Phishing Alert: Please do NOT forward your password
October 6, 2009 :: rajmalikWe have received a report that customers have received spam/phishing emails asking for Network Solutions passwords. The email we have seen has the subject line “Invalid WHOIS records – Action required ICANN”. The email appears to have come from “Network Solutions Security” but is sent from a fraudulent Gmail account: network.solutions.secure@gmail.com.
There may be other email addresses and subject lines being used.
The fraudulent letter looks like this
Dear <<Customer Name Removed>>,
We recently received an email from ICANN with a list of invalid emails on the WHOIS records of domain names registered with us. Since you have domain names registered with Network Solutions, we would like to remind you that ICANN has implied strict rules against having invalid whois information. Keeping such information could immediately lead to deletion of any domain name(s).
At this point, since the account registered under the name <<Customer Name Removed>> has invalid information, we will proceed to domain names deletion which will be available to the registry 45 days after deletion. In order to avoid this to happen we will need to verify you to that account.
In order to do that we will need the following information regarding the account where <<Customer Name Removed>> holds the domain names:
1. Confirmation of the current password used
a. please provide the password in your reply to this email
b. the password will then be reset for security reasons and a new password link will be sent to a valid email
c. if you do not know or remember the password, please follow the instructions below
2. Answer the Security question on file
a. Last Digits of the social security number?
b. Please provide the answer in your reply to this email
c. if you do not remember the answer, please follow the instructions below
We need to confirm you to the account before we make any changes. We would like to have a valid email we could use in the account too
Understand that at this point, and in order to avoid immediate deletion of the domain names, the changes need to be made from us directly so that we can notify ICANN that the new information is valid.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Thank you for choosing Network Solutions.
Sincerely,
Tom Spencer
Network Solutions Security Department
Please take precautions, to verify the authenticity of the email and never forward your password via email to anyone. Network Solutions will not ask for your password.
If you believe you have received an e-mail of this type and provided your password or answers to security question information, we recommend the following:
- login to your account
- review your account information for accuracy
- choose a new password security question and answer
- change your password
If you believe any of your account information has been altered, please contact Network Solutions customer service immediately at: 1-800-333-7680
If you have questions, advice or ideas please feel free to leave a comment here on this blog. Here are some other resources for learning more about Phishing:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/phishing/identify.mspx
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt127.shtm
http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html
http://www.commoncraft.com/phishing
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