Protecting your medical practice from cyber extortion

I read this remarkable story about a cosmetic surgeon who was extorted into paying a scam artist to take down a fake version of his medical practice website. 

Cyber-squatters out of East India had purchased the domain name of the exact spelling of this doctor’s name. They built a scary-looking website and began promoting it so anyone doing a web search for the individual would find the offending website at the top of the search engine results page. The attempt here was to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the victim, perhaps to force him to purchase this domain at an astronomical price.

If I was asked by this doctor on how to react, I'd offer a few bits of advice: 

1.  Do not respond. That is, don't react and contact or respond directly to the spammer (unless you like the sport of scambaiting).  Also, unless you can determine the spammer is US-based, don't waste money on having a lawyer draft a cease and desist letter.  This just tells the spammer more information about you and indicates your intense level of desire to see them go away.

2. Search Google. If the site appears in Google search results for your practice or name (if not, breathe easier), immediately file a report with Google. Here is the Report a Spammer page.  It works. I've used it to remove lots of spam we've encountered in Google search results.

3. Register domains.  Proactively register for your name and practice on every domain extension (.com, .net, .org, etc) available from the registration service-- we use GoDaddy.com. Many companies like to block out derogatory names, like "DrSmithsucks.com."  These derogatory domains are less important then common spellings of your practice; and, frankly, there are far too many pejorative terms that can be associated with your practice name.

A final countermeasure is to buy Google Adwords for your own medical practice keyword(s).  Create an ad that says something like "Visit the official website of Dr. Smith."  These official links are commonplace on the web, especially in the travel sector where brands struggle to get found ahead of the thousands of web operators that sell their product.

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