RICA and Domain registration

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wasabi-hb

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Hi,

Kindof a legal question.

I recently registered a domain and hosted site at a provider.
Now this provider is asking for all sorts of documentation to verify my identity, under the guise of RICA.
After providing documents that my bank accepted for the purposes of FICA, they said that is not sufficient and I will have to send another form of proof of address.

Now I have no other option but to cancel this service, because all my documents have my postal address on.
But when I asked to do this, they said that I can do that, but they first have to have my RICA documents.

1. Is it legal for any company to ask for this kind of document, or is there a legal requirement?

2. In terms of getting my money back, what recouse do I have?

3. I would just write off the money already spend, but this company now sit with my domain name, and from HelloPeter is quite difficult to relinquish a domain to another service provider.

Thanks in advance for advice.
 
AFAIK (and I manage over 1k domains), there are no RICA requirements for a domain.

A lot of my international customers would just laugh.
 
wasabi-hb said:
1. Is it legal for any company to ask for this kind of document, or is there a legal requirement?

2. In terms of getting my money back, what recouse do I have?

3. I would just write off the money already spend, but this company now sit with my domain name, and from HelloPeter is quite difficult to relinquish a domain to another service provider.
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1. There is no RICA requirement but perhaps you have used some kind of contract for the hosting and they want to make sure they know where to find you.

2. If you refuse to give them the details as it was a requirement when you signed up then I assume you cannot use the service, in which case the CPA says you have to have your money back.

3. What's the domain? Perhaps you can check the whois and see who they have listed as the registrar etc and may even be able to 'approve' the transfer yourself.
 
There is no RICA requirement for domain registration but ISPs are required to have all RICA information on hand for their customers for providing communications services. So it is probably more of a case of the ISP covering its ass than anything else.
 
Paul Hjul said:
There is no RICA requirement for domain registration but ISPs are required to have all RICA information on hand for their customers for providing communications services. So it is probably more of a case of the ISP covering its ass than anything else.
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That I understand, but not accepting any documentation I have provided thusfar?
This makes me think that I should rather just generate the document exactly as they want it... But I won't do that.


I am past the point of hope for any successfull business with this company in future, so would now rather just get my domain back, but they are listed as the registrant. When I looked them up on HelloPeter, it is quite clear that they won't release the domain if an account on 20c isn't paid. Their replies is also very hostile. This leads me to believe that they would hold my domain "hostage" too.


Thanks for the quick replies.

Lol, just after I posted, I realised how strange that might look.. Registered over 5 years ago, and this is my 3rd post...
Lets just say.. i'm more of a reader than a writer.
 
I have not had to rica a domain before, a service provider needs to rica you - cell phone sim cards yes.

I once read the rica act, I used to be a rica agent, dont remember seeing anything about domains.
 
wasabi-hb said:
That I understand, but not accepting any documentation I have provided thusfar?
This makes me think that I should rather just generate the document exactly as they want it... But I won't do that.
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As proof of address you can provide a police affidavit. They have to take that. SARS allows that to register as an importer for example.
 
Space_Chief said:
As proof of address you can provide a police affidavit. They have to take that. SARS allows that to register as an importer for example.
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My point is, why do I have to jump through hoops to satisfy the service provider?
I already went out of my way, but he is not satisfied. I am starting to think that this provider is a small one man show (judging by his considerable tact on HelloPeter) and somehow I just irked him, now he just want to be difficult.

But thanks for the advice.

btw, what was the last time you did an affidavid at a police station? That takes 10 years of your life because of the frustration...
 
wasabi-hb said:
My point is, why do I have to jump through hoops to satisfy the service provider?
I already went out of my way, but he is not satisfied. I am starting to think that this provider is a small one man show (judging by his considerable tact on HelloPeter) and somehow I just irked him, now he just want to be difficult.

But thanks for the advice.

btw, what was the last time you did an affidavid at a police station? That takes 10 years of your life because of the frustration...
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Did you go for the one man show because the price was right ?
I have had no such issue with any of my registered domains.
That said, maybe ask the providers reasoning behind this request - as mentioned before it might be a internal requirement for your contract with them as provider, and not necessarily with UNIFORM

Regards
 
wasabi-hb said:
Hi,

I recently registered a domain and hosted site at a provider.

Thanks in advance for advice.
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Who is the provider? Please tell us in order to NOT USE THEM.

If they have your domain, contact another registrar to move your domain (is a dotcoza, right?) and leave it to them to sort that part.

I've been using domaincheap as my dotcoza registrar without major issues (except a USD/rand issue that they had some time ago, but was fixed)

Now you can put your website with your registrar or just simply change the DNS to your preferred Hosting (any hosting around the world).

And forget about RICA.
 
wasabi-hb said:
My point is, why do I have to jump through hoops to satisfy the service provider?
I already went out of my way, but he is not satisfied. I am starting to think that this provider is a small one man show (judging by his considerable tact on HelloPeter) and somehow I just irked him, now he just want to be difficult.

But thanks for the advice.

btw, what was the last time you did an affidavid at a police station? That takes 10 years of your life because of the frustration...
Click to expand...

I did one several months ago when I had to renew my SARS Customs Client number. It was an easy process. I did it at the Cape Town Police Station next to the Magistrate Court. They had an assembly line thing, you take a form, you fill in your ID number and address, you write out "I hereby swear that I reside at..." and the policeman looks at your ID and stamps it. It took me about 10 min.
 
Sorry for not posting back yesterday.

Well, I can to some extent understand the provider also.
When I filled in my registration, I used a fictional address, because I believed that this will be used on the domain record. I don't want my physical address to appear freely on the internet.
In the past, looking at domain records, I see that this is a widely used practice.

But now them not accepting any other of my details..

Anycase, I don't want to name and shame at this stage, first want to try the CPA route, but will post a big warning if that is done.
 
wasabi-hb said:
Sorry for not posting back yesterday.

Well, I can to some extent understand the provider also.
When I filled in my registration, I used a fictional address, because I believed that this will be used on the domain record. I don't want my physical address to appear freely on the internet.
In the past, looking at domain records, I see that this is a widely used practice.

But now them not accepting any other of my details..

Anycase, I don't want to name and shame at this stage, first want to try the CPA route, but will post a big warning if that is done.
Click to expand...

You have to use a real address. But it can be a PO BOX I think. There are also anonymising services available, for an extra fee, they hide your real address.
 
Space_Chief said:
You have to use a real address. But it can be a PO BOX I think. There are also anonymising services available, for an extra fee, they hide your real address.
Click to expand...
You have to pay an "anonymising service" extra money to hide your address?
 
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