It has been brought to ICANN's attention that some online entities have attempted to sell fraudulent "certificates", which they claim are required to protect generic top-level domain names. The perpetuators of this scam threaten registrants on the protection service with the objective of securing a fee from the registrant. The "certificates" look official and include an unauthorized use of the ICANN logo.

View examples of fraudulent certificates:

Please note that ICANN does not issue certificates to registrants and does not collect fees from registrants directly.

ICANN is currently investigating these cases and advises registrants who encounter similar incidents to report to ICANN immediately via an email to Contractual Compliance at compliance@icann.org.

ICANN recommends that any individual or legal entity wishing to register a domain name under a generic top-level domain name to do so using an ICANN-accredited registrar. More information, including a list of all current ICANN-accredited registrars can be found here: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registrars-0d-2012-02-25-en.