I received another phishing attempt today that is trying to prey on individuals who know little about how the Internet and websites work.
I have removed any links and references to the domain that it is directed toward. You can see that it looks official even to the point that it includes the directions for unsubscribing from notices and the text of a CAN-SPAM disclaimer.
I don’t know for certain, but I would suspect that sending an Unsubscribe email reply would add simply add a confirmation within their system that they have a valid email address in their bulk mailing list.
I have italicized part of a sentence that makes it sound like they are reminding you to complete your domain registration.
Then they give you a link to their ‘package’ offer and a notice that you will be paying with your credit card.
What’s wrong with all this?
- There is no such thing as ‘registering your domain name search engine listing.’ When you complete a purchase of a domain from your hosting company or an authorized domain registrar such as GoDaddy or Hover, the domain is registered in your name. Anyone putting that URL into their browser will go to were the domain is located. Period.
- In this particular case, I registered this domain 5 days ago and it says I have 2 days to respond. This domain is a WordPress-based development site that is behind a Maintenance splash page and search engines are discouraged from visiting the site. Since the search engine spiders do not have an admin access password, they only see the maintenance mode splash page, no content.
- By doing a ‘Who Is’ search you find that the Select Package link goes to an IP address in Malaysia.
- There is no need to EVER pay anyone to ‘submit your site’ to search engines, bulletin boards or directories. Your website will be crawled and indexed in the major search engines (Google/Bing/etc) within a few days of it going ‘live.’ If you want it to be listed in select directories that are specific to your website content do it yourself with the assurance that it will actually help your website visibility and ranking. Most of the low-cost services that do ‘website submissions’ are submitting your site to places that have no relation to your site and will do more harm than good.
As usual, Website Owner Beware!
This is the email message that I received – edited to remove identifying information.
Attention: Important Notice , DOMAIN SERVICE NOTICE
Domain Name: XXXXXXX.org
ATT: XXXX XXXXX
XXXXXXXX.org
Response Requested By
11 – March – 2016
PART I: REVIEW NOTICE
Attn: XXXX XXXXX
As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification for your business Domain name search engine registration. This letter is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration.
Failure to complete your Domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may result in cancellation of this offer making it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web.
Privatization allows the consumer a choice when registering. Search engine registration includes domain name search engine submission. Do not discard, this notice is not an invoice it is a courtesy reminder to register your domain name search engine listing so your customers can locate you on the web.
This Notice for: XXXXXXXX.org will expire at 11:59PM EST, 11 – March – 2016 Act now!
Select Package:
http://www.easydomainsubmitt.biz/?domain=XXXXXXXX.org
Payment by Credit/Debit Card
Select the term using the link above by 11 – March – 2016
XXXXXXXX.org
unsubscribe:
Please reply with UNSUBSCRIBE subject.
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Disclaimer: The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask mailers to stop spamming them. The above mail is in accordance to the Can Spam act of 2003: There are no deceptive subject lines and is a manual process through our efforts on World Wide Web. If you send me an UNSUBSCRIBE email we ensure you will not receive any such mails.