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Domain Due Diligence

Report for Hotmail.com

Report Date
October 8, 2025
Recommendation
Caution
Overall Summary
Safe
  Why we think so? 

hotmail.com is a legitimate, Microsoft-owned email domain (registered in 1996) that still receives tens of millions of visits per month. Technical signals show Microsoft-managed DNS (Azure), valid TLS certificates, and SPF records — all signs of a properly run service. At the same time, hotmail.com addresses are commonly abused by scammers and phishing campaigns, so treat unsolicited messages from any free-mail address with caution. 🛡️

Confidence Score
88%

Risk Insights

🛡️

Legitimate owner, high usage

  • Registrant = Microsoft Corporation (WHOIS) — strong identity signal.
  • Tens of millions of monthly visits; high global rank.
  • Enterprise DNS and TLS configuration present.
⚠️

Frequent abuse of addresses

  • Hotmail addresses are commonly used in phishing and BEC campaigns.
  • Publicly scraped addresses increase targeting risk.

Contradictory Signals

The domain is legitimate and well-run at the infrastructure level, but attackers still abuse individual hotmail.com addresses — so domain-level trust does not guarantee every email is safe.

Signal A: Strong ownership + technical hygiene (Microsoft, Azure DNS, valid TLS)

Signal B: Frequent use of hotmail.com addresses in phishing and fraud campaigns

Category Scores

Red Flags & Warnings

  • Hotmail.com addresses are frequently used in phishing and fraud campaigns and have been linked to large-scale abuse incidents (including a 2025 suspension of many accounts).
  • Publicly scraped user emails tied to hotmail.com appear on social and forum sites, which increases exposure to targeted scams.

🔎 Detailed Checks & Analysis

Registrant identity (WHOIS)

Score: 95/100
Passed

"Registrar: MarkMonitor, Inc.; registrant address at One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA; long-standing registration reduces impersonation risk for the base domain."

Reason: WHOIS shows Microsoft Corporation as registrant and a 1996 registration date, which strongly supports legitimate ownership.

Traffic & usage (SimilarWeb / analytics)

Score: 85/100
Passed

"SimilarWeb reports ~23–32M monthly visits in 2025 and a global rank near 4,792; strong direct and search traffic shares."

Reason: High monthly traffic (tens of millions) and a top global rank indicate a widely used, legitimate service.

Technical checks (DNS, TLS, SPF)

Score: 90/100
Passed

"DNS points to Microsoft Azure DNS servers; TXT/SPF includes Outlook/Microsoft includes; TLS issued by DigiCert Cloud Services CA-1 and valid through 2026-09-12."

Reason: Azure nameservers, SPF TXT records, and a valid DigiCert TLS cert are present — standard enterprise controls.

Blacklist & phishing feeds

Score: 88/100
Passed

"Scanners did not return active threats tied to the base domain, though subdomains or individual messages can still be malicious."

Reason: No matches in Google Safe Browsing or the crypto scam blacklist for the domain itself.

Brand & trademark conflicts (USPTO)

Score: 80/100
Passed

"USPTO search returned no active conflicting trademarks for the exact query 'hotmail.com'; brand impersonation risk relates to lookalike domains and phishing rather than to trademark availability."

Reason: No conflicting trademark search results returned for the query, but Hotmail is a legacy Microsoft brand and still widely known.

Reputation & abuse reports

Score: 40/100
Failed

"Perplexity/news results highlight phishing campaigns, business email compromise incidents, and a 2025 Microsoft suspension of thousands of accounts tied to abusive activity."

Reason: Numerous community and news reports show hotmail.com addresses are frequently used by scammers, lowering user-level trust for messages from free-mail senders.

Your Next Steps

  • 1

    If you receive an unexpected message asking for credentials, money, or sensitive documents, do not click links — sign in directly at the official Outlook/Microsoft site to verify.

  • 2

    Report suspicious messages to Microsoft (use built-in report phishing options) and enable two-factor authentication on accounts you control.

  • 3

    Treat individual hotmail.com senders as you would any free-email sender: verify identity via an independent channel before making payments or sharing sensitive data.

  • 4

    If you need to confirm domain ownership or technical details for business reasons, reference the WHOIS and DNS records (registrar: MarkMonitor; nameservers: Azure DNS).

Evidence & Citations

🕵🏻 Keep investigating

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