Hi DSS Hosting Clients / Fort Family Site Owners / Community Members,

Be on the lookout for emails claiming that your email address, domain name, or even your hosting service have been compromised, are in need of being renewed, or are in the process of being discontinued unless you respond. These are phishing attempts designed to trick you into responding to their request and in the process doing one of two things. One: tricking you into exposing personal information that can be exploited and Two: verifying that you are a live contact that can possibly be further exploited in the future.

These attempts have become more persistent in the last couple of years and from what I am reading, people are falling for it and clicking on those enclosed links or providing credentials when trying to log in to these fake sites, handing these people the ability to hijack your site or email. It happens far too often.

Be sure to flag these emails as spam, if we are providing your hosting let us know when you receive them so we can follow up, and if they claim to represent a real organization like Google, Yahoo, or even DSS Hosting, be sure to let that organization know what happened and be sure to forward a copy of the email in question.

If you ever believe your credentials could have been compromised, log in to your site/cPanel and change your password as soon as humanly possible. The sooner you act, the more likely you are to be able to prevent losing all your hard work or even more personal information. If you need assistance in securing your website, our clients can go to https://dsshosting.net/request-support/ and fill out a request form. This will notify our staff and get you the quickest possible response. Other service providers have similar steps to gain assistance so be sure to check their main website for information.

Spread the word!
– Jeff


This sample is an actual email received by one of our clients. Blue text shows where I replaced information with a generic representation. Red indicates information that should raise red flags! All clickable links have been stripped for your protection:

Subject: dsshosting.net [1] has initiated Removal of Your
webmaster@dsshosting.net
Date: 2022-10-02 22:11
From: dsshosting.net [1] Notification <noreply@xm7.zxne.live>
To: webmaster@yourdomainname.com
Hi webmaster, (Simply using your email “name”. We know your name and would use it.)
webmaster@dsshosting.net removal from dsshosting.net [1]
server has
been approved and initiated,
Due to ignorance of last verification warning. (We don’t talk to our clients like this, EVER!  Big red flag!)
Removal will occur in exactly 48 hours (10/3/2022 4:11:04 a.m.
We recommend that you do any of the below and protect your mailbox
CONTINUE REMOVAL [1]
CANCEL REMOVAL [1]
————————-
(c) 2022 dsshosting.net [1]
_>>>>>>>>>> Please do not reply to this message. <<<<<<<<<< _
Links:
——
[1]
https://vasf.net/wp-content/themes/payam/dettt.php?email=webmaster@dsshosting.net
Links:
——
[1] http://dsshosting.net (even starts with “http://” which won’t be the case if you are hosted with DSS Hosting. Your domain will start with https://)