# Domain Impersonation Monitor — Live Look-alike Domains (`infora/domain-impersonation-monitor`) Actor

Find typosquatting and look-alike domains impersonating your brand that are actually live — confirmed by DNS resolution, MX records and the TLS certificate each one serves, not merely registered. Covers homoglyph, bitsquat, combosquat and TLD-swap variants. No WHOIS, so no personal data.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/infora/domain-impersonation-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [SStudio](https://apify.com/infora) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 live look-alike domain founds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Domain Impersonation Monitor

**Most look-alike domain tools tell you what is *registered*. Registered means almost nothing — squatters register thousands and park them. This one tells you which look-alikes are *live*: resolving in DNS, able to receive mail, and serving a TLS certificate right now.**

Give it your domain. It builds every plausible impersonation of it, checks each one, and returns only the ones that are actually standing up — ranked by how dangerous they look.

### What it checks

For every candidate domain:

| Signal | What it means |
|---|---|
| DNS A / AAAA records | Someone is pointing this name at a server |
| NS records | The domain is registered even if it has no host yet |
| MX records | **It can receive e-mail — it is set up for phishing** |
| TLS certificate on port 443 | **Someone stood up a real HTTPS site**, not a parked page |
| Certificate trusted | The certificate chains to a public root |
| Certificate covers the domain | The CN or a SAN entry actually matches |

### Techniques

`omission` · `repetition` · `transposition` · `replacement` (QWERTY neighbours) · `insertion` · `homoglyph` (rn→m, l→1, o→0 …) · `hyphenation` · `bitsquatting` (single-bit memory flips) · `combosquatting` (brand-login, secure-brand …) · `tld-swap`

### Risk score — the exact formula, no black box

```
+1  resolves in DNS
+2  has MX records (can receive mail)
+1  serves a TLS certificate
+1  that certificate is trusted
+1  that certificate covers this domain
```

`5-6 = high` · `3-4 = medium` · `1-2 = low`

Nothing is inferred beyond those five facts. There is no model, no guess, no scraped reputation feed.

### Output

One row per live look-alike: `brandDomain`, `lookalikeDomain`, `technique`, `riskLevel`, `riskScore`, `resolved`, `ipAddresses`, `mxRecords`, `nameServers`, `tlsCertificate`, `tlsSubject`, `tlsIssuer`, `tlsTrusted`, `certCoversDomain`, `tlsValidFrom`, `tlsValidTo`, `sanCount`, `checkedAt`.

### Billing

You are charged per **live look-alike domain found** — not per candidate generated, and not per run. A brand whose look-alikes are all dead costs you almost nothing.

### Where the data comes from

- **DNS** — standard port-53 resolution. No third-party DNS-over-HTTPS API is used.
- **TLS certificates** — read directly from the candidate host during an ordinary HTTPS handshake. No certificate aggregator or search service is used.
- **Public suffix handling** — a subset of the Public Suffix List (Mozilla Public License 2.0).

No WHOIS or RDAP lookups are performed, so **no domain registrant personal data is collected, stored, or returned.**

### Limits

- Public suffix coverage is a common subset, not the full list. Exotic multi-part suffixes may split imprecisely.
- IDN / punycode homograph variants are not generated in this version.
- A domain behind a CDN or a wildcard-parking provider can serve a valid certificate without hosting a real impersonation site — the certificate fields are returned so you can judge.
- `checkedAt` is a point-in-time observation. Re-run on a schedule to catch new ones.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

The brand domains to protect, e.g. example.com. Sub-domains and https:// prefixes are accepted and normalised.

## `maxCandidatesPerDomain` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound on how many look-alike variants are generated and checked for each domain.

## `techniques` (type: `array`):

Leave empty to use all of them.

## `includeUnregistered` (type: `boolean`):

Off by default. When on, variants that do not resolve are returned too — you are not charged for those.

## `checkTls` (type: `boolean`):

Connect to each live variant on port 443 and record the certificate it presents. This is what separates a parked domain from a running impersonation site.

## `checkMx` (type: `boolean`):

Look up MX records. A look-alike domain that can receive mail is set up for phishing.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many domains are looked up at the same time. Lower this if you are checking a very large brand portfolio.

## `tlsTimeoutMs` (type: `integer`):

How long to wait for each TLS handshake before giving up on that domain, in milliseconds.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "example.com"
  ],
  "maxCandidatesPerDomain": 500,
  "includeUnregistered": false,
  "checkTls": true,
  "checkMx": true,
  "concurrency": 20,
  "tlsTimeoutMs": 5000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domains": [
        "example.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("infora/domain-impersonation-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "domains": ["example.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("infora/domain-impersonation-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domains": [
    "example.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call infora/domain-impersonation-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,infora/domain-impersonation-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/8507E3VOPRoYcn9wh/builds/9lSJLx2Q9KZ6TO367/openapi.json