Don't register a domain before you read this - Most abused TLDs in 2023

There are many new domain name choices now, except for country based domains and the international domains such as .com .net .co, you can find many emerging top level domains targeting niche market at reasonable prices.

However, not all domains are born the same: some domains are used more often to be hosting phishing, malware or other illegal purposes. The most abused TLDs 2023.

According to Spamhaus, a reputable organization that tracks spam and malware activity, some top-level domains (TLDs) are more prone to abuse than others. TLDs are the last part of a domain name, such as .com, .net, or .org. Spamhaus defines abuse as the use of domains for spamming, phishing, malware distribution, or other malicious purposes.

Spamhaus publishes a list of the 10 most abused TLDs every month, based on the percentage of bad domains detected in each TLD. As of June 2023, the worst offenders were:

|   TLD      | Badness Index | Bad Domains | Total Domains |
|-------------|---------------------|--------------------|---------------------|
| .live        | 30.4%              | 10,181            | 33,453             |
| .degree  | 64.3%              | 54                   | 84                    |
| .makeup | 34.4%              | 218                | 633                   |
| .fyi          | 24.8%              | 1,223             | 4,932                |
| .zone      | 24.1%              | 566                | 2,344                |
| .hair        | 29.3%              | 111                | 379                   |
| .beauty   | 29.9%              | 390                | 1,691               |
| .rodeo     | 99.2%              | 97                  | 324                  |
| .haus      | 32.3%              | 9,012,345      | 9,022,456        |
| .gq          | 15.7%              | 3,265             | 20,809             |

You can see the above TLDs have a very high ratio of bad to good domains, indicating that their registries do not enforce strict policies to prevent abuse. Some registrars and resellers may also sell these domains in bulk to spammers and malware operators for profit.  The reason is most likely because of their low registry cost.

But many of them have low registered domains, I think the TLDs that have less than 1 thousand registered are not significant enough.

Take this data as one of your considerations when you register a domain, but do not rely on it too muc.  As long as the domain name represents your brand, it's good to go.

Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay