uk[.]paying-gk[.]vip

Analysis of the domain uk.paying-gk.vip indicates elevated risk of phishing activity targeting GOV.UK, the official portal of the UK government. The domain was registered on December 16, 2025, through Alibaba Cloud Computing Ltd. d/b/a HiChina, a registrar frequently associated with fraudulent infrastructure. It resolves to the IP address 151.101.192.144, hosted on AS54113 (Fastly, Inc.) in the United States, a configuration atypical for legitimate UK government services, which typically resolve to UK-based infrastructure. The page title, 'Welcome to GOV.UK,' directly mimics the official UK government portal, suggesting an intent to deceive users into believing the site is authentic. No SSL certificate is present, further deviating from standard security practices for government or high-trust domains.

Infrastructure analysis reveals the domain uses nameservers dns15.hichina.com and dns16.hichina.com, consistent with Alibaba Cloud’s DNS services, which have been observed in other phishing campaigns. Security vendor detections on VirusTotal flag the domain as malicious, with 15 of 95 vendors identifying it as a threat. Gridinsoft assigns a trust score of 0/100, reinforcing the assessment of high risk. The domain appears on one security blocklist and has been blocked by PhishDestroy, a specialized anti-phishing service. As of the report date, the domain is offline, though this does not preclude future reactivation.

Defenders should treat this domain as a confirmed phishing threat targeting UK government services. Network-level blocking is recommended, and any prior resolution to 151.101.192.144 should be investigated for historical exposure. Given the domain’s registration details and hosting on Fastly’s infrastructure, further monitoring of related domains under Alibaba Cloud or using the same nameservers is advised.