What is the most abused TLD (Top-Level Domain) for spam?
Summary
What email marketers say8Marketer opinions
Email marketer from MXToolbox shares that it is important to watch out for newer TLDs, which are often targeted by spammers due to their availability and low cost.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow shares that from their experience, they've seen a significant amount of spam and phishing attempts originating from country code TLDs (ccTLDs) that are less regulated, such as .tk or .ga.
Email marketer from Quora responds that, anecdotally, they've observed a higher proportion of spam originating from .date and .online domains.
Email marketer from TechTarget shares that while generic TLDs are popular, less common TLDs like .xyz, .loan, and .top are often heavily abused for spam and malicious activities due to lower registration costs and less stringent oversight.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that he's noticed a lot of spam originating from .xyz domains, and warns people to be cautious of emails coming from that TLD.
Email marketer from Email Deliverability Forum responds that .buzz and other newer, cheaper TLDs often have high spam rates because spammers can easily register many domains for a low cost.
Email marketer from Email Provider Blog explains that a factor to consider is TLDs with privacy features. This is because Spammers might use TLDs that offer WHOIS privacy to mask their identity.
Marketer from Email Geeks initially mentions the worst most abused TLD and then reveals it to be .us domains, the country level TLD in the U.S.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource provides data indicating that .US is the most abused TLD, particularly in the B2C universe, based on his analysis and rankings.
Expert from Email Geeks shares his opinion that cold emailers don't value your time very highly. He jokingly suggests booking fake appointments in their Calendly to waste their time.
Expert from Word to the Wise details that the reputation of a TLD is affected by factors beyond just spam, including the number of phishing attempts and malware distribution originating from that TLD, and how responsive the TLD registry is to abuse reports.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that Spamhaus data generally shows .com as the most abused TLD in terms of raw number of domains.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Spamhaus explains that while .com has the highest number of spam domains due to its size, certain smaller TLDs have a much higher percentage of spam activity, making them proportionally more abused.
Documentation from ICANN shares that they actively monitor TLDs for abuse, and while they don't publish a definitive list, they acknowledge that some TLDs are more prone to spam and phishing due to factors like pricing and registration policies.
Documentation from SURBL explains that they maintain blocklists that often include domains from specific TLDs known for high spam activity, though the specific TLDs can vary over time depending on spammer trends.
Documentation from Google Safe Browsing shares that they detect malicious content, including spam, across all TLDs, but some TLDs may have a higher prevalence of flagged content due to various factors. They do not publish a specific list.