It’s Labor Day in Queensland today, so a public holiday for some. Here are some snippets about the domain name industry (and other stuff!) that I hope you find interesting.
auDA
I was SO happy to receive notification from auDA on Friday that becoming a member is a whole lot easier.
No longer does anyone have to download a form; fill it out; and fax it back. It is now online.
Benefits to membership with auDA include:
- A voice in the future of .au
- Free entry to auIGF – this year held on 11 & 12 October, in Melbourne
- Invitations to other bespoke events we develop for stakeholders over the year (we have big plans in progress)
- Quarterly newsletter – content for which we invite members to help provide
- Vote for a board member in your class – demand or supply – at the AGM
- and much more..
There are two classes of auDA membership:
Supply Class – for domain name industry participants (registry operators, registrars and resellers)
Demand Class – for domain name holders (registrants), internet users and the general public
So if you’re a registrant of a domain name, I urge you to sign up today. That way you can have a say in the future of .au. The cost is a mere $22.
Well done auDA!
On The Drops
There were some decent sales happening last week. Netfleet continues their dominance, however it definitely pays to be a member of Domain Shield (as well) given that they are becoming more and more competitive. Last week DS picked up some beauties for their clients – including BBC.com.au (which there was a losing bid of $1919 +/+ on Netfleet). And whilst Drop’s results are still disappointing to most of us “old timers”, they still occasionally pick up a goodie or two. Cover all bases would be my advice!
I have to make special mention of Friday though. I’ve never seen a day like it! There were 66 contested domains on Netfleet – and they lost just 5. That is HUGE! And not only was the volume there, the price on the top domain was $16, 200 +/+. Here is a list of the top 20 (Domain Shield picked up 5 of these).
Is This Legit?
Thanks to Erhan Karabardak of Cooper Mills for highlighting on DNTrade what seems (on the face of it) a couple of strange registrations on the expired auctions recently. In particular, there was this one yesterday for callforwarding.com.au.
The registrant is supposedly the National Australia Bank, however the registrant contact name is Muhamad Adin Arifin; and the registrant email address is arvcocyber@gmail.com.
- Interestingly, the domain has been paid for – otherwise the registrant contact email would be holding@netfleet.com.au.
- NAB uses Corporation Service Company (Australia) Pty Ltd as its registrar for its other domains. They also use their ABN rather than an ACN; and their registrant email address is domains@nab.com.au.
- The domain is parked at Netfleet.
Now this next bit could be a total coincidence. When I Google the email address arvcocyber@gmail.com, I got zero results. However, the name “arvocyber” is so unusual, so I did a quick search of domain names with that in it. I found that the domain name arvocyber.com was registered under privacy at Netregistry in March. See screenshot below.
Now I am not suggesting or implying that Netfleet (or Netregistry) have done anything wrong. On the contrary, I think that Netfleet may have been taken advantage of.
Alternatively, I could be talking out of my backside, and this transaction is totally legit! However, if it isn’t, then genuine underbidders are potentially missing out.
Anyway, I have forwarded my concerns to Bruce Tonkin at Melbourne IT (Director of Netfleet). Hopefully, they can get it checked out.
Disclaimer by webmaster – Ned O’Meara
Surely cyberscreening is built into the auDA and registries to detect fraudulent activities, or is it simply up to the public to do it voluntarily.
@Scotty – anyone with a throwaway credit card, casual email address, and someone’s ABN can open an account with the dropcatchers.
auDA is a complaints driven organisation – generally they won’t investigate otherwise. Imho.
I think the demand class members should have to declare that they don’t work for a supply class employer. Otherwise there is a screaming conflict of interest. Just like when a company runs a competition it’s banned for employees.
Interestingly I had a valid bid in at Drop on Friday but no drop company including drop picked it up. I hand regged it later.
With regards to callforwarding, it looks like an Indonesian student exploiting a very old crack in the system. They’ll get hammered if anyone takes the time to complain.
@David – some good points there young fella.
I’m glad we no longer have to fax. Was annoying going to the post office just for that.
RE: the suspect NAB registrant. Could just be that they don’t have an ABN, so they are using a fake one. Hopefully it’s nothing more sinister than that. Obviously questions need to be asked though.
@Richard – I’m pretty sure it’s just a chancer taking advantage of the loopholes. Bruce Tonkin agrees it looks strange, and is investigating.
Time to drop residency rules? 🙂
@Garth – I agree. Just like NZ and .co.uk. However, the powers that be want to keep our extension “special”.
The irony is that under auDA policy it is not difficult at all for non-Australians to quite legitimately purchase domains. Application for an Australian TM is one option that gets you there.
Dropping that rule would equate to more sales and higher prices in the drop auctions. As you say, work around’s exist, so why bother putting in those speed bumps.
Looks like they bought a few more domains on NF today.
Hmmm …
Good observation Richard.