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BrandShield

BrandShield

BrandShield is an anti-phishing database of high-risk trademarks that scammers most frequently impersonate in domain registrations. It covers 11,200+ brands across 114 countries, with 9 categories and 37 subcategories — from every FDIC-insured US bank and ECB-registered EU institution to crypto exchanges, delivery services, and government agencies.

Blocking rules are verified against real registrar enforcement data — each brand's blocking flag reflects whether major registrars actually reject domain registrations containing that brand name.

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Database at a glance

Brands tracked	11,200+
Countries covered	114
Categories	9
Subcategories	37
Blocking enforced	4,500+ brands
Sanctioned entities	2,000+ (OFAC, EU, UN)
Update frequency	Every 12 hours

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Categories

Category	Brands	Coverage
FINANCIAL	10,400+	4,298 FDIC US banks + 4,627 ECB EU banks + 293 BoE UK banks + banks from 30+ more countries + 986 sanctioned entities
CRYPTO	570+	295 exchanges + 58 wallets + 71 DeFi + 74 L1/L2 chains + 25 NFT + 20 swaps + 11 stablecoins
TECH	50+	SaaS, cloud, streaming, AI
ECOMMERCE	70+	Marketplaces, retail, fashion
CUSTOM	40+	Telecoms, airlines, casinos, gaming
DELIVERY	30+	Postal services and logistics, 20+ countries
GOVERNMENT	20+	Tax, social security, law enforcement
SOCIAL	20+	Social networks and messengers
PHISHING_HIGH	15	Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Amazon

Subcategories

Category	Subcategories
FINANCIAL	BANK, NEOBANK, PAYMENT, CARD_NETWORK, TRANSFER, MOBILE_MONEY, BROKER, INSURANCE, LENDING
CRYPTO	EXCHANGE, SWAP, WALLET, DEFI, BLOCKCHAIN, NFT, STABLECOIN, CRYPTO_GATEWAY, DATA
TECH	CLOUD, SAAS, STREAMING, GAMING, AI, HOSTING, HARDWARE, SECURITY, DEV_TOOLS
DELIVERY	POSTAL, COURIER, RIDESHARE
ECOMMERCE	MARKETPLACE, RETAIL, FASHION
SOCIAL	SOCIAL_NETWORK, MESSENGER, DATING
GOVERNMENT	TAX, BENEFITS, LAW_ENFORCEMENT, IMMIGRATION, HEALTHCARE, TRANSPORT
CUSTOM	TELECOM, AIRLINE, TRAVEL, CASINO

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How blocking works

The blocking flag indicates whether a domain containing this brand name will be rejected by registrars. This is not a theoretical risk score — it's based on real registration tests against major registrars.

Verified blocked (registrar rejects registration)

Brand type	Examples	Why
All FDIC-insured US banks	Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, + 4,294 more	Unique brand names of licensed financial institutions
Big Tech	Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn	Top-impersonated brands globally
Top crypto	Coinbase, Binance, MetaMask, Trust Wallet	Crypto phishing is the #1 scam vector
Payment processors	PayPal, Mastercard, American Express	Financial fraud targets
Delivery	DHL, FedEx	Delivery scam campaigns
Select retail/streaming	Walmart, Netflix	High-profile phishing targets
Government agencies	IRS, NHS, FBI, HMRC	Impersonating government is always illegal

Verified not blocked (registrar allows registration)

Brand	Why it passes
Visa, Amazon, Chase	Common English words with non-brand meanings (visa = travel document, amazon = river, chase = pursuit)
Disney+, eBay, Dropbox	Not in major registrar keyword lists
Kraken, OpenSea, Uniswap	Smaller crypto brands not yet in blocklists
Telegram, Discord, TikTok, Zoom	Social/messenger brands not blocked
Revolut, Monobank	Neobanks — not in registrar blocklists

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Check domains

Code
curl -X POST https://api.most.ac/v1/trademarks/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer bk_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"names": ["paypal-login.com", "g00gle-verify.net", "my-cool-shop.com"]}'

