Here’s an overview of how Trustname receives and handles abuse reports, including how we protect end users from misleading claims. If you’re looking to file a report or are part of law enforcement, see our Abuse Reporting Procedures.
Key Takeaways
- Clear Definition of Abuse – Trustname treats certain activities as abuse, including phishing, malware, hacking, spam, illegal drug sales, domain hijacking, CSAM, and distribution of sensitive personal data, while excluding most copyright/trademark disputes from its jurisdiction.
- Registrar’s Limited Role – As a domain registrar (not a hosting provider), Trustname usually cannot remove or alter website content; abuse reports about hosted material are referred to the web host or relevant authorities.
- Action in Severe or Direct Cases – Trustname intervenes when abuse directly involves its services, such as phishing or malware on a Trustname-registered domain, child exploitation, or activities causing clear personal harm.
- Structured Resolution Process – All abuse reports are reviewed within five business days, with verification of the customer’s relationship to Trustname, a jurisdiction assessment, and Terms of Use checks conducted before any action is taken.
- Legal Compliance Requirement – Trustname acts on court orders issued or recognized in Estonia and follows ICANN/registry agreements when taking enforcement action.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Key Takeaways
- What We Consider Abuse
- Situations When Trustname Deals With Abuse Reports
- Trustname’s Abuse Resolution Process
What We Consider Abuse
Copyright infringement occurs when a website publishes content that is protected by copyright without authorization. Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark that is connected with goods and services from a legitimate company (the Trademark owner) in a way that is likely to confuse the source of the goods and/or services.
According to the ICANN Guide to Registrar Abuse Reporting Practices, registrars are generally a poor venue for a trademark infringement complaint regarding website content because they typically do not provide or control the hosted content (unless the registrar is also the hosting provider) and thus cannot target specific content on a website; instead, the complainant should contact the web host or otherwise follow legal due process.
If we cannot determine, verify, or confirm that abuse is taking place or if the reported activities fall outside our registrar abuse policy, Trustname is unlikely to take action on trademark or copyright complaints, particularly DMCA notices, as they fall outside our jurisdiction and do not apply to EU companies.
Phishing or pharming refers to the use of counterfeit web pages and websites that appear nearly identical to legitimate ones, designed to trick customers of the legitimate website into divulging sensitive data, such as usernames, passwords, PINs, credit card numbers, or bank information.
Malware and botnet sites participate in the distribution of viruses by prompting website visitors to click on links or download files. These viruses then grant the hacker unauthorized access to their devices, allowing them to disrupt computer operations, steal sensitive data, or gain access to private systems.
Sites that also promote, encourage, or engage in computer or network hacking and cracking also fall under this umbrella.
Websites engaging in networking attacks, including port scanning, brute force attacks, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, with the intent of exploiting the victim’s resources or engaging in other illicit activities.
Spam and email abuse are the acts of sending unsolicited or unwanted emails, texts, or SMS messages. This also covers ‘spamvertising’, i.e., advertising websites, products, or projects via email.
Illegal or rogue pharmacies selling or distributing prescription (Rx) medications with no valid prescriptions or selling outdated or counterfeit medications such as opioids, including synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers that are legally available by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and similar.
When a hacker seizes control over a domain name by modifying the domain’s contact information and effectively locking out the legitimate owner from accessing their domain.
Content on a website promoting, encouraging, or engaging in exploiting or abusing children or any adult content depicting minors (someone below the age of 18).
Occurs when a domain has been registered with fake, inaccurate, outdated, or false information listed in the Whois database, and thus violates ICANN’s Whois Accuracy Program.
Websites involved in the distribution of sensitive personal information, such as credit card numbers and Social Security numbers.
Situations When Trustname Deals With Abuse Reports
- Direct Hosting – When the website or the content is physically hosted on Trustname’s servers.
- Network Stability – When the domain is registered on Trustname while the content is hosted elsewhere, and the abuse is malicious, it can compromise the stability of private and public networks. Examples of these types of abuse are the distribution of malware and phishing sites.
- Personal Harm – When the domain is registered with Trustname, and the nature of the abuse involves or supports inflicting obvious personal harm. For example, websites engaging in child pornography or distributing sensitive personal financial information.
- Illegal Activities – When a website promotes engagement in illegal activities, such as arms dealing.
- Legal Referral – For websites publishing content that is not illegal, we will refer the complainant to their local authorities or to your attorney to consult the proper legal channels to determine if the website is unlawful. In such cases, we won’t take any action.
Trustname’s Abuse Resolution Process
Trustname takes abuse reports seriously, and we monitor our abuse queue sent through our abuse forms during business hours and typically review each abuse report in under five business days.
For each abuse report we receive -
- Identify – Determine whether the entity causing the abuse is our customer or is using any of our services.
- Analyse – Determine the nature of the alleged abuse and whether or not we consider it abuse.
- Assess – Determine if the complaint is directly related to our services and the particular service our customer is using. Suppose the customer only has their domain names with us and not web hosting. In that case, we are not responsible for storing their website content, distributing allegedly infringing content, or hosting spam email sources, among other things.
We recommend sending a complaint to the web hosting provider, which can be easily found through the domain’s nameservers available via a Whois lookup. - Redirect – Suppose the customer only has their domain names with us and not web hosting. In that case, we are not responsible for storing their website content or distributing allegedly infringing content, hosting spam email sources, or other similar activities. We recommend sending a complaint to the web hosting provider, which can be easily found through the domain’s nameservers available via a Whois lookup.
- Verify – After confirming that the entity is using a relevant service, we will then determine whether the alleged abuse breaches our accepted terms of use.
- Contact – For complaints that fall under our jurisdiction, we'll reach out to the domain registrant/account holder and ask for a response within five business days.
- Resolve – If the registrant gets a satisfactory response, we can confirm that their content does not violate our Terms of Use. In that case, we will close the complaint and process the report as part of our routine trouble ticket procedure. Here’s why.
- Escalate – On the other hand, if we don’t receive a response from the account holder within five business days and we confirm that the abuse violates our Terms of Use, we may take additional action. However, we will determine whether the action we are taking is within our service agreement and our agreements with the registries and ICANN.
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.