militarydefensewelfare.online is an impersonation phishing site whose name suggests an official military or defense welfare body. That kind of branding targets service members' families, partners and people approached by someone claiming to be a soldier. PhishDestroy first flagged the domain on 2026-09-03. It has been offline since 2026-10-14 and was still unreachable when checked on 2026-10-19.
How the scam works
Fake military welfare portals usually support a story told elsewhere: a "soldier" met online needs a leave permit, a welfare release or a communication fee, and the victim is sent to an official-looking site to pay it or submit identity documents. Payments are often requested in crypto or gift cards because they are hard to reverse. Victims lose the money they send and any personal or ID data they enter. When last captured, the page returned only the title "406 Not Acceptable," an error response rather than branded content, while our classification is impersonation phishing.
Evidence
Fourteen of 89 VirusTotal engines flagged the domain as of 2026-09-11. Those engines include Bfore.Ai PreCrime, BitDefender, CRDF, ESET, Emsisoft, Fortinet, G-Data and Gridinsoft, so several unrelated vendors independently reached the same verdict. The domain also appears in four AlienVault OTX threat pulses. Among blocklists, it is listed by PhishDestroy.
Infrastructure
The domain was registered through Spaceship, Inc. on 2025-11-03, about ten months before PhishDestroy detected it. That gap suggests the domain was either held in reserve or ran quietly before it was put to use. It was hosted in the US on the Aquiryn LLC network at 23.153.104.17, with a free Let's Encrypt certificate that gave it a padlock but says nothing about who runs it.
What to do
If you paid a "welfare," leave or release fee through this site, stop all further payments, because these schemes keep inventing new charges. Report the transfer to your bank, card issuer or the exchange you sent crypto from. If you uploaded ID documents or personal details, watch for identity fraud and consider a credit freeze. Report the contact who sent you the link to the platform where you met them, and to your national fraud authority. Defenders should block the domain and the 23.153.104.17 address and search mail and proxy logs for earlier visits.
RegistrationCreated Nov 3, 2025 (350d)—Expires Nov 3, 2026
Time to First Unavailability41 days
What we count
Elapsed time from the first stored abuse report to the first observation that the content was unavailable. This does not establish the cause.
What each report contains
Stored outgoing-report records may reference evidence available at the time, such as vendor verdicts, registration data, hosting details, classifications, or screenshots. This page does not infer the exact payload delivered, receipt, acknowledgement, or action by a recipient.
For this gTLD, the registrar above operates under an ICANN accreditation agreement. The links below provide the official fee schedule and current DNS abuse compliance guidance.
Accreditation is a contract, not a safety certification.
RAA §3.18 establishes abuse-contact and handling requirements. This report can document stored outbound notices and later technical observations; it does not by itself establish receipt, investigation, remediation, or contractual non-compliance.
Saved certificate metadata. Certificate dates without a timezone are shown as stored. Transport encryption does not establish that the site is trustworthy.
Each lane is one reason a domain is linked to this host. Node size marks VirusTotal detections and dashed nodes are already offline. The full lists follow below.
Content matches4
Same favicon hash or the same page title as this host.
6 evidence signal groups linked1 stored notification recordsContent unavailable
If credentials were compromised, report immediately. Do not engage with recovery scammers.
If credentials, payment data, or files were exposed, report the incident immediately. Change affected passwords, revoke active sessions, and scan the device.
Beware of recovery scammers! Recovery scammers may pose as investigators, lawyers, or tracing services. Do not pay upfront fees or disclose credentials.Learn more about recovery fraud →
Template-based draft · optional AI wording assistance requires separate consent
Template-based draft • optional AI wording assistance requires separate consent · Review and submit it yourself
After a phishing incident
Recommendations & Advice for Victims
Choose the steps that match what you shared. Keep a copy of this report alongside your own records.
What should I do immediately?
Urgent
Stop using the suspicious site. Open the real service through its official app or an address you already trust.
Change all passwords — email, exchange accounts, anything that shares the same password
Enable 2FA using an authenticator app (not SMS). Disable SMS-based recovery
Freeze cards if you entered banking details on the phishing site
What information should I collect for my report?
FBI guidelines
Keep original emails, receipts, messages and screenshots in a secure place. A factual timeline helps the receiving authority understand what happened. IC3 evidence guidance ↗
Payment records — if you paid, save the receipt, amount, date, payment provider and recipient details.
Exact dates & times — of each transaction and first contact with scammer
Screenshots — scam website, chat messages, emails, wallet transactions, social media
All URLs & domains used by the scammer (including militarydefensewelfare.online)
Communications — emails, texts, phone numbers, usernames the scammer used
Even if you don't have all details — file a report anyway. Partial information still helps investigations.
Where should I report the scam?
FBI IC3 — Internet Crime Complaint Center (US federal reporting)
Your bank or payment provider — contact its fraud team promptly through official contact details if money or card information was exposed.
Local police — creates an official record, even if they can't act immediately
A report is not a guarantee of recovery or investigation, but prompt, accurate transaction data can help authorities and service providers trace the incident.
How do phishing scams typically work?
Fake websites — pixel-perfect clones of legitimate sites with slightly altered domains
Pig butchering — trust built over weeks via Telegram/WhatsApp/dating apps, then money stolen
Recovery scams — fraudsters pose as recovery agents and demand upfront fees. Never share a seed phrase or pay before independently verifying the provider
AI-powered scams — deepfakes, automated phishing, and AI-generated sites making fraud harder to detect
How can I protect myself in the future?
Bookmark official sites — never click links from emails, DMs, or ads
Verify domains — check on PhishDestroy before interacting. Check HTTPS, spelling, domain age
"Too good to be true" = scam — guaranteed returns, celebrity endorsements, urgent deadlines
About this reportSources, observation dates and corrections
This report combines saved page captures, registration and network records, scanner results and PhishDestroy reporting history. Each source keeps its own observation date. Open a source report to inspect the original result.
The AI-assisted analysis was written on . It describes the evidence available at that time; later source checks can change.
A capture documents what was shown. A scanner result records that provider’s assessment at the time of its check. Neither a valid certificate nor a zero-detection result is a guarantee of safety.
