Very dubious the whole thing. But it wouldn't be the first time Verisign messed up with domain changes - so I wouldn't be surprised. Or simply a stupid mistake when changing the domain by the sender - I see that often enough, where people just don't pay attention to what they're doing. But of course it's also possible that some wheeling and dealing is going on to slow down an unwelcome sender.
I found the original article on heise online news.