Scammers that use the business details of unwitting Aussie businesses seem to be getting a bit smarter. Some of them are now selecting ABN details that closely match the domain name they are using to try and flog shoes and clothes.
This way, when auDA has an initial look, they see an entity that seems to have a “close and substantial” connection to the domain name. To highlight this point, I have given three examples below.
If I was the legitimate owner of one of these business entities, I would threaten auDA with litigation for reputational damage (if they didn’t take down the site immediately). Why? If a consumer gets scammed into buying “product” from one of these sites, then they could make a complaint somewhere – like the ACCC. Who then gets dragged into it? The poor old business that had no idea that their details were being used.
Solution Is Simple auDA
As I have suggested many times before, the common denominator for this UBU problem are two particular overseas based registrars. Public Domain Registry and Tucows seem to have a few bad apples when it comes to certain registrants and resellers.
♦ auDA MUST SUSPEND the .au accreditation of these two registrars until they have fixed the problem.
If I still owned a few registrars, and was allowing registrants or resellers to register UBU’s, auDA would have suspended my accreditation long ago.
Examples
Domain is aerowasphelicopters.com.au – Registrant is “Aeros Pty Ltd”. Registrar is Tucows. Not one helicopter on the website!
Domain is LilydaleCemetery.com.au – Registrant is “Lily Pty Ltd”. Registrar is Tucows. Buy some shoes for your funeral?
Domain is UniqueBlooms.com.au – Registrant is “UNIQ BUILT CORPORATION Pty Ltd”. Registrar is Public Domain Registry.
Ned O’Meara – 28th August 2017
Disclaimer
Clearly the scammers are running rings around AUDA right now. Will this be the legacy of the current management?
auDA Directors and AusRegistry wake up!
Focus on doing your jobs to get the existing .au namespace secure and working better.
You all have responsibility for these scammers continuing to operate every day damaging consumers and the .au namespace reputation.
Forget another unneeded competing .au extension you all want for your extra profits and do your job with what we have first!!
Cut the overseas junkets stay and focus on getting it right in Australia!
Too much damage is happening at a massive level.