Published on: May 23, 2025
Why is Makani sharing his story?
What is a domain name registrar?
What is whois data?
How can it help me stay safe online?
A domain name is what we think of as a website - facebook.com or makanimason.com. In order to have your own domain, you need to pay some money and share some personal information with a domain name registrar.
This information is then publicly available, unless you choose to make it private through your registrar. Unfortunately for some domains, like ones that end in .us - keeping this information private is prohibited.
Unfortunately, I didn't realize this and registered a .us domain, sharing publicly my name, email address, and phone number. It was a great invitation for hackers and scammers to harass me.
Share your story of being hacked, scammed or tricked online. Give someone the gift of learning from your experience.
Link Lantern: shine a light on an unfamiliar website
Find out when a website was registered
Hover: a simple trustworthy domain registrar