[nc-whois] FW: ICANN response re experience with Whois complaint mechanism

[Steve Metalitz <metalitz@iipa.com>]

To supplement my posting to the list of last Sunday in which I presented
my notes of the discussion of the above topic at the registrar
constituency meeting in Shanghai, here is Dan Halloran's response to my
query for any further or different report.  He has approved its posting to
the Whois TF publicly archived list.  

Steve Metalitz


-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Halloran [mailto:halloran@icann.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 12:22 PM
To: 'Steve Metalitz'
Cc: 'Marilyn Cade'
Subject: RE: [nc-whois] Summary: Comments on Accuracy.


Steve,

Thank you for your inquiry.  Your notes match my recollection of the
discussion in Shanghai very closely.  

An update: as of 18 November 2002, exactly 3,276 "Whois Data Problem
Reports" had been submitted through InterNIC.net.  

As I indicated in Shanghai, it seems that most of the complaints about
inaccurate data are directed at "spamvertized" domain names.  This isn't
very scientific, but I just ran a quick query on the database and found
that 2,484 out of 3,276 of the reports (over 75%) include the word
"spam" somewhere in the report text or data.

As to any evidence of abuse, I'd say there isn't much.  Another
(unscientific?) database query found that our staff person assigned to
(briefly) review these reports had forwarded over 96% of them to the
relevant registrar.  It would appear that the safeguards we have in
place (including the manual review process, logging the reporter's IP
address and also checking the validity of the reporter's e-mail address)
have discouraged any large-scale attempts to abuse the system.

I hope this information is helpful.  Please let me know if I can be of
any further assistance.

Best regards,
Dan Halloran
Chief Registrar Liaison
ICANN
halloran@icann.org
1-310-301-5822