Registering a .us domain has become untenable for consumers due to fully-public Whois information.
For years, spamming and cold-calling operations thrived on Whois data. Whenever a new domain was registered, they’d relentlessly contact the new registrants, trying to sell them services.
Then GDPR happened, and most registrars began redacting Whois information.
What’s a spammer to do? Well, they’ve doubled down on the handful of domains in which contact information is still public.
One of these is .us. To this day, the U.S. government has forbidden registrars from providing Whois privacy for .us domain names.
And if you register a .us domain, watch out.
User bocamj wrote about his experience on Reddit:
…Since .com, .net, and .org were taken for the domain I wanted, I chose .us.
Within about 48 hours of purchasing the domain, I was slaughtered with texts and voice mails.
I was told that privacy laws (WHOIS privacy services?) do not mask registrant information on .us domains. In fact, there are a lot of domains in which your information is not masked.
I did not know this. The businesses reaching out are not legit. The voice mails say, “this call is for promotional services”. I get many blank voice mails.
When I contacted Namecheap, they informed me about the privacy stuff and said to change my contact info, so now everyone (going forward) will be emailing Scooby Doo, but the damage is done; Russia and China already have me on speed dial.
The only thing I can really do to combat this is add the numbers as contacts and block them. I couldn’t find any free robo call killer apps. I’ve blocked roughly 180 numbers.
Anyway, if you’re looking to get a domain or open a business, you should probably do your due diligence so you don’t get hammered like me.
Domain registrars often deal with the fallout, as Namecheap did in the above example.
Here’s what PorkBun warns customers before they register a .us domain:
The government has considered obscuring some Whois data for .us domains, most recently in 2023. The proposal included a method for people to access the information easily, even though it would not be made available in Whois.
At a minimum, the government should consider obscuring phone numbers and email addresses. As one of the last remaining sources of public Whois data, .us domains are easy fodder for spammers and scammers.
Source: https://domainnamewire.com/
