Week 34: Former medical practice and pharmacy websites used to promote dubious dietary supplements
The NCSC has repeatedly warned of the consequences of allowing domains to expire or failing to pay registration fees on time. Recent reports show one way this problem is affecting websites formerly used by medical practices and pharmacies. In this week's review, the NCSC explains why domains in the healthcare sector are particularly affected.
If a company closes or is taken over, its internet address ('domain'), will eventually expire and can then be registered by someone else. The NCSC regularly receives reports from companies and associations whose former websites suddenly reappear online. The content varies. In some cases, an identical copy of the website appears; in others, the reactivated site contains pornographic material or dubious offers. The NCSC is receiving an increasing number of reports involving domains formerly used by medical practices and pharmacies. Lists of medicines and dietary supplements suddenly appear at these familiar web addresses.
The new operators do not explicitly present themselves as the former practice or pharmacy. Instead, they deliberately exploit the domain's existing visibility in search engines, reviews and links from other websites. Anyone searching for the former practice or pharmacy may still find the domain high up in the search results and arrive at a site that, at first glance, appears relevant to their search. It may not be immediately apparent that the original business has closed, and the domain is now being operated by someone else.
These websites do not sell anything directly. They simply act as intermediaries, directing visitors to websites that sell medicines and dietary supplements. The familiar Swiss domain is used to attract internet users, while sales actually take place on foreign websites. If one of these sales websites is blocked, the original domain remains active and simply redirects visitors to a different website.
Why are medical practices and pharmacies affected?
Search engines also take a domain's history into account when assessing it. The domain name of a medical practice or pharmacy often includes a place name, meaning it may have appeared in location-based searches and been linked to for many years. Listings in business and healthcare directories, websites of communes, map services and partner websites often remain after a business has closed, continuing to direct visitors to the domain. This makes such domains particularly valuable for websites offering similar products.
Domains that have expired are generally not re-registered by chance. Expired domains can be systematically monitored; lists of them are available, and these can be filtered by keyword.
Why former owners often don't notice
No one is notified when an expired domain is re-registered. The former business usually no longer exists, and there is often no one left who is responsible for the domain. The change often takes place months or even years after the business has closed. By that time, hardly anyone is checking what appears at the old web address anymore.
The content may also seem plausible given how the domain was previously used. Someone searching for a pharmacy who lands on a website offering medicines or health products may therefore see nothing obviously suspicious. At first glance, the site appears to offer exactly the kind of content they would expect to find at a pharmacy website.
Search engines may continue to display the result under its original title for some time. Anyone who does notice that something is wrong may not know who to contact, as the former owner is often no longer reachable.
Recommendations
- Treat your domain like a brand. Even if your business closes, you should keep the domain registered and redirect it either to a static information page, for example explaining that the business has closed, or to the new company – at least for a certain period.
- Make sure that important domains are not made available unintentionally due to administrative errors.
- Be careful if a familiar website suddenly changes its design or content radically, or requests unusual payments, even if the web address looks correct.
Further information
When old domain names fall into the wrong hands
Current statistics
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