Spam Reporting Process

This article outlines the process for reporting spam, clarifying Trustname's role as a domain registrar (not an email provider or web host) and emphasizing that initial steps should involve contacting the ISP or web host of the spam source. It details how to report spam to Trustname and highlights the limitations of their intervention.

Key Takeaways 

• Reporting Procedure - Users should first contact their ISP, web host, or the domain owner of the spam source before involving us, as these parties can often handle the issue more directly.
• Submitting a Report to Us - If additional help is needed, users can file a report via our Abuse Report Form, including the full spam email and email headers as supporting evidence.
• Investigation and Records - When we receive a report, we issue a case number, review the complaint, and record relevant domain details in our internal database without storing personal data.
• Jurisdiction and Responsibility - Our authority as a registrar is limited to domain management; we cannot moderate email or website content and act only on valid legal or ICANN-recognized requests.
• Our Commitment to Anti-Abuse - We continuously track and analyze spam-related complaints to strengthen our anti-abuse framework and better protect users across our domain registry network.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Key Takeaways 
• Definition
• Your Action Plan
• Additional Complaint Requirements For Malware
• What Will Happen
• Please Keep In Mind
• Remember

Definition

Spam is unsolicited bulk email that the recipient has not granted permission to be sent, where the message was sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content used to distribute phishing, pharming, malware, or botnets. Spam is not email sent to you from a company you have a relationship with, even if that relationship is tenuous. Legitimate emails are those that comply with the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act.

We are an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar. This means that we allow our customers to register and manage domain names. We also provide other optional ancillary services such as DNS management, website forwarding, and WHOIS privacy/proxy service. We are not a website host or email service provider, so our network cannot be used to send email.

Your Action Plan

1. If you wish to have a spam issue addressed, it’s best to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the web host of the source of the spam.
2. You can also attempt to communicate with the actual domain owner, as they may be unaware of the issue: domain names are sometimes hijacked by bad actors, and Trustname can help the domain owner fix this issue.

   You can contact them using the information you find by performing a WHOIS lookup either on the Registrar’s website or via a generic service; this may be a link to a contact form, or it may be their email address. Look for a line that starts with "Registrant Email". If they are using our WHOIS Privacy Protection Service (WHOISPPS), you can use the contact privacy form. Note that we have no control over website content on domains registered with us or any of our registrars.

   Most email clients—Gmail, Apple’s Mail app, or whatever you use to read and send emails—will let you filter out email from particular addresses or emails that satisfy certain other criteria. You can typically put them into a dedicated “junk” or “spam” folder or send them straight to the trash. In your email client, search for “mark as spam”.
3.  If you still think we can help, please submit a report via our Abuse Report Form - Malware, Botnets & Spam or Phishing & Pharming.
4. Report to FTC.

Additional Complaint Requirements For Malware

• A copy of a spam email, including the full email header information.

What Will Happen

Upon receipt of such a request via our Abuse Report Form, Trustname will :

1. Respond with a case number.
2. Add the site and the category, date, and resolution of your complaint to our internal database. Your personal information will not be recorded there.

Please Keep In Mind

• We cannot guarantee any particular outcome, but we will review your complaint and contact you only if necessary.
• Your complaint will be evaluated on its merits and addressed as appropriate.
• You will not receive any updates regarding the evaluation or outcome of the complaint. It is entirely at the discretion of the domain registrant whether or not to respond to you.
• We reserve the right to use your complaint to prove abuse to our customer, if necessary.
• Complaints are tracked by our team for the purpose of improving anti-abuse processes and mitigating threats.
• If you submit your report using the Abuse Report Form, you will not receive further notification of receipt for additional submissions from your email address within 24 hours.
• The support code to submit this type of abuse report is S7Q-SPAM-Y9W.

Remember

• Limited Role – Domain name Registrars, such as Trustname, only maintain the system of domain names (example.org) that uniquely identify websites. They are not responsible for the content of the sites to which those domain names point. This means that if you dislike a site or its content, you should first contact the domain owner, then the service that hosts the site (web hosting service), and, if necessary, your local law enforcement authorities. As a domain Registrar, we can only act on court orders issued by or domesticated in the courts of Estonia, Germany, Canada, or the United States.
• ICANN Compliance – According to the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) and Estonian law, as a Registrar, we are not authorized to take independent action against a domain based on third-party allegations. The responsibility for content and activities related to a domain lies with its administrator. However, in accordance with our role as an accredited Registrar, we will take action against a domain administrator if we receive a valid court order or a request from an ICANN-recognized authority.
• Our responsibilities – As a Registrar, we include addressing issues such as Botnets, Malware, Pharming, Phishing, Spam, DNS security threats, and trademark infringement, as detailed by ICANN. For more information and our recommended solutions to these issues, please take a look at the related articles on ICANN's website.