Facebook is suing 12 domains that purport to be Facebook websites These domains were registered by Indian proxy company Compsys Domain Solutions Private Ltd but Facebook is not suing the company directly

On Monday, Facebook confirmed that it had filed a lawsuit in Virginia state court to "prevent fraud and stop the malicious use of our company and product names" It was not immediately clear whether the lawsuit was filed in federal or state court

The social media giant said domains like Facebook-verify-inccom, instagramhjackcom, and videocall-whatsappcom are designed to deceive people by "impersonating our app family" by 'impersonating our family of apps,'" he stated

Kristen Dubois, Facebook's Director of IP Litigation and Associate General Counsel, announced the lawsuit in a media release, writing "We regularly scan the Internet for domain names and apps that infringe our trademarks, and today's lawsuit is part of our ongoing efforts to protect people from phishing, credential theft, and other online fraud tactics

Despite contacting Compsys about the domain name in question and requesting that it be removed, Facebook said it decided to file the lawsuit after receiving no response from the Indian company

"Registrars and proxy services have a responsibility to remove deceptive and malicious websites

"And we will continue to take legal action to protect those who use our services"

This is not the first time Facebook has taken legal action against imposter domains Facebook filed similar lawsuits against Namecheap and its proxy service in March of this year and against OnlineNIC and its proxy service last October