Statement by The Roseville Reporter Board of Directors 

We’re constantly bombarded with warnings about protecting our names, personal information, addresses and financial account details. We hear horror stories about identity theft and are urged to buy insurance in case of a data breach. 

It turns out, businesses face similar concerns. Any company or organization with an online presence is encouraged to purchase a domain name. A domain name is how a company is identified—essentially, its name on the internet. 

When a business or organization is getting started, one of the first and most important decisions it makes is choosing a name. That name becomes associated with branding — fonts, logos, icons and colors used for marketing and design. If the company registers a domain name, it also chooses an extension. There are many available — .net, .info, .online, .shop and .global, to name a few. But the two most common are .com and .org. 

These extensions typically signal different types of entities. A .com domain is usually associated with a commercial (for-profit) business offering products or services. A .org domain is more often used by nonprofit organizations, which may also offer goods or services, but usually at reduced cost — or for free. 

While these distinctions are generally understood, domain names and their extensions can sometimes be misused. 

For example, an investor may buy a domain name before a company has the chance to register it. The investor can then charge the company an exorbitant fee to purchase the domain, forcing the company to either pay up or rebrand. This tactic is common among domain name investors who buy up large blocks of domains and wait until a business expresses interest. The sale often goes through a broker, with profits split between the broker and investor. 

Another tactic is to buy the .com version of a domain that a nonprofit has registered as a .org, in order to mislead or misdirect users. Customers may mistakenly type .com instead of .org, landing on a fake site that mimics the real one. The false site may include forms to collect names, email addresses and other personal information, harvesting potential clients for a competitor while harming the nonprofit’s reputation. 

While these practices are not illegal, they can cause significant problems. 

In the case of Roseville Reporter, please make sure to visit us at rosevillereporter.org. We’re your nonprofit community newspaper, operated by dedicated volunteers. We’re not a business! We’re rosevillereporter.org!