Domain name scam
“Since the start of September 2005, we received various calls from local companies, expressing concern about the status of their domain names,” says Buys.
“Their concerns resulted from a UK telephone call informing businesses that an undisclosed third party is about to register their domain names.”
“The caller introduces herself as acting on behalf of a UK business that may prevent the pending domain name registrations upon payment of a fixed fee.”
The UK company offering these ‘services’ is International Domain Services and various local companies have been contacted.
The Achievement Awards Group was one such case.
“They informed us that another person was about to register various domain names that included our name and also supplied an email address, [email protected] and a telephone number (0994) 8700649975,” said Eleanor Muller, MD of Achievement Awards Group.
Network Solutions, a website providing information about domain names and web hosting, states that internationaldomainsolutions.com is blocked.
It is blocked for one of the following reasons: it is subject to a trademark dispute, bankruptcy proceedings or a dispute over the registrant of the domain.
A whois search reveals that John Phillips operating from an address in Leeds, UK owns the domain.
These domain name scams abuse the public’s limited understanding of the domain name registration and dispute resolution procedures according to Buys.
“Domain owners may confirm their domain registrations online and if a domain registration is fully paid, it may only be transferred to another through court proceedings or online arbitration,” said Buys.
Owners of .co.za domain names may confirm their registered ownership through the ‘whois’ service on the Uniforum website (http://co.za/whois.shtml).
A similar service for other domain name registrations is available from the website of Network Solutions (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml).
As far back as February 2001, the US Federal Trade Commission has asked a District Court Judge to halt an Internet domain name scheme that dupes consumers into needlessly registering variations of their existing domain names by deceptively contending that a third party, acting in bad faith, is about to claim it.
Responding to a question on how local businesses should respond to similar scams, Buys suggested that business ignore the fabricated threats and report the name and contact details of the scammer to the .za Domain Name Authority (http://www.zadna.org.za/) or the police.
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