[registrars] Searching for class-action Plaintiff's re suit against TotalNIC.net/ Capital Networks Pty, Ltd. registrar for failure to transfer domains andextortion, fraud, breach of contract - forcing (fwd)

[Rick Wesson <wessorh@ar.com>]

I usually don't forward non-menber mail to the constituency, this one
seems relivant to much of our discussion around transfers.

Disclaimer:
  I have no relationship with any of the parties listed in this
  forwarded note.

-rick


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 11:08:47 -0800 (PST)
From: Strategic Investment Mgmt. Inc <strategicinvestcom@yahoo.com>
To: abuse@registrars-abuse.com, registrar-info@icann.org, michael@speedycow.com,
     admin@worldpen.com, elizabeth.darwin@accc.gov.au, hostmaster@gps.net,
     nezih@erkman.com, registrars@dnso.org, dwascher@iaregistry.com,
     owner-registrars@dnso.org, hostmaster@000domains.com,
     lists@a-z-internet.com, isplists@ezserver.net, ozbcoz@optushome.com.au,
     webmaster@bullterra.com, matthooker@hotmail.com, core@totalnic.net,
     icann@totalnic.net, transfers@totalnic.net, renewals@totalnic.net
Subject: ---SPAM--- Searching for class-action Plaintiff's re suit against
    TotalNIC.net / Capital Networks Pty,
     Ltd. registrar for failure to transfer domains and extortion, fraud,
     breach of contract - forcing domain owners to renew with them.


1/23/2003

RE: Problems with Capital Networks Pty, Ltd. (dba
TotalNIC.net) and upcoming class-action suit.

To all parties who have been forced to renew their
domains by TotalNIC.net (Capital Networks Pty Ltd.),
and not allowed to transfer them to another registrar:


1. We are going to sue them in court for two years
worth of their $20.00 renewal fees per domain, when
they should have honored our numerous requests to
transfer our domains to another registrar of our
choice (LowestPriceDomain.com - $8.88 per year), plus
costs, fees and damages. If you are interested in
obtaining information about your rights in this
class-action suit to recover costs and damages from
them, please e-mail us at StrategicInvestCom@Yahoo.com
or fax us at 1-760-924-8931 as soon as possible. We
hope to have a form up at the soon-to-be-constructed
web site: InternetScams.com.

We would like a copy of the domain registration
agreement or contract which was in effect in December
of 1999 and January of 2000 at TotalNIC.net - the CORE
registry. If you have a copy of this contract, user
agreement, or terms and conditions of use, please
e-mail it to us at StrategicInvestCom@Yahoo.com, or
fax it to us at (760) 924-8931. Thank you for your
help.

Below is the brief history of TotalNIC.net's extortion
of us.

TotalNIC.net has now shut-off DNS service to at least
two of our domains, compu-mortgage.com and
losvalores.com. They have refused to transfer our
domains to Register.com (the registrar-partner of
LowestPriceDomain.com) for over a year, and 1 year ago
were were forced by them (they blackmailed us into
renewing with them under threat of their releasing all
of our domains for re-registration by any party) to
renew with them, which we did under protest. They are
now trying to extort more money from us by using the
same threat - renew with them or lose our domains.
They have already damaged our business by cutting off
DNS service to some of our domains.

 In January of 2000 we purchased 33 domains from
TotalNIC.net  - 2 years each. The contract we agreed
to at that time stated that we could transfer our
domains at any time to another registrar. This was
standard operating procedure for all registrars at
that time.

We would like a copy of this contract which was in
effect in December of 1999 and January of 2000. If you
have a copy of this contract, user agreement, terms
and conditions of use, please e-mail it to us at
StrategicInvestCom@Yahoo.com, or fax it to us at (760)
924-8931

In December of 2001, we requested
a transfer of 33 of our domains which were being held
by the Australian registrar TotalNIC.net, to
Register.com, where we had previously entered into a
partnership which allowed us to buy domains at a bulk
price of $7.00 each. The principal e-mail address that
we had on file for all of our domains, s-i-m.com, was
no longer valid because DirectNIC.com
released it and it was registered by another party
when we had 6 months left until expiration. TotalNIC's
system did not let us enter into our domain manager to
change the e-mail address. The password they had given
us would not work, and they refused to give us another
working password. To this date they have never
supplied us with a working password, nor have they
heeded our requests (many) to change the contact
information including the e-mail addresses for all of
our domains.

