Submitting an abuse report

Online Form Submission

If you wish to make a report about DNS Abuse related to a domain name registered with Safenames, please use our online form:
https://www.safenames.net/abusereport

Note: Please read the below carefully before submitting.

Email Submission

While we maintain an abuse email address, only submissions made through the online form on our website will be considered as compliant with this procedure. Please use the online form to ensure your report is dealt with correctly.

Reporting for Law Enforcement

If you represent a law enforcement agency, or other similar authority, please submit your report to the dedicated point of contact below:

Phone: +44 (0) 1908 200022
Email: [email protected]

Well-founded reports of Illegal Activity will be reviewed within 24 hours by an individual who is empowered by Safenames and will take necessary and appropriate actions in response to the report.

Abuse Policy and Procedure

Definitions

“DNS Abuse” means the activities identified as such by ICANN in the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, Section 3.18.1:

  • Malware;
  • Botnets;
  • Phishing;
  • Pharming;
  • Spam when it serves as a delivery mechanism of the other forms of DNS Abuse.

“Basic Information” means the following pieces of information necessary to identify the complained-about activity and the source thereof:

  • Name and email address of the reporting party;
  • The domain name or URL subject to the report;
  • Comprehensible description of the complained-about activity.

“Illegal Activity” means conduct identified as such by ICANN in the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, Section 1.13.

“Online Form” means the form used by Safenames to receive reports, made available on its website, which constitutes the only compliant method of submitting such reports.

“Personal Information” means any information that can be used to identify, directly or indirectly, a natural person. By way of example, this includes but is not limited to:

  • Name;
  • Email address;
  • Job title and company name.

Abuse Policy

  1. Safenames is committed to fulfilling its obligations under ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement. This includes obligations for registrars to act appropriately upon receipt of a DNS Abuse report.
  2. We will maintain a point of contact for you to submit DNS Abuse reports to Safenames.
  3. Our lawful basis for processing the Personal Information in your report is our legitimate interests in investigating DNS Abuse, and addressing the issues raised in your report.
  4. Domain name registrars usually do not have direct control over website content or emails. In addition, Safenames usually does not have the ability to remove subdomains. As a result, there are circumstances where it is appropriate and proportionate to forward the relevant portion of your report and, where necessary, your Personal Information, to the Safenames account holder. Our lawful basis for this processing is our legitimate interests in addressing the issues raised in your report.
  5. We keep records of abuse reports sent to Safenames via the Online Form. Per our ICANN obligations, these records are kept for the shorter of two years or the longest period permitted by applicable law. These records may be supplied to ICANN upon reasonable notice.
  6. Upon your submission of a DNS Abuse report via the Online Form, we will provide you with confirmation of receipt. You will be provided with a ticket number.
  7. We will commence an investigation based on your report, taking reasonable and prompt steps to respond to you in an appropriate manner.
  8. Our standard for assessing DNS Abuse reports is whether there is ‘actionable evidence’ of DNS Abuse. We reserve the right to ask you for more information and/or evidence to substantiate your report. If you do not provide such evidence, your report may be closed.
  9. We reserve the right to close your report if you have not submitted adequate Basic Information or have submitted a report related to a domain name not registered with Safenames.
  10. You must not impersonate another person or entity, nor otherwise misrepresent your identity. You must not misrepresent your relationship with the party for which you claim to act on behalf of.
  11. You should submit your report in English. Submitting your report in a language other than English may cause delays, due to required translations. Our communications to you will be in English.
  12. Law enforcement agencies and other similar authorities should submit reports of Illegal Activity through the designated contact, shown above.
  13. Nothing in this policy requires Safenames to act in a way which contravenes applicable law.
  14. Where we have requested further evidence or information, you should respond on the same ticket. Duplicate reports will cause delays in addressing your issue.
  15. Our team takes reports of DNS Abuse seriously and will address the issues contained in your report to the extent that Safenames can address them. Use of offensive, threatening, or abusive language is not tolerated and may result in the immediate closure of your report.

Abuse Procedure

Step 1:
Basic Information Check

We need to know some information about you in order to handle your DNS Abuse report. We will first check whether you have submitted adequate Basic Information.

Note: You may receive a response at this stage stating that your report has been closed due to a lack of information.

Step 2:
Services Check

We can only act on reports related to domain names registered with Safenames, or otherwise connected to Safenames services. We will check whether the activity subject to your report originates from a Safenames service.

Note: You may receive a response at this stage stating that your report has been closed, due to the report being unrelated to Safenames.

Step 3:
Evidence Check

We will analyse your report to ascertain whether it contains actionable evidence of DNS Abuse. We may request further evidence from you at this stage. Please note that Safenames must also consider the collateral damage that may be incurred by acting within the means available to it (i.e. suspending a domain name). To this extent, we may direct you to a more appropriate avenue for resolving your report, and/or inform the relevant Safenames account holder of your report.

Note: You may receive a response at this stage notifying you of our actions (including mitigation of the DNS Abuse), recommendations, and/or closure of your report.

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