How to report a phishing site to Tucows
To report a phishing or scam site to Tucows, email [email protected] or use Tucows's report domain abuse form (no account needed).
Domain registrar: can suspend the domain name itself.
Tucows Domains is the domain business of Tucows Inc., based in Toronto. Its report-abuse page names the Tucows family of registrars as Ascio, Enom, EPAG and OpenSRS, and Tucows' about page says it also operates the Hover brand. OpenSRS and Enom serve resellers, so a scam domain bought from a small web company can still sit with Tucows.
Use this page when WHOIS or RDAP shows Tucows Domains Inc. (IANA ID 69; Tucows' own RDAP calls it TUCOWS.COM, CO.) as the registrar. If the registrar field reads eNom, LLC, the separate eNom page covers that registrar.
Tucows' contact page sends anyone reporting domain name abuse to tucowsdomains.com/report-abuse/, which explains when to go to the registrant, the web host or Tucows, and links to the reporting form at bullwark.tucows.com/report.
How to reach them
- Check WHOIS first: the Tucows family of registrars is Ascio, Enom, EPAG and OpenSRS
- The form needs no account: you verify your email with a code, then pick the abuse type, and get a case number back
Reporting to Tucows, step by step
- Run a WHOIS or RDAP lookup on the scam domain and confirm the sponsoring registrar is Tucows Domains Inc. or one of the Tucows family registrars.
- Open the Tucows reporting form at bullwark.tucows.com/report. Tucows says no account is needed: you enter your name and email, receive a verification code, then select the abuse type and submit the report.
- Choose the phishing and pharming type. Tucows' page says to report phishing or pharming involving a Tucows domain name through this form.
- If you cannot use the form, [email protected] is the abuse mailbox in Tucows' RDAP record, and the RDAP gives +1.4165350123 as the abuse phone. The same number appears on www.tucows.com/contact.
- Keep the case number Tucows sends back; Tucows says it uses Freshdesk to track reports.
What Tucows asks you to include
- The Tucows form asks for your name and an email address that can receive a verification code; organisation and role are optional.
- The domain name and the abuse type you select on the form. The Tucows report-abuse page does not publish a fixed evidence list for phishing, so give the full scam URL and the brand being imitated.
What Tucows can do
- For a site that is clearly phishing or pharming, Tucows says it will expeditiously reset the domain's name servers so they do not point to any site.
- Where a criminal has taken over a legitimate owner's site, Tucows says it may instead work with the registrant to fix the problem.
- Tucows says it acts on court orders issued by or domesticated into the courts of Canada, Denmark, Germany or the United States.
What Tucows cannot do
- Tucows states that registrars are not responsible for the content of the sites their domain names point to, and that it cannot help with requests about content.
- Tucows notes it has no control over website content on domains registered with any of its registrars, so removing the phishing pages themselves is a job for the web host.
- Tucows says it cannot determine whether something is illegal and points reporters of illegal activity to local law enforcement.
What happens after you report
- Tucows commits to respond, investigate and record: you get an acknowledgement with a case number.
- Tucows says it adds the site, category, date and resolution of your complaint to its internal database, without your personal information, and gives a link to its quarterly report on complaints received.
- Tucows then reviews the site before deciding whether to reset the name servers.
- For some complaint types Tucows may disclose your email address and the nature of the complaint to the registrant, the reseller or a trusted third party, and its quarterly report may show your reporter type.
Write the report
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