Debevoise & Plimpton files lawsuit against domains used in phishing — Law firm

Sizable law firm tries to capture infringing domains.

Debevoise & Plimpton, an international law firm with over $1 billion in annual revenue, has filed an in rem lawsuit (pdf) against two domains it states were used for nefarious purposes.

The firm filed the lawsuit against debevoise-law .com and debevoise-laws .com. As stated by the law firm, the first domain was used to impersonate one of its employees and request information from a client. The domain forwards to its main website. The second domain leads to a pay-per-click landing page.

This type of spoofing email is commonly used to trick law firm clients into wiring money or disclosing personal information.

Debevoise filed the in rem lawsuit against the domain names in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. This is where .com registry Verisign is located, and the court there often request that Verisign suspend domain names.

The lawsuit claims the domain names are committing trademark cyberpiracy.