Code
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "results": [
      {
        "domainName": "paypal-login.com",
        "sld": "paypal-login",
        "matches": [
          {
            "brand": "PayPal",
            "category": "FINANCIAL",
            "subCategory": "PAYMENT",
            "blocking": true,
            "sanctioned": false,
            "keyword": "paypal",
            "matchType": "exact"
          }
        ],
        "blocked": true
      },
      {
        "domainName": "g00gle-verify.net",
        "sld": "g00gle-verify",
        "matches": [
          {
            "brand": "Google",
            "category": "PHISHING_HIGH",
            "subCategory": "BIG_TECH",
            "blocking": true,
            "sanctioned": false,
            "keyword": "google",
            "matchType": "homoglyph"
          }
        ],
        "blocked": true
      },
      {
        "domainName": "my-cool-shop.com",
        "sld": "my-cool-shop",
        "matches": [],
        "blocked": false
      }
    ]
  }
}

Maximum 100 domains per request. Each match includes:

Field	Description
brand	Canonical brand name
category	Risk category (FINANCIAL, CRYPTO, etc.)
subCategory	Business type (BANK, EXCHANGE, WALLET, etc.)
blocking	Whether registrars reject domains with this brand — verified by real tests
sanctioned	Whether this entity is on OFAC/EU/UN sanctions lists
keyword	The keyword that triggered the match
matchType	Detection method: exact, homoglyph, or levenshtein

Match strategies

1. Exact substring — the SLD contains a brand keyword. paypal-login contains paypal.

2. Homoglyph normalization — confusable Unicode characters are collapsed to ASCII. Catches pаypal.com (Cyrillic а), g00gle.com (digit 0 → o).

3. Levenshtein distance — fuzzy check for typosquatting. Keywords must be 6+ characters, SLD length within ±3 of keyword length. paypall.com → distance 1 from paypal.

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Browse the database

Code
curl "https://api.most.ac/v1/trademarks?category=CRYPTO&subCategory=EXCHANGE&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer bk_..."

Code
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "entries": [
      {
        "id": "cm...",
        "brand": "Coinbase",
        "keywords": ["coinbase"],
        "category": "CRYPTO",
        "subCategory": "EXCHANGE",
        "source": "apwg",
        "blocking": true,
        "sanctioned": false,
        "countryCode": "US"
      }
    ],
    "total": 295,
    "limit": 10,
    "offset": 0
  }
}

Query parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
category	—	Comma-separated: FINANCIAL,CRYPTO
subCategory	—	Comma-separated: BANK,EXCHANGE,WALLET
search	—	Search brand names
sanctioned	—	true to show only sanctioned entities
limit	50	Max 200
offset	0	Pagination

---

Statistics

Code
curl https://api.most.ac/v1/trademarks/stats \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer bk_..."

Code
{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "totalBrands": 11273,
    "totalKeywords": 15000,
    "totalBlocking": 4539,
    "totalSanctioned": 2058,
    "byCategory": [
      { "category": "FINANCIAL", "brands": 10487 },
      { "category": "CRYPTO", "brands": 572 }
    ]
  }
}

---

Data sources

Official registries

Source	Coverage	Entries
FDIC BankFind Suite	All FDIC-insured US banks	4,298 banks with official domains. Updated weekly.
ECB MFI List	All EU credit institutions (27 countries)	4,627 banks. Updated daily.
Bank of England PRA	All PRA-regulated UK banks	293 banks.
OSFI Canada	Federally regulated Canadian financial institutions	147 banks and trusts.
OpenSanctions	Sanctioned entities worldwide (OFAC, EU, UN)	986 financial organizations.
CoinGecko Exchanges	All tracked crypto exchanges globally	250 exchanges with domains.

Industry research

Source	What we use
APWG Phishing Activity Trends	Most-impersonated brands, sector targeting
Interisle Phishing Landscape 2025	Brand-string frequency in 1.5M phishing domains
WIPO UDRP Dispute Data	Most-cybersquatted trademarks

Threat intelligence feeds (auto-update every 12 hours)

Feed	Domains per cycle
Phishing Army	~156,000
PhishTank	~57,000
URLhaus	~25,000
Threatfox	variable
OpenPhish	~300

Verification

Blocking rules are verified through real domain registration tests against major registrars. 40 test domains were registered across different brand categories to determine which brands are actually enforced vs. which pass through.