Watch Out for Personalized Phishing Attempts

I would imagine that most domain name hijacking incidents happen as a result of phishing attempts. Someone that gains access to a person’s email login can almost certainly request registrar information to transfer a domain name away, change registrar account passwords, and do other things to take control of a domain name owner’s account.

I received a somewhat customized phishing attempt on my email account the other day, and I think it’s important that we all remain vigilant when it comes to this type of attempt.

More often than not, email providers, registrars, and other companies with whom we do business will send personalized emails. When we receive a personalized email from a trusted partner, we all tend to let our guard down and assume the email is legit. Someone who wants to take your domain names can easily target you by personalizing a phishing attempt. If that happens, you may click through assuming it was a legit email, only to find out you’ve been had.

Here are some tips to deal with a possible phishing attempt:

  • Hover over any links in an email to see the actual underlying link.
  • Do not click on any links in an email, even if you are confident who it’s from.
  • Report phishing attempts to the provider, like legal@godaddy.com.
  • Don’t ever click links on your mobile phone since it may be harder to tell where you land

If you think you may have fallen prey to a phishing attempt, contact your registrar immediately and ask that your names be put on a lock to avoid transfers. Change your email and registrar passwords immediately.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Consider Removing “WHOIS” from Domain Name Contracts

0
I use several different domain name purchase or sale agreements depending on the situation. Each of these agreements references "WHOIS" as a means of...

I Appreciate Having a Broker as a Counterparty

7
I appreciate being able to discuss the sale of a domain name with a domain broker representing a third party. Not only does this...

Gong.com UDRP Should be RDNH

1
The Gong Show was a television talent show on ABC in the late 1970s. Contestants would perform a variety of acts while being judged...

Top 5 Domain Names in 2025 Super Bowl Commercials

3
The Super Bowl was played last night, and a great deal of attention was on the Super Bowl commercials. In the recent past, domain...

Samba.com Now Forwarding to Samba.tv

3
Three weeks ago, Samba.com sold for $143,000 in a NameJet expiry auction. Samba.com is an exceptional domain name, and there are many branded companies...