The latest Cybercrime Supply Chain report has concluded that some of the newer gTLDs (generic top-level domains) such as .shop and .xyz have been some of the more popular extensions with scammers and phishers.
The report indicated that while these newer TLDs that have emerged since 2013 only make up 11% of the total domain share, they are used in 37% of cybercrime. By comparison, traditional TLDs such as .com and .net account for about 50% of the share of total domains, but are used in 40% of reported cybercrime.
Parsing these results, the researchers found that the relatively inexpensive and fast registration of these domain names accounted for their popularity among cybercriminals, often with prices less than $1 or $2USD. They then proceed to create fake websites with these domains and conduct phishing attempts with equally inexpensive email services..
This kind of cybercrime has only risen year upon year, having increased 40% over 2023, so experts are warning internet users to be alert to the hallmarks of phishing and scamming attempts.
