Freenom Halts Domain Registrations - Sued by Meta

[malcontent]

The domain name registrar Freenom, whose free domain names have long been a draw for spammers and phishers, has stopped allowing new domain name registrations. The move comes just days after the Dutch registrar was sued by Meta, which alleges the company ignores abuse complaints about phishing websites while monetizing traffic to those abusive domains.

Sued by Meta, Freenom Halts Domain Registrations

[jeffpan]

i always don't know why there is a need for free name.
getting a domain like .top, .de, .icu is so cheap today, less than $5/y.
https://tld-list.com/ for price comparison.

[janusz]

These supercheap prices are usually for the first year only.

[TenFour]

What I find disconcerting is that more and more I am seeing spam and phishing messages using legitimate domains that have somehow been hijacked, indicating to me that many people and domain registrars have poor security. Or, is it just the email systems being hijacked? In any case, it seems like there are lots of holes in security out there, and lack of oversight of what systems are being used for. You would think that legitimate businesses would notice if one of their systems is being used to email millions of fake messages.

[janusz]

Originally Posted by TenFour

What I find disconcerting is that more and more I am seeing spam and phishing messages using legitimate domains that have somehow been hijacked,[...] You would think that legitimate businesses would notice if one of their systems is being used to email millions of fake messages.

I don't see a direct link between domain hijacking on one hand and spam or phishing messages on the other. One doesn't need to hijack example.com to send emails as whoever@example.com. And how the legitimate owner of example.com is expected to find out that millions of fake massages are being sent apparently from that domain?

[Avion]

Originally Posted by janusz

And how the legitimate owner of example.com is expected to find out that millions of fake massages are being sent apparently from that domain?

DMARC reports?

[TenFour]

And how the legitimate owner of example.com is expected to find out that millions of fake massages are being sent apparently from that domain?

I suspect that pretty quickly your domain would get blacklisted and blocked and you would notice when your emails stop getting delivered.

[SideshowBob]

Originally Posted by TenFour

Or, is it just the email systems being hijacked?

Something like that, more often it's a web server that's being abused. It's been common since DMARC became popular.

[jeffpan]

Originally Posted by janusz

These supercheap prices are usually for the first year only.

.de domain has renewal price less than $5 on porkbun

[malcontent]

Originally Posted by jeffpan

.de domain has renewal price less than $5 on porkbun

Do you have to be living in Germany or have an IP address in Germany (VPN) to qualify to get a .DE?

[TenFour]

Be careful using anything other than a .com, .net, or .org. In my experience using other TLDs can dramatically impact your email deliverability, at least here in the USA.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by malcontent

Do you have to be living in Germany or have an IP address in Germany (VPN) to qualify to get a .DE?

Not 100% sure here, but to my knowledge such restriction isn't existing. For what it's worth, Wikipedia's article on .de domains also states there are no restrictions on who can register a .de domain, some foreign websites already use .de as part of a domain hack.

Keep in mind though that rules may change, buying a domain in a foreign ccTLD means you may see the rules change. It's like buying property abroad. If you want to be completely sure, buy within your own country's ccTLD or buy within a gTLD.

But as far as I am aware, no restrictions for .de domains currently.

[Folio]

Anyone can register a .de domain, BUT if you don't live in Germany you may want to keep in mind § 3 (4) of DENIC's terms:

If the Domain Holder is not domiciled in Germany, they shall name within two weeks of a corresponding request by DENIC an authorised representative domiciled in Germany for receiving the service of official or court documents...

See: https://www.denic.de/fileadmin/publi...ngungen_EN.pdf