[ncdnhc-discuss] domain theft and blackmail

[James Love]

Another shady practice that we have had complaints about is when a register
sells information when someone asks if a domain is avaiable, and by the time
you try to get it, it's gone.  Jamie


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Jalsevac" <jalsevac at lifesite.net>
To: <discuss at icann-ncc.org>
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 10:52 PM
Subject: [ncdnhc-discuss] domain theft and blackmail


> Hello,
>
>   I don't know if this has been addressed. It may sound like fiction but I
> can verify it.
>
> I recently became aware that there are domain re-sellers that buy domains
> immediately after the owners accidently allowed them to expire. The
> re-sellers then try to sell the domains back to the original owners for
> exorbitant fees after the owners have found out who immediately bought up
> their domain. The blackmail part is that the domains are re-directed to
> hard-core porn sites so that the original, horrified owners are more
> willing to settle quickly. Most intriguing is that this seems to
especially
> be done by Russian domain re-sellers who are likely Russian mob groups.
>
> This situation caused the site that I manage some serious grief since we
> linked to two such domains that were taken over and only discovered the
> problem some time after.
>
> Question: Is anything being done about this?
>
> Also, I suggest that there is a problem with Internet protocols that make
> such extortion far too easy for anyone to do. I recall a few years ago
that
> I rarely encountered the problem of having to pay above standard domain
> fees to acquire any domain. Now, I am almost always subject to extortion
> from various businesses that scoop up every domain that they can in order
> to flip them back at a vastly higher price to those who have legitimate
> interest in the particular domains. There is something wrong with this
picture.
>
> Suggestion: Prohibit the re-selling of domains by domain re-selling
> businesses or set a cap on the maximum that can be charged for
transferring
> a domain. I know this seems radical but I also suspect that if it isn't
> done soon the Internet as we know it will rapidly change for the worse. We
> can't blame the greedy extortionists from taking advantage of such an
> obvious major weakness in the system.
>
> Steve Jalsevac
> sjalsevac at rogers.com
>
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