You're in a coffee shop. Someone at the next table says "I have the perfect name for my business." Before they finish their latte, that domain is gone.
Not by them. By someone who overheard.
Proximity as Product
Domain squatting used to require anticipation. You'd guess what companies might want, register variations, and wait. Now it just requires presence.
Co-working spaces. Coffee shops. Airport lounges. Anywhere people talk about ideas. The parasites aren't mining speculation anymore — they're harvesting in real-time.
Someone mentions a business name in conversation. Pull out phone. GoDaddy. Forty-seven seconds. Domain registered. The person who said it out loud doesn't even know they've lost it yet.
The Economics Work
Domains cost $12/year. If one in fifty pays out at $2,000, you're profitable. The math is brutal but honest.
Most sit unused. A few sell immediately. One or two become leverage — "I see you're building steampunkanalytics dot com, I happen to own steampunk-analytics dot co..."
Not theft. Strategic positioning.
Why It Persists
Because it's legal. Because enforcement is impossible. Because by the time someone realizes their perfect domain is taken, the emotional attachment is already formed.
The original speaker could have registered it immediately. They didn't. Someone else did. The market filled the gap.
Is it ethical? That's the wrong question. The right question is: does it work?
The Defense
If you say a business name out loud in public, register the domain before you finish the sentence. Not later. Not when you get home. Immediately.
Because someone is listening. And they're faster than you think.