It looks like a  phishing email targeting people who own domain names at GoDaddy is making the rounds. This email was first  reported  on NamePros a week ago, and I also received the email over the weekend.

If people fall for a phishing email, they could have their domain names stolen and/or their GoDaddy-hosted websites compromised. Most domain registrars  recommend using  2 factor authentication on all domain registrar accounts to enhance security. Some registrars also offer  additional security features that can be implemented  (such as DTVS at GoDaddy) to protect accounts even further.

One thing readers need to keep in mind is that phishing attempts tend to evolve and change over time. The senders could easily change their targets and attempt to impersonate eNom, Tucows, Network Solutions, or any other domain registry or even a domain registry.

If in doubt about the validity of an email, it is always best to call a domain registrar to confirm the email is legitimate.

Here’s the content of the email with the embedded links removed for safety:

I am beginning to sound redundant here, but there seems to be another phishing email aimed at infiltrating GoDaddy customer accounts. I was forwarded an email from a DomainInvesting.com reader asking me to warn others about a phishing email he received with the subject “Special Savings! $1.99 .COM now at GoDaddy!”

The email has a large graphic coupon (which I couldn’t see because Google flagged it as spam), and the link appears to utilize a url shortener to send the recipient to an unknown website. Most likely, the landing page will ask for the visitor’s account name and password under the guise of registering a domain name at a discounted price. If the visitor does not have 2 factor authentication enabled (or other account locks), it could make the domain names in that account vulnerable to theft.

Last week,

A few months ago, I reported what seems to be a Register.com account phishing email. This morning, Bill Sweetman from Name Ninja reported a similar type of phishing email. The difference with this reported email is that it is targeting GoDaddy account customers. I presume there may be similar emails targeting customers of other domain registrars, so if you see something similar, it is most likely an illegitimate phishing email.

With domain registrar account phishing emails, the sender tries to get people to click a link to a website they control that asks for account information (or may possibly download malware) from a domain name registrant. Once a hacker has the account holder’s login credentials, they may be able to make changes to the account or even hijack / steal domain names from the account. Oftentimes, they are able to do this without the domain owner even knowing, making it even more problematic.

To reduce the chance of this happening to you, I recommend adding the highest level of security at your accounts. This includes two factor authentication and additional account or domain name locks to prevent unauthorized transfers. In addition, you want to use different passwords (and logins) at different registrars, and you should not click on links within marketing or other emails from registrars unless you are certain the email is legitimate.

Here is the

I was going through my spam email folder this morning to see if Gmail inadvertently marked legitimate email as spam, and I wanted to warn you about something that appears to be another GoDaddy phishing attempt masking as a discount offer. You’ll recall that last month there was a GoDaddy Whois verification phishing email  that went around.

There were five things that indicated to me that this was not a real GoDaddy email: