Text Spammers Using Domains By Proxy

Messages like this one are making the rounds

You are a winner. You were chosen to receive a free gift. Go to hhtp://www.apple.ie.brcontest.info and tell us where to ship your gift.

 Doing a WHOIS search reveals that sites mentioned in these messages are registered under Domains By Proxy in order to prevent their victims from determining their real names and locations.

However, Domains By Proxy has an anti-spam policy which, while it doesn't mention text messaging specifically, it does already cover spamming chatrooms or instant messaging programs with links to a site. So, I think they could take action if people began reporting spam being sent to them via text messages.

The following sites have been identified as being registered to Domains By Proxy and having been mentioned in text spam messages

• www.apple.ie.brcontest.info
• www.sony.com.au.brgiveaway.info 
• apple.ie.fcgiveaway.info
• www.sony.com.au.fccontest.info 
• www.apple.ie.acgiveaway.info
• www.apple.ie.fccontest.info

I will add more links to the list as I become aware of them.

To report spam sent to your cellphone with these links, you can do it several ways:

• go to their Spam Abuse Report page and fill it out; or
• send an email to abuse@domainsbyproxy.com

Make sure you mention that you received it on your cellphone by text message and include the entire text of the message you received;

I sent a report myself to Domains By Proxy and will post their reply in an update of this blogpost at a later time.

Duane Browning