Phishing Activity in Domain Registrars
November 1, 2021 - January 31, 2022

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 period, we identified 115 domain registrars with 30,000 domains under management and at least 25 reported phishing domains.

- 61 registrars had more than 100 reported phishing domains.

- 30 registrars had more than 500 reported phishing domains.

- 22 registrars had more than 1000 reported phishing domains.

- 5 registrars had more than 5000 reported phishing domains.

Measurements of reported phishing domains can identify registrars where analyses of business practices, account security, or pricing might prove useful. We currently collect domain registration data for generic Top-level Domains only; thus, the tables on this page present gTLD domains under management for each registrar.

In the table below, we show the twenty domain name Registrars with the highest number of reported phishing domains under management.

Ranking of Domain Registrars by Phishing Domains (November 2021 to January 2022)

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 13,035,543 24,422 18.73
2 GoDaddy.com, LLC 146 65,538,336 11,826 1.80
3 NameSilo, LLC 1479 4,310,990 7,593 17.61
4 ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED 3775 1,677,442 6,200 36.96
5 PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com 303 5,012,480 5,699 11.37
6 Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc 460 648,122 3,475 53.62
7 Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC 1606 692,481 3,249 46.92
8 eNom, LLC 48 4,749,416 2,918 6.14
9 OwnRegistrar, Inc. 1250 110,918 2,155 194.29
10 Tucows Domains Inc. 69 10,242,631 2,033 1.98
11 Wild West Domains, LLC 440 2,934,702 1,900 6.47
12 Wix.com Ltd. 3817 2,206,521 1,769 8.02
13 Name.com, Inc. 625 2,169,656 1,722 7.94
14 Sav.com, LLC 609 865,817 1,718 19.84
15 Porkbun LLC 1861 793,832 1,559 19.64
16 GMO Internet, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com 49 4,551,922 1,493 3.28
17 Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Registrar.eu 1647 1,646,192 1,458 8.86
18 Google LLC 895 6,913,254 1,432 2.07
19 Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd. d/b/a HiChina (www.net.cn) 1599 2,127,512 1,359 6.39
20 Dynadot, LLC 472 2,741,693 1,317 4.80

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.

The table below shows the twenty domain registrars with the highest phishing domain score.

Ranking of Domain Registrars by Phishing Domain Score (November 2021 to January 2022)

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 OwnRegistrar, Inc. 1250 110,918 2,155 194.29
2 Web Commerce Communications Limited dba WebNic.cc 460 648,122 3,475 53.62
3 Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC 1606 692,481 3,249 46.92
4 Eranet International Limited 1868 199,365 871 43.69
5 ALIBABA.COM SINGAPORE E-COMMERCE PRIVATE LIMITED 3775 1,677,442 6,200 36.96
6 NETIM SARL 1519 47,688 168 35.23
7 Reserved 1 81,293 280 34.44
8 TLD Registrar Solutions Ltd. 1564 98,918 331 33.46
9 Internet Domain Service BS Corp 2487 488,629 1,051 21.51
10 CloudFlare, Inc. 1910 380,063 765 20.13
11 Sav.com, LLC 609 865,817 1,718 19.84
12 Porkbun LLC 1861 793,832 1,559 19.64
13 BigRock Solutions Ltd. 1495 231,073 451 19.52
14 NameCheap, Inc. 1068 13,035,543 24,422 18.73
15 NameSilo, LLC 1479 4,310,990 7,593 17.61
16 Hostinger, UAB 1636 614,559 744 12.11
17 Marcaria.com International, Inc. 1086 34,460 41 11.90
18 Domainshype.com, LLC 1660 33,314 39 11.71
19 PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com 303 5,012,480 5,699 11.37
20 OpenTLD B.V. 1666 31,660 33 10.42