains

Three parts of the service the five steps above do not show.

Certificates and copied pages

We watch 100+ public certificate logs as entries appear and, with the website marker on your pages, hear when a copy loads somewhere else. In our e-commerce case, six of the first seven fake stores were found through the certificate logs.

Where a report goes

The registrar, the host and the email provider, an abuse-report network, blocklists and threat feeds, browser warning lists and search engines, whichever apply to that attack.

After a takedown

We check every hour whether it is still online and tell you when it goes down. After that we keep watching and alert you if it comes back.

Compare us with other vendors

A broad suite and DefendDomain side by side

Suites vary, so where we cannot speak for them we say so.

Question	Brand protection suite	DefendDomain
Channels covered	Brand protection suite: Many: social media, marketplaces, apps, the dark web and domains	DefendDomain: Lookalike domains, new certificates and copies of your website
Social media, ads and marketplaces	Brand protection suite: Usually covered	DefendDomain: Not covered. We go after the site an ad or post points to
Your own domains	Brand protection suite: Varies by vendor	DefendDomain: Checked every day: DMARC, SPF, DKIM, DNS, certificates and website settings, graded A to F
Who runs the takedowns	Brand protection suite: Varies by vendor	DefendDomain: We do, follow-ups included
Price	Brand protection suite: Ask your vendor	DefendDomain: Annual plan, priced on a call by the number of your domains

Case study, October 2026

14 fake stores taken down in two weeks

An upmarket US e-commerce brand, sold through its own store and through partners and resellers around the world, had fake stores posing as it on Shopify and WooCommerce.

Read the case study

What happened

14 taken down

BeforeAn enterprise brand-protection provider in place, and takedowns going through the brand's lawyers
Within nine hoursThe first fake store flagged
Within three daysSeven fake stores found, two on Shopify and five on WooCommerce, each with the evidence a takedown needs
First weekFive fake store domains taken down
First two weeks14 fake stores taken down
NowDefendDomain runs the brand's takedowns instead of its lawyers

From the case. Names changed.

Related pages

Questions from teams with a suite already

It depends on what your suite finds for you. Go through its findings from the last few months: the lookalike domains, the fake invoices sent from them and the copies of your website are the part we would take over, takedowns included.

It depends on your domains, so we do not quote a number. We only watch domains, certificates and copies of your site, and findings are sorted automatically before they reach you.

Compare our results with what your suite reports

In a 30-minute demo we show you the lookalikes of your domain that exist today.

Which lookalikes of your domain exist now, and which can send email
What an alert looks like and how takedowns are sent
A clear annual price for your domains

Rather see results first? Run a free scan

Lookalike domains and your brand protection suite

Already happening?

Check for lookalike domains