At that time all of
our experience with the five or so registrars we had
dealings with allowed a transfer away from them by a
simple e-mail request, and this is what our contract
with TotalNIC.net stated. In January of 2000.
TotalNIC.net at first told us
that their policy had changed, and was at that time
that we had to
send a notarized letter on company letterhead to CORE
Security at a P.O. Box in Australia by regular
airmail, and that no faxes or deliveries could
expedite the process. We protested that we had never
agreed to those terms and conditions, and we demanded
immediate transfer of all of our 33 domains. They
refused, so, under protest we complied with their
request, and waited, and a month or so later we were
finally told that they refused to honor our request to
transfer OUR domains to Register.com, and that all of
the 33 domains had expired and that we must renew them
with TotalNIC.net (Capital Networks Pty Ltd) at $20.00
per year - or risk losing the domains alltogether as
they would be released to the pool of domains
available for registration.

We protested again, but renewed each domain (total of
$680.00 - 1 domain was renewed by mistake for 2 years)
ONLY so that we would not lose it, and informed them
that we would be bringing suit for damages including
recouping all of the $680.00 plus expenses. We had
informed them that it would cost us nothing up front
and only $7.00 at the end of the year for each domain
we transfered. This was in January of 2002.

Five times this year we sent Capital Networks
(TotalNIC.net) a demand letter demanding them to
transfer our domains to Register.com and reimburse
us the $680.00 or face a lawsuit. They never responded
to our demands, and they never transferred any of the
domains to Register,.com as we repeatedly requested.
They never gave us a working password to our accounts
or allowed us to change the contact information for
our domains including the e-mail address on file.
Theyu never made these changes for us either.

Last month we sent a plethora of letters and demand
notices to them, to the individuals we could find who
appeared to be running their company, and to ICANN all
demanding an immediate transfer of our (now) 31
domains to Register.com, - all to no avail. The
31 domains have now expired and DNS service has been
shut-off to some of the domains (compu-mortgage.com,
losvalores.com)

We want to place an injunction on TotalNIC.net (and
perhaps ICANN also) to prevent any of the 31 domains
from being released to the pool of domains available
for registration. We are short on cash and do not want
to waste another $620.00. We also want to recoup the
$680 spent a year ago when we were extorted to renew
our domains with them of risk losing them, about
$325.00 in costs, and substantial damages for this
extortion.

Below follows two of our numerous legal notice demands
to TotalNIC to release our domains for transfer to
Register.com (where we are a domian registration
partner/affilliate)[A.] and [B.]; which is followed by
our response of 1/8/2003 to TotalNIC's notice that
they will shut-off DNS service to one of our domains
which expired on 1/6/03 within 24 hours and we risk
losing the domain altogether[C.].

[To: ICANN: I am hoping that you might be able to help
us legally with regard to the matters described above.
We honestly feel like this is extortion, and we
believe that ICANN is irresponsible and negligent in
failing to protect our domain holder's rights. ICANN,
you are letting one of your accredited registrars
defraud and extort domain owners. This is sever
negligence at the least, and you are creating a
windfall for lawyers and arbitrators and a nightmare
for domain owners. You shouldn't be entitled with the
opportunity and responsibility of managing the
Internet and the Domain Name System if you allow fraud
and extortion to proceed unchecked by one of the
registrars you accredited. We demand that you place an
immediate hold on all 31 of our domains, transfer them
to Register.com immediately, and remove the accredited
status of the TotalNIC.net  registrar - or you will be
guilty of fraud and extortion along with them.

In addition, we demand a copy of the contract (user
agreement) which TotalNIC.net (CORE) had in effect on
its web site on January 1, 2000. That is the only
contract which applies to us and our 31 domains and
this dispute which is actually extortion.]

3 years ago, TotalNIC.net was one of the lowest price
registrars, and today it is twice as expensive as the
lowest priced registrars. So they are refusing to
honor valid transfer requests from its customers,
scaring or extorting them or defrauding them into
renewing with them or risk shut-off of DNS or losing
the domain altogether. They recently informed us, when
asked why they never honored our transfer request made
per their new terms - the notarized letter, etc... a
year ago, and they stated that with the shift form the
CORE registry to ICANN, no transfers could be made for
180 days, and that no transfers can be made in the 30
days before a domains is due to expire. This is crap,
unacceptable, fraudulent crap that we never agreed to.
This is fraud, and you, ICANN,  by letting them keep
their accredited status are participating in this
fraud.

We have everything described above documented - we
have saved copies of all of the letters and demand
notices and e-mails and faxes.

Would you please contact us at your earliest
convenience to descuss whether you can help us?

Sincerely,
Matt Hooker
President
Strategic Investment Management Inc.
Tel / Fax: 1-760-924-8931
E-Mail: StrategicInvestCom@Yahoo.com




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