What to Do When You Receive a Phishing or Abuse Complaint Notice

Overview

A phishing or abuse complaint notice indicates that malicious activity—such as deceptive phishing pages, malware distribution, spamming, or trademark infringement—has been detected or reported in connection with your domain name or hosting account.

Receiving a phishing complaint domain notice or an abuse warning email requires immediate attention. Security reports can originate directly from our internal security team or from an external third-party reporting organization. How you respond depends on who sent the initial notification.

Understanding the Two Types of Abuse Notices

Steps to Take Upon Receiving a Notice

While resolving the underlying malicious files on your site may require technical cleanup, responding to the notice follows a straightforward workflow:

Stage 1: If the Notice Came Directly from Rebel (abuse@rebel.com)

1. Open the notification email sent by our trust and safety department.

2. Carefully review the specific URL paths, IP addresses, or file locations flagged in the report.

3. Access your hosting account (via Plesk File Manager or FTP) to remove the malicious files or malicious scripts.

4. Reply directly to the abuse@rebel.com email thread with the exact information requested by our team, confirming that the compromised files have been removed or secured.

Stage 2: If You Received the Notice from a Third Party

If an external company, law enforcement agency, or cybersecurity firm emails you directly about an abuse incident on your domain:

1. Do not ignore the notice or click unverified links within third-party emails.

2. Take screenshots or capture the full email headers of the third-party complaint.

3. Forward the original complaint email or send screenshots directly to abuse@rebel.com.

4. Our abuse investigation specialists will review the report, verify its authenticity, and advise you on the necessary remediation steps.

When to Contact Live Support

While site cleanup and log inspection can be initiated on your own, Live Agent assistance is required to finalize abuse cases.

Connect with our team immediately if:

• Your domain name or hosting subscription has been suspended due to an unaddressed phishing complaint domain notice.

• You need assistance identifying which files or database entries were compromised by malware.

• You have completed site remediation and need a security analyst to review and lift account restrictions.