Re: [ga] Registrar Advisory Concerning Whois Data Accuracy

["todd glassey" <todd.glassey@worldnet.att.net>]

MY concern is what they actually do to maintain that their email address and
other contact point data is valid. I would be surprised if any of the
registrars ever did anything to verify squat at this point. You know how
many domains from Verisign have addresses that are fraudulent and the like.
My favorite one was a Sex Spammer out of Korea that somehow got a
Verisign-supported  Domain Name for an address that listed it as one of the
city offices of the City of San Mateo California.

This was hysterical since this address was essentially a corporation yard
and the phone number that went with it was an Internal Number for PacBell
Information Services (555-1212 type number).

When this was pointed out to Network Solutions (as they were still calling
themselves then) they said "so what", and well, that was that. The problem
is that if the registrar's are not required to immediately take down any
domain that does not have all the adequate information to support it, and
has any of that information proven to be false or fraudulent in nature, then
what is the point?

By the way, Spammers have two modes of operation. The first one is what I
call "Hit and Miss" which is where they are operating illegally as crackers
and will be sending out toxic spam from compromised systems. This type of
SPAM is unstoppable until some better process controlling who and what has
access to your server and people get off of OS platforms and unprotected
tool sets (ala Microsoft's security fiascos); The second type of SPAM is
that of commercial spammers and this form of unsolicited email is
addressable since it is all propagated form single server-centric nodes. The
Spam Mail of this type is addressable if any level of diligence is done at
the Registrar Level.

Any competent individual can plot a string of domains/name
servers/isp-registrar agents for each piece of spam and if each spammer has
the entire chain of their ISP/Name Services rooted through and those
individuals are shutdown as needed then their actions regarding configuring
their systems to blindly pass spam will change significantly.

Both forms of spam are illegal but the first one is more of a terrorist act.
The second is the product of someone filling your in-basket with email you
did not request and subtly creating subject lines like "In answer to your
question" or better yet "Re: In answer to your question". My other favorite
is the claim that you intentionally subscribed to this by going to some
website. Even if you did, there would be a requirement, by law, that they
tell you up front that by visiting this site they were taking your email
info from the Browser and subscribing you. The problem is that they of
course do not notify you ahead of time that this is going to occur and you
will have to figure out from that point onward how to get off the list...

Oh well - any other commentary?

Todd

----- Original Message -----
From: <DannyYounger@cs.com>
To: <ga@dnso.org>
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 5:15 PM
Subject: [ga] Registrar Advisory Concerning Whois Data Accuracy


> Today's Registrar Advisory Concerning Whois Data Accuracy warns that
> Registrars are required to obtain contact information from registrants, to
> provide it publicly by a Whois service, and to investigate and correct any
> reported inaccuracies in contact information for names they sponsor.
> http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm
>
> Perhaps the first claim that could investigate is below (note the lack of
> registrant fax, phone or email address):
>
> Domain Name: inta.org
>
> Name servers:
>     ns1.nac.net
>     ns2.nac.net
>
> Creation date: Feb 23 1995 00:00:00
> Expiration date: Feb 24 2011 00:00:00
>
> Registrant Contact:
>    NA
>    International Trademark Association   (NA)
>    NA
>    1133 Avenue of the Americas
>    New York, NY 10063-6710
>    New York, NY 10063-6710
>    US
>
>
> Billing, Administrative Contact:
>    NA
>    International Trademark Association   (NA)
>    NA
>    1133 Avenue of the Americas
>    New York, NY 10063-6710
>    New York, NY 10063-6710
>    US
>
>
> Status: PROTECTED
>   Note: To help prevent malicious domain hijacking and domain
>         transfer errors, the registrar has protected the registrant
>         of this domain name registrant by locking it.  Any attempted
>         transfers will be denied at the registry until the registrant
>         requests otherwise. The registrant for the name may unlock
>         the name at any time at the current registrar in order for
>         a transfer initiation to succeed
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