{"id":550409,"date":"2006-10-05T09:57:53","date_gmt":"2006-10-05T09:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/550409-beware-the-web-domain-scheme.html"},"modified":"2006-10-05T09:57:53","modified_gmt":"2006-10-05T09:57:53","slug":"beware-the-web-domain-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/550409-beware-the-web-domain-scheme.html","title":{"rendered":"Beware the web domain scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Moneyweb community member, CEO of a well-respected local company, was recently approached by a crowd that calls itself Horizon Interweb and is ostensibly based in the UK. The salesman\u2019s pitch was that someone else was interested in buying six domains with names the same as our community member\u2019s business. The domains included the suffixes .org, .com, .net, etc. <\/font><\/p>\n

If our community member didn\u2019t fork out \u00a3600 for each domain, the salesman said, he\u2019d sell them to the other potential client. This is a multiple of what it normally costs to register a domain. <\/font><\/p>\n

Fortunately our community member didn\u2019t fall for this scheme. But its existence is evidence that many do. <\/font><\/p>\n

The modus operandi of Horizon and other similar operators is as simple but ingenious. Its website, <\/font>www.horizoninterweb.com<\/font> <\/a>, was registered on September 12 2006. The true owners of the website have been hidden with the help of a business called WhoisGuard. <\/font><\/p>\n

To lend some credibility to its purpose, the site claims to be an \u201caccredited member\u201d of the \u201cAgainst Internet Fraud Foundation\u201d as well as an \u201caccredited registrar\u201d of the \u201cDomain Name Council of Europe\u201d. <\/font><\/p>\n

Bizarrely, no information can be found about either entity on the internet, and no website link is provided on Horizon Interweb\u2019s site. <\/font><\/p>\n

No doubt Horizon Interweb\u2019s promoters, whoever they might be, will resurface in a different guise next month. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re breaking any laws,\u201d says Calvin Brown, financial director of Uniform, a South African internet domain registrar. \u201cBut they\u2019re certainly not the most ethical group of people.\u201d<\/font> <\/p>\n

Brown says that there is no way to determine whether anyone intends to register a domain until it is actually purchased. <\/font><\/p>\n

Arthur Goldstuck, MD of consultancy World Wide Worx, advises potential victims to ignore the likes of Horizon, as it\u2019s unlikely that someone else will register the domains offered to you. \u201cThey\u2019re looking for a quick buck,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you already own the domain name that you want, just ignore them.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

However, if someone else does register a domain in the name of your business, and it\u2019s a registered trademark, Goldstuck advises threatening legal action.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/a> <\/p>\n

Moneyweb<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beware of smooth talking salesmen trying to make a quick buck from selling you an internet domain similar to the name of your business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}