In the run-up to Christmas, one of the busiest times for online shopping and e-commerce, we are likely to see a spike in fraudulent domain name registrations.
Domain provider CSC analyzed threatening domains targeting 10 of the biggest brands in the world in a report published on December 6, 2022. These include Amazon, Walmart, McDonald’s, Tencent, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook.
Of 8480 identified unique third-party domain names in their dataset, CSC found that 56% were linked to a live webpage, some of which offered “a range of high-concern content types, including fraud issues like potential phishing sites, and other brand infringements,” according to the report.
Also, 66% of the identified third-party domain names used domain privacy services, “indicating an intention by the owner to mask their identity,” and 35% were configured with active mail exchange (MX) records, “indicating their ability to send and receive emails, making them capable of launching phishing attacks,” the report reads.
