Security News > 2020 > April > ICANN asks registrars to crack down on scam coronavirus websites
When is ICANN going to do something about the explosion of scammy domains spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic?
We can't, the overseers of the internet said last Tuesday, throwing its hands in the air and telling domain registrars that they can - and should.
On Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported that the internet domain-name overseers at ICANN - that's the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - had taken the unusual step of sending a letter to the hundreds of domain name registrars around the globe that are accredited by ICANN to issue new website domain names.
These criminal activities require domain names, which are being used to run phishing, spam, and malware campaigns, and scam sites.
Also in late March, the US Department of Justice began prosecuting scam sites, starting with a domain that was hawking the phony-as-a-$3-bill "Free coronavirus vaccine", purportedly from the World Health Organization, for "Only $4.95 to cover shipping costs".