In a link post dated 6 September 2026, Simon Willison highlighted a piece by Terence Eden titled 'The purpose of DNS is to spread scams,' in which Eden argues that the Domain Name System 'purpose seems to be a vector for criminals to run scams on people at a terrifyingly high rate.' Eden's claims draw on an Interisle report, shared via Andrew Campling. According to Eden's summary, 85 million new registrations of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) were made in 2025, and 8.5 million of those had been added to blocklists by May 2025. Eden writes that the report considers a 10% abuse rate to be the likely floor and that the true figure is probably closer to 20%, leading to his statement that 'one in five newly registered domains with a gTLD are scams.' Willison wrote that he 'had no idea' about the scale of the problem and noted that, according to the post, ICANN has been discussing the issue for years. The figures are attributed to the Interisle report as summarised by Eden; the original report's full methodology is not reproduced in the excerpts.
- The Interisle report cites 85 million new gTLD registrations in 2025, per Eden's summary
- 8.5 million of those were added to blocklists by May 2025
- Eden states the estimated abuse rate is between 10% and 20%
- Post published by Simon Willison on 6 September 2026, linking to Terence Eden
What it means for you
A large share of brand-new website addresses are set up specifically to run scams — by one estimate, as many as one in five. For you, this is a reminder that a domain name looking real or being freshly registered means nothing about whether it's trustworthy. Scammers spin up new domains constantly to impersonate banks, delivery firms, and even your suppliers.
Try this
Next time you get an email or text with a link, check the exact domain before clicking — hover to see the real address, and be extra wary of unfamiliar or oddly-spelled domains, since brand-new ones are disproportionately scams.
Who should care
Small-business owners who handle invoices, payments, or supplier emails, and anyone responsible for staff who click links for a living.
Skip this if
You already treat unsolicited links with suspicion and verify senders independently — this report confirms your caution but changes nothing about your habits.
Sources: Simon Willison — read the original