Disposable domains: What are they and who uses them

Posted by DomainGang on April 13, 2024, at 12:50 pm

During the early days of the internet, dot .com domain names were free to register. That changed in 1995 and pricing was $100 dollars per domain for two years. Registering a single domain was more or less a manual process and one could even pay the original .com registrar, Network Solutions, by check. When people […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Crime, Disposable domains, Domains, cybercrime

Account credentials: How scammers attempt to steal your domains

Posted by DomainGang on April 4, 2024, at 12:44 pm

The most common method that scammers will attempt to use to steal your domain names is by tricking you into surrendering the account credentials. Your registrar and host login and password can lead to the loss and hijacking of your domain names. The phishing technique relies on a psychological factor: You believe whatever your eyes […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Domain theft, account credentials, don't believe your eyes, phishing, scammers

Dot .CN tops the #SpamHaus list of most abused #ccTLDs

Posted by DomainGang on April 3, 2024, at 10:00 am

SpamHaus is a global keeper of domain and IP violations that maintains a list of abusive behavior originating from a large variety of gTLDs, ccTLDs, and TLDs. Exactly how does SpamHaus measure this type of negative performance among domain extensions? The abusive behavior “score” of domain TLDs is calculated as the ratio of abusive domains […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with .CN, ccTLDs, malicious ccTLDs, spamhaus

eBook crime: Federal agents seized dozens of Z-Library domains

Posted by DomainGang on November 20, 2023, at 2:25 pm

Operating from the domain Zlibrary.org, the eBook repository Z-Library was among the internet’s largest shadow libraries. Last year, federal agents took control of over 200 domains operated by the eBook pirates. It’s an ongoing battle, however, and a second round of investigations led to the capturing of dozens of new domains, with the help of […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Domains, Seized domains, Z-Library, Zlibrary, Zlibrary.org, domain seizure, e-books, pirate domains

Phishing domains attempting to hijack Blockchain.com accounts

Posted by DomainGang on November 13, 2023, at 1:10 pm

The price of Bitcoin has taken a leap in recent weeks, sending BTC to around $37,000 dollars. As BTC and other cryptocurrencies gained value, there has been an increase in phishing attempts targeting popular crypto wallet storage domains. One of them is Blockchain.com, that manages wallets for millions of crypto owners for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Bitcoin, Blockchain.com, Domains, Phishing domains, phishing, wallets-tri-biockchain.com, wallets-tzx-biockchain.com

CREFinancing.com: Domain has been reported by its owner as stolen

Posted by DomainGang on August 17, 2023, at 8:59 pm

The domain name CREFinancing.com has been reported by its owner, Mr. Abe Brand, as stolen. The perpetrator moved the stolen domain to Google Domains from GoDaddy. The term “CRE financing” is quite valuable, hence the reason it was targeted: Commercial real estate (CRE) lending includes acquisition, development, and construction (ADC) financing and the financing of […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Abe Brand, CRE Financing, CREFinancing.com, GoDaddy, domain crime, stolen domain, stolen domains

Greek domain registrar Papaki suffers security breach

Posted by DomainGang on July 31, 2023, at 2:10 pm

Greece’s only ICANN-accredited domain registrar, Papaki, has suffered a security breach. The incident was disclosed on July 27th and a notice was sent out to account holders. The Papaki team has detected an unauthorized third-party access to their systems. As a security precaution, they strongly recommend enabling 2FA (two-factor authentication) in the account following simple […]

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Domain shadowing: An emerging threat used by cybercriminals

Posted by DomainGang on July 17, 2023, at 9:07 am

To cybersecurity experts, domain shadowing has emerged as a significant threat. Cybercriminals exploit legitimate domain names to carry out malicious activities while staying under the radar. Domain shadowing is a technique that cybercriminals use to secretly create and control subdomains under a legitimate domain, without the owner’s knowledge or consent. This tactic has become a […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Cybersecurity, InterNetX, Simone Catania, domain crime, domain shadowing

BreachForums and associate #domains were seized by the FBI

Posted by DomainGang on June 23, 2023, at 1:28 pm

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized the domain of BreachForums, a cybercrime marketplace. This action comes three months after the alleged administrator of the site, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aged 20, was arrested in Peekskill, New York in March. Fitzpatrick, who used the handle “pompompurin,” is charged with conspiracy to commit access device fraud. […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with BreachForums, Domains, FBI, FBI seizure, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Seized domains, domain crime

Massive drop of phishing domains registered at Freenom after Meta sued

Posted by DomainGang on May 30, 2023, at 3:39 pm

The number of phishing domains at Freenom after Meta, Inc.sued dropped dramatically, according to Krebs on Security. Freenom is a domain name registry service provider for five country code top-level domains (ccTLDs): .cf for the Central African Republic, .ga for Gabon, .gq for Equatorial Guinea, .ml for Mali, and .tk for Tokelau. Freenom has always […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Domains, Phishing domains, domain crime, freenom, meta

Google Registry: .dad and .phd are harmless but .zip and .mov are dangerous!

Posted by DomainGang on May 20, 2023, at 12:36 pm

Two weeks ago, the Google Registry opened the domain floodgates with no less than 8 new gTLDs: .dad, .phd, .prof, .esq, .foo, .zip, .mov, and .nexus. You can read about who is being targeted with each new gTLD from Google and the news isn’t how these gTLDs should be used, but rather how they shouldn’t […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with .mov, .mov domains, .zip, .zip domains, Domains, Google Registry, gTLDs

13 Lebanese Hezbollah domains were seized

Posted by DomainGang on May 11, 2023, at 12:54 pm

The US Justice Department announced the seizure of 13 domain names used by Specially Designated Nationals (SNDs), Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and their members associated with the Lebanese Hezbollah. Here is the breakdown of the domains involved in this seizure: Five domains managed by the Public Interest Registry (PIR) – moqawama.org, almanarnews.org, manarnews.org, almanar-tv.org, […]

Filed under Domain Crime · Tagged with Lebanese Hezbollah domains, Seized domains, USDOJ, domain seizure