New Vawe of Fake ICANN Emails is out trying to get your logins and password to steal domains, so be warned. A few reports were posted on DNF.

Update: ICANNResolve.com site is down now.

To:    [email]xxxx@xxxxx.com[/email]
Subject:    ICANN - Domain Upgrade Notice
Date:    Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:22:08 +0200
From:    “ICANN” <icann@icannresolve.com>

Dear Domain Account Holder,

You are being sent this notice from ICANN due to the fact that you
currently own an active domain name. ICANN is currently upgrading all
domains from their registry database.

The upgrade will introduce new control options for your domain and
easier
access. The new upgrade is required by the registry. All domain users
are
expected to submit their domain information manually at
[url]http://www.icannresolve.com/email/link.php?M=821&N=5&L=1&F=T[/url] with the
required information for ICANN to apply the required updates. (more…)

Rick reported this recently on his blog:

It appears GoDaddy.com gives you the option to cancel a transfer, after you have done an account change and the new owner has accepted the domain. How ludicrous is this? I’ve just had it happen a second time. Someone sends you a name, so you send them the money. The next thing they know, they pull it back! All they have to do is go to their account, go to pending account changes, check the box and click cancel. They can do this after it is finished!

Now in both cases it worked out fine because they had pulled it back because of a misunderstanding and quickly did another account change. It still leaves a huge door open for fraud.

I’m sure other registrars would let you pull back a domain as well, after you’ve pushed it.

I suppose it’s been around for a while, but this is the first time I hear about that and this could be a serious problem. Another reason to avoid godaddy and to be extra cautious, especially when dealing with new people.

This is a complete guide on domain scammers that shows how to recognize and avoid scammers while trading domains.

There are several popular scamming schemes:

1. Scammer sells stolen domains

How it works:

Scammer trying to sell quickly a stolen domain for a bargain price.

A domain can be stolen by hacking into the a email address associated with it - like yahoo, or hotmail; or by means of social engineering, e.g. if a scammer contacts the registrar support and pretends to be the owner of the domain who forgot the password. Stealing passwords is also possible through keyloggers and trojans installed on the domain owner’s computer.

How to avoid having a domain stolen?

- don’t use free email addresses in your domain contact details. Most people still do this and it puts their valuable domain assets as higher risk. Instead use an email address from your own domain.
- install and run an antivirus and antispyware software, update it frequently and run scans. Here is a good guide on cleaning your computer from spyware and viruses.
- always use strong passwords, random letters and numbers that are near each other on the keyboard. Use different passwords for everything and a password manager to keep track of them. Roboform is recommended. Change the passwords once in a while.
- keep your whois contacts and registrar information up to date (more…)

Change Your Domain Details Right After Buying

We all buy and sell domains on a daily basis and frequently the domains are not updated after the purchase. Buyer forgets or puts off changing the new owner information, or dns, thus still allowing the previous owner to earn the parking revenue. As strange as it may sound, but this situation is very common and frequently even leads to conflicts and losses, for example then a domainer realizes he doesn’t control the domain he purchased because he didn’t change the whois and the domain expired.

Always take this as a rule: right after you buy a domain first thing you do is change contact details (some registrars don’t do that for you automatically after the push, like Dotster, for example), change dns and add the domain to your parking accounts and to your domains list. Keep tracks of all your purchases and sales.

Do it now, thank me later