Over the past few weeks, both myself and some of my clients have been receiving phishing emails regarding our domains. “Phishing” is an email that targets you in an attempt to gain unauthorized access to your confidential information. The perpetrator mass sends emails in hopes that just a fraction of the recipients will fall for their deceit and release information back to them that they can use to access your accounts online.
Generally these types of emails are easy to spot and you should, of course, never click on links in emails from sources you do not know.
However, it gets a little more difficult when the emails actually look legitimate, either because they come from a company you already have a relationship with, or they contain details in them that you may feel only the person you have the relationship with would have. But, often, that is deceiving, because so much of the information is available via public databases and other online sources.
The emails that are currently circulating seem to be targeted at clients who have registered their domains with ENOM, Inc., one of the larger resellers of domain names online. The same type of email could just as easily be going around that targets those who purchased domain names through GoDaddy, Network Solutions or any of the other domain name resellers.
One of the main things that would make people think it is legitimate is the use of the person or company’s actual registrar, in this case ENOM, along with an actual domain name that they own, and the real registrant’s name in the email. But, understand, all of this information is easily pulled from an online search of your domain, as it is public information. So those facts mean nothing.
The particular email currently being sent reads as follows:
The following domain names have been suspended for violation of the ENOM, INC. Abuse Policy:
Domain Name: (REDACTED)
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrant Name: (REDACTED)
Multiple warnings were sent by ENOM, INC. Spam and Abuse Department to give you an opportunity to address the complaints we have received.
We did not receive a reply from you to these email warnings so we then attempted to contact you via telephone.
We had no choice but to suspend your domain name when you did not respond to our attempts to contact you.
Click here and download a copy of complaints we have received.
Please contact us for additional information regarding this notification.
Sincerely,
ENOM, INC.
Spam and Abuse Department
Abuse Department Hotline: (REDACTED)
I redacted the “Abuse Department Hotline” phone number, because, when I called it out of curiosity, it went to a private party’s actual phone and they were oblivious to any of this.
I heard that others that called the phone numbers attached to their emails got an out of order message, and some got GoDaddy phone lines, even though they are registered through ENOM. So, the scammers may be switching these numbers up randomly.
Here is a screenshot of one of these emails:
As always, it is my goal to educate my clients, so be aware that this is going on and is not legitimate. Your domain name is not suspended, and, above all, do not click on any of the links in the message. There is no telling what could be “hiding” in those links. 😉
If you are still worried about your domain name, you can always call the registrar that you use for your domains, but do not call any phone number listed in these emails. Call the registrar’s actual phone number, which you can find on their website, to determine the legitimacy of any such email.
If you are a client of mine and received an email that you think might be questionable, please forward it to me and I will research the legitimacy of it for you.
domain scammers, enom, fake domain email, fake emails, scam, scammers
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