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Detecting Anonymously Registered Domains

Posted by kdawson on from the may-i-tell-them-who-is-calling dept.

Spamresource.com has up a piece describing a new service that could be useful in evaluating the reputation of sites you deal with — anonwhois.org returns information on domains registered anonymously. It provides a DNSBL-style service that "is not a blacklist and wasn't meant to be used for outright rejection of mail." Only 619,000 domains are listed so far, but more are added as they are queried, so the database will grow more complete. Anonwhois.org seems to be a sister site to Spam Eating Monkey.

5 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Continued misuse of blacklists by suso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It provides a DNSBL-style service that "is not a blacklist and wasn't meant to be used for outright rejection of mail.

    Which of course means that in a year or two us mail administrators will start encountering mail servers that have been setup to reject mail based soley on them being on this blacklist.

    1. Re:Continued misuse of blacklists by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Informative

      It provides a DNSBL-style service that "is not a blacklist and wasn't meant to be used for outright rejection of mail.

      Which of course means that in a year or two us mail administrators will start encountering mail servers that have been setup to reject mail based soley on them being on this blacklist.

      Yeah, I urge everyone to exercise caution here ... I looked at the stats and was a little concerned about 123k domains (20%) being domains by proxy. I host a site as a hobby and enjoy tinkering with forums and the like on it. I also don't like the idea of someone looking up my home address via whois and showing up at my front door to complain about something someone said on one of these forums. As a result, I opt for my ISP to be my proxy on the registration of the domain. Now, I know you think that means I have something to hide but I just really don't want my address and name out there because all I would have to put there is my house address.

      Granted, my domain's not no the list and I'm not using it as a mail server (yet), I sympathize with hobbyists, non-profitable sites and people who value privacy. Keep that in mind if you're going to utilize this site as an auto-reject authority.

      --
      My work here is dung.
    2. Re:Continued misuse of blacklists by sopssa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Anecdotes are not data (and a mailbox works as a contact address).

      Maybe in the US. What do you suggest those in the other countries, which have dropped the usage of mailbox addresses, do? No, I'm not putting my home address on the internet, and no, I'm not registering a costly company (with all the tax filing and other things) just so I can register a domain for a hobby site.

      Everyone should also be able to be tell their opinion anonymously (interestingly you also posted as anonymous coward).

      I'm waiting for your insightful answer.

  2. Stupid by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In 2010, who *doesn't* use a "hiding" service for a domain? For fifteen years now you'd basically have to throw away any e-mail address on a domain, and get inundated with physical spam on any mailing address used.

    Black listing domains because the owner doesn't want to deal with jackass spammers and bulk mailers is just stupid.

  3. Everyone in Canada will end up on this list by Digital_Quartz · · Score: 5, Informative

    CIRA (the ".ca" registry) has a feature called "whois privacy" which hides the information of individuals who register domains by default. Only businesses get their information published in the whois database (by default - individuals and businesses can turn this on or off, although businesses need to provide CIRA with a good reason why they want their whois info hidden).