Hi all, my neighbourhood watch sent an email to us all. So I've pasted the message verbatim.
Subject: Scam attempt targetting Internet site-owners
Hi!
Here's a scam email targetting people who (like myself) own an internet domain - the bit after @ in an e-mail address or between http:// and the next / in a web address.
All the information in it could be gleaned from the Internet's WHOIS facility, which dates back to the mid-1970s when the various national nets joined up and became "Inter-" (so, a quarter of a century before the web layer was added to the underlying InterNet) - not an up-to-date information source.
That facts that
• it evidences no knowledge more than WHOIS provides;
• there's no such thing as .NET.COM;
• it's not from the people I pay my annual domain-name subscription to;
• I paid my annual fee just a couple of months ago;
• merely connecting to that site "worked" - it hadn't been "suspended"; and
• it links to a "give us your bank details" web-site
evidence that it's a scam.
The most likely victims of this "panic scam" (= threat of dire consequences if you don't frantically pay quickly) are small businesses who've bought a site from one of the companies that manufacture custom web-sites - that is, businesses which lack their own internet technical knowledge.
So: of at most curiosity value to most NHW members, but vital to smaller site owners.
The scam email follows: I've anonymized the details down to underscores, and broken the link to the "gimme details" page.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2022 at 7:52 PM
From: "______.NET Domain" <info@______.com>
To: "_____@______.com" <______@______.com>
Subject: ______.NET Expiry Notice
This notice is to inform you that your invoice number d41c21a1d16b49dca0e512e12abdf004 is OVERDUE. ______.NET.COM expiring on 01/29/2022 is SUSPENDED. Please complete payment AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to avoid any TERMINATION of service to ______.NET
Please note that if no payment is made in the next 3 business days, your data will be purged and deleted.
TO RENEW ______.NET (Expires on 01/29/2022):
https://______.cm/?xid=d41c21a1d16b49dca0e512e12abdf004 The owner currently listed is ______ ______.
Legal Disclaimer: We can not be held legally accountable for any claims, damages or loss that you may incur owing to the suspension of ______.NET. Any such damages may include but are not exclusively limited to: sales losses, deleted files without backup copies, loss of results in search rankings, missed appointments, undelivered email and any other service, business or technical damages that you might suffer. For more reference please look up section 11.b.3.f of our TOS
This is the final renewal message that we are required to transmit in regards to the expiration of ______.NET.
SECURE ONLINE RENEWAL:
==>
https://______.cm/?xid=d41c21a1d16b49dca0e512e12abdf004 <==
Expiry: January-2022
All web services will be restored automatically on ______.NET upon receipt of payment. We thank you for your urgent attention and continued business.
Due for Termination on 01/29/2022
