What’s a suspicious domain? (2024)

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The question came up on slack and I started bullet pointing what would make a domain suspicious. Seemed like a reasonable blog post. In no particular order, some features that make a domain suspicious to spam filters.

What’s a suspicious domain? (1)

Domain is used in…

  • … mail users complain about
  • … mail users delete without reading
  • … mail sent in bulk through the ISP (example: Censorship, Email and Politics)
  • … phishing mail
  • … malware dissemination

It’s not just the mail the domain is present in. There are other things that lead to suspicion for domains, too.

Domain …

  • is located on a network with a bad reputation
  • is newly registered
  • has network connections to bad domains (like nameservers, etc)
  • is a cousin domain to some regular domain
  • has a name pattern like snowsho*rs use
  • has network connections to individuals with bad reputations
  • has network connections to sources of bad traffic
  • is sent through a MTA with bad behaviour (holding open idle connections, retrying too frequently, etc)

While we talk a lot about permission and user engagement and those are crucial for getting to the inbox. But there are lots of other signals that go into mail delivery, some of them will override even the best domain reputation (example: Fun with spam filters). Knowing what the other signals are means a better overall understanding of delivery and the ability to integrate deliverability into business goals and KPIs.

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What’s a suspicious domain? (2024)

FAQs

What’s a suspicious domain? ›

What is a Suspicious domain? Sites that attempt to download or install malware into your system are known as suspicious domains. It is generally any activity that interferes with the operation of your computer, accesses your data, or gains total control over your device is a suspicious activity.

What is an example of a fake domain? ›

Utilizing Fake Protocols and Manipulating Domains

bank[.]com" into deceptive variants like "login-bank[.]com." Threat actors also append common prefixes or suffixes to legitimate domain names, such as "secure-google-login[.]com,” or manipulate top-level domains, replacing ".com" with alternatives such as ". co" or ".

What is an example of a malicious domain? ›

For example, a malicious domain may use “g00gle.com” instead of “google.com” to trick unsuspecting users. This technique is often used for phishing attacks, where attackers try to trick users into disclosing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, or credit card details.

What is domain crime? ›

Domain theft or domain hijacking, is the practice of changing a domain name's registration without the permission of domain owner. Our Internet attorneys provide guidance to domain owners on best practices to avoid domain theft and other Internet related crimes.

What are phishing domains? ›

Domain phishing is a scam to trick email recipients into handing over their account details via links in emails posing as their registrar. The links forward unsuspecting domain owners to dodgy replica registrar websites looking to obtain sensitive information such a domain account's username and password.

How do I know if a domain is legitimate? ›

Use whois (pronounced “who is”) to find out who owns the domain, where and when the site was registered, contact information, and more. Try a whois lookup — it will help you determine if the site is legit or fraudulent.

How do you tell if a domain is all real? ›

Answer and Explanation:

The domain of a function, f(x), is all real numbers when there are no restrictions on what real numbers we can plug into f(x). That is, the domain of f(x) is all real numbers when we can plug in any real number for x and get a defined function.

What is an unsafe domain? ›

Unsafe sites are usually websites that trick you to do something dangerous online, like try to make you give away your passwords or personal information. They can harm your device or cause problems when you browse online. These sites may be: Phishing. Social engineering.

What is a suspected malicious website? ›

Malicious websites are created by cybercriminals to steal data and plant malware such as ransomware. These websites often masquerade as legitimate ones and use phishing emails to lure visitors. Security tools and awareness training can keep employees from exposing themselves and your company to losses.

What are some malicious websites? ›

Norton has released a sample list of some of the most dangerous sites:
  • Ucoz. com.
  • 17ebook. co.
  • sapo . pt.
  • aladel. net.
  • bpwhamburgorchardpark. org.
  • clicnews. com.
  • Amazonaws .com.
  • dfwdiesel. net.

How do hackers steal a domain? ›

Generally domain hijacking occurs from unauthorized access to, or exploitation of a vulnerability in a domain name registrar, through social engineering, or by gaining access to the domain name owner's email address and then resetting the password to their domain name registrar.

What is domain behavior? ›

This domain relates to the social and behavioural aspects of a student in their learning environment. There are two interelated focus areas: 1. The student's ability to regulate their behaviour and respond appropriately to the environment, and.

What is abusive domain? ›

Domain name abuse is the misuse of domain names through a variety of illegal and harmful activities, primarily centredD around deceptive practices or harmful content.

Can a domain get hacked? ›

Domain hijacking can be done in several ways, generally by unauthorized access to, or exploiting a vulnerability in the domain name registrar's system, through social engineering, or getting into the domain owner's email account that is associated with the domain name registration.

What are the 4 types of phishing? ›

Below are six main types of phishing attacks utilised by cyber criminals, with an explanation of how they work:
  • Business Email Compromise (BEC) or CEO Fraud. ...
  • Vishing. ...
  • Smishing. ...
  • Clone Phishing. ...
  • Spear Phishing. ...
  • Whaling.

What are 4 cyber domains? ›

The different contexts in which Cybersecurity approaches might be used are referred to as Cybersecurity domains. Some of the most popular cyber security domains include threat intelligence, risk assessment, threat management, and application security.

What is an example of an invalid domain? ›

Examples of malformed and invalid domains include:
  • name@yhaoo.com.
  • name@gmial.com.
  • name@hotmailcom.

What are some domain examples? ›

Example domain names
  • altostrat.com.
  • examplepetstore.com.
  • example-pet-store.com.
  • myownpersonaldomain.com.
  • my-own-personal-domain.com.
  • cymbalgroup.com.

What is an example of a domain? ›

Other examples of domain names are google.com and wikipedia.org. Using a domain name to identify a location on the Internet rather than the numeric IP address makes it much easier to remember and type web addresses.

What is a non existent domain name? ›

A Non-existent Domain error occurs if any resource record type for the specified domain name is not available from the name server. A Server Failed error occurs when the local name server cannot communicate with the remote name server.

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