Phishing Activity in Domain Registrars
August 1, 2020 - October 31, 2020

Phishers compose hostnames and URLs from domain names that they register purposely for phishing or from domain names that they have exploited in some way (e.g., by hijacking a domain registration account or by compromising a host such as a web site). They embed these URLs in the emails, texts, or social media posts that lure victims to phishing web sites.

To determine where gTLD domain names were purchased and managed, and where reported phishing domains are concentrated in registrars’ domain portfolios, we identify the domain name Registrar - the business entity that processed the domain name registration – of domain names reported for phishing activity from domain name registration data obtained via the Whois or RDAP services.

For the August to October 2020 period, we identified 98 domain registrars with 30,000 domains under management and at least 25 reported phishing domains.

Measurements of reported phishing domains can identify registrars where analyses of business practices, account security, or pricing might prove useful.

Table 1 shows the twenty domain name Registrars with the highest number of reported phishing domains under management.

Table 1 - Ranking of Domain Registrars by Phishing Domains
(August to October 2020)

Registrars with a minimum of 30,000 domains and 25 phishing domains

Rank Registrar Registrar IANA_ID gTLD Domains
under Management		 Phishing Domains ▼ Phishing Domain Score
1 NameCheap, Inc. 1068 10,707,889 14,383 13.43
2 GoDaddy.com, LLC 146 63,464,090 8,023 1.26
3 NameSilo, LLC 1479 3,531,106 7,434 21.05
4 PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com 303 4,955,491 3,994 8.06
5 Tucows Domains Inc. 69 10,332,030 2,431 2.35
6 ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED 3775 876,786 2,407 27.45
7 Google LLC 895 5,162,389 1,973 3.82
8 Name.com, Inc. 625 2,123,706 1,972 9.29
9 Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc 460 1,664,103 1,963 11.80
10 GMO Internet, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com 49 5,160,503 1,616 3.13
11 Wild West Domains, LLC 440 2,756,680 1,572 5.70
12 eNom, LLC 48 5,211,996 1,470 2.82
13 Wix.com Ltd. 3817 1,150,887 1,105 9.60
14 Jiangsu Bangning Science & technology Co. Ltd. 1469 709,071 1,085 15.30
15 Register.com, Inc. 9 1,702,919 993 5.83
16 Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC 1606 916,075 862 9.41
17 Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd. d/b/a HiChina (www.net.cn) 1599 5,249,261 748 1.42
18 Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Openprovider 1647 876,214 694 7.92
19 Internet Domain Service BS Corp 2487 374,763 556 14.84
20 FastDomain Inc. 1154 2,354,139 503 2.14

To allow comparison of large and small Registrars, we also rank Registrars based on a metric, phishing domain score, which is calculated by dividing the number of domain names reported for phishing that are sponsored by a registrar by the number of domains that the registrar has under management.

Registrar Phishing Score = (number of phishing domains/Registrar DUM) * 10,000

This score can be helpful to identify registrars where analyses of business practices, account security, or pricing might prove useful.

Table 2 shows the twenty domain registrars with the highest phishing domain score.

Table 2 - Ranking of Domain Registrars by Phishing Domain Score
(August to October 2020)

Registrars with a minimum of 30,000 domains and 25 phishing domains

Rank Registrar Registrar IANA_ID gTLD Domains
under Management		 Phishing Domains Phishing Domain Score ▼
1 ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED 3775 876,786 2,407 27.45
2 TLD Registrar Solutions Ltd. 1564 81,218 184 22.66
3 NameSilo, LLC 1479 3,531,106 7,434 21.05
4 CloudFlare, Inc. 1910 215,767 373 17.29
5 Domainshype.com, LLC 1660 35,093 55 15.67
6 Jiangsu Bangning Science & technology Co. Ltd. 1469 709,071 1,085 15.30
7 Internet Domain Service BS Corp 2487 374,763 556 14.84
8 NameCheap, Inc. 1068 10,707,889 14,383 13.43
9 NETIM SARL 1519 36,928 49 13.27
10 DomainPeople, Inc. 65 225,463 288 12.77
11 Atak Domain Hosting Internet ve Bilgi Teknolojileri Limited Sirketi d/b/a Atak Teknoloji 1601 77,586 96 12.37
12 Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc 460 1,664,103 1,963 11.80
13 Porkbun LLC 1861 425,486 481 11.30
14 BigRock Solutions Ltd. 1495 278,105 276 9.92
15 Wix.com Ltd. 3817 1,150,887 1,105 9.60
16 Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC 1606 916,075 862 9.41
17 Name.com, Inc. 625 2,123,706 1,972 9.29
18 Ligne Web Services SARL dba LWS 1630 101,426 93 9.17
19 CV. Rumahweb Indonesia 1675 114,201 94 8.23
20 PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com 303 4,955,491 3,994 8.06