If you own a website, you likely receive a good amount of correspondence related to your website (even if you don’t own a website, this info is important to know).
That’s because registering a website domain is like buying a house. Your information is posted online and is a public record.
Companies use this personal information to target website owners with advertisements.
In fact, you might have been mailed a letter by one of these companies…
It may even have sounded like an official organization, with a letter arriving on official-looking stationery that says it’s a bill for their annual website domain listing.
But you don’t ever want to send these companies money. You see, the bill is a cleverly conceived fake…
In reality, it’s just an advertisement targeting business owners, but many people simply pay without realizing it’s not a legitimate bill, but rather an advertisement.
Sadly, what these companies are doing is not a crime.
True, they are preying on the fact that people pay bills without reading the fine print, and most people assume it’s official correspondence.
But in reality, it’s just a company signing up customers.
Now, another way that anyone – not just website owners – might fall for a similar scam is by visiting websites that end with a .US domain.
If you see a website that ends with .US you may believe it’s an official website, or a site that’s safe to visit.
But as you’ll see below, nothing could be further from the truth…
What does .US mean?:
The .US at the end of a website is the country code for the United States and means that it’s a U.S.-based website (similarly, the country code for Canada is .CA).
A domain with .US is supposed to only be available to U.S. citizens and those who can prove they have a physical presence in the United States.
Unfortunately, many people who see the .US at the end of the website assume that the website is safe or legitimate.
.US is popular among hackers:
.US is one of the most common domains to carry out phishing cyber-attacks. In one year, over 30,000 phishing attacks used the .US domain.
The truth is, far from being a sign of safety, many of the .US domains are registered by foreign entities that use them to scam internet users.
In other words, a domain that is intended to represent Americans is being used to steal from them.
It’s like setting up a domain that is safe for Americans to use and then leaving a backdoor open for hackers to take advantage of.
It’s worse than it sounds:
The .US domain is supposed to be overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the United States Department of Commerce.
But the government entity outsources the management of the domain to GoDaddy.
Which means, GoDaddy is required to verify that purchasers of .US domains reside in America, or own organizations in the United States.
Trouble is, the way GoDaddy monitors this isn’t working – as evidenced by the huge number of cyber-attacks using .US.
Most other governments have strict control over their domains, and experience considerably fewer cyber-attacks with their country domain compared to the U.S.
For instance, most European countries enforce strict rules over the use of the country’s domain.
The tight oversight thwarts potential bad actors from using this scam.
Should you visit .US websites?:
Obviously, you can’t always trust .US websites.
So, if you visit a website with that domain, the first thing you should do is verify the URL before you click on anything.
Make sure you spelled everything correctly and typed the URL as you intended, as one little spelling mistake could lead to a virus-infected website.
Also, verify that the website has an SSL certificate.
A legitimate website will have a secure connection and a small padlock symbol in the address bar. Or the website will start with “https://” to show it’s secure.
Too many people assume that a country-specific domain such as .US is safe and trustworthy.
But as you’ve just seen, you should treat a .US domain the same you would any other website you browse.
The truth is you need a fully fleshed-out plan for keeping your personal and private information secure from online predators…
So, whether it’s hackers, Big Tech companies, or the government trying to scoop-up your data…
You can rest easy knowing you and your family’s identity and private data is safe and secured.
