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The Courts Government The Internet News

US Court Disconnects Canadian Domain Name Scammers 149

Posted by kdawson from the stop-it-this-time-we-mean-it dept.
coondoggie writes "A US District Court today ordered a halt to the illegal practice of Canadian companies who the Federal Trade Commission said deceptively posed as domain name registrars and sent bogus bills to thousands of US small businesses and nonprofit organizations for their annual 'Website Address Listing.' The FTC said many of the businesses believed they would lose their Web site addresses unless they paid the bill, so they paid but in most cases the defendants did not provide domain registration services, did not provide the 'search optimization' services it claimed to provide, and bilked small businesses and nonprofits out of millions of dollars."
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US Court Disconnects Canadian Domain Name Scammers More

US Court Disconnects Canadian Domain Name Scammers

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  • The bills do honestly look legit. I always wondered how they were getting away with it.
    It would make me laugh though, they offered me their best deal of 4-6x what I am paying my current registrar.
    • I've wondered the same thing. I have to keep reminding myself that most people are not technically competent. They've either had someone else register their domain for them or they did it following a bouncing ball and either don't have a clue or remember who their registrar is let alone what a registrar is.

      Heck, most people can't even tell you who their site is hosted with. All they can tell you is who does the updates or show you what buttons they push to update their site.

      This is why companies get bilk

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeah, I have gotten one of these too in Canada. Actually a client got one about renewing their .ca domain but they only had a .com. I think it was from the Canadian Internet Registrar and looked legit. Checked the registration online and it was good for another 6 months and the cost was also way more. I must say I can see how a small business owner who doesn't know much about how registration works would just think it's legit and pay. Luckily the client contacted me first though because they were going
    • Yup, I got one of these too. They were asking for ~$75 for a one year renewal of a .com domain. I think there was small print stating "this is not an invoice", but otherwise looked quite convincing.

      I can see how the uninformed masses could easily fall for it.
    • Me too.

      My domain is named for my DOG.

      I even got a bill from a shipyard for fixing my yacht or my DOG's yacht, I dunno. I have never seen either of them.

      My dog has had a couple of credit cards sent to him, in his name, pre-approved. Those are very cool novelty items.

      If you have had a domain since 1995, then you have seen a lot of scammers and stupidity as well.

  • Frozen money! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @02:40PM (#23827689)
    A federal district court judge in Chicago, Robert M. Dow, Jr., ordered a halt to the deceptive claims and froze the defendants' assets held in the United States, pending trial. The FTC will seek a permanent halt to the scheme and ask the court to order redress to victimized consumers.

    Lesson is? Don't store money in the US if you are (allegedly) committing crimes in the US.

    I'm trying to get outraged but the US only affected US assets. Something within its Jurisdiction.
    • Well, we ought to be careful here. Depending on which companies were bilked, GWB might decide to go to war with Canada to redress the issue. Weapons of Mass Cash Dispersal and all that.
  • its amazing people actually fall for that bulls***

    i really must be in the wrong business. i'm thinking about this whole "business plan" concept wrong. i'm thinking "what do people want and need and how can i give that to them better than the competition"

    i should be thinking "how can i prey on stupidity and fear of authority"

    • Re:i've gotten those in the mail (Score:5, Funny)

      by bsDaemon ( 87307 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:00PM (#23828019)

      i should be thinking "how can i prey on stupidity and fear of authority"
      Run for office?
      • Work for Fox News or talk radio?
    • That's the easy part. Getting away with it is the hard part. And the part where almost all criminals eventually fail at is being smart enough to stay that way.
      • indeed.

        Law enforcement only has to get lucky once to put a criminal in prison. The criminal has to get lucky every single time to stay free. Sooner or later a serial criminal is almost certain to screw something up either through complacency or just plain bad luck.

    • Re:i've gotten those in the mail (Score:5, Interesting)

      by akb ( 39826 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:17PM (#23828303)
      Actually, given that a profitable amount of people believe they are communicating with Nigerian royalty this scam was pure gold. I mean, they went through the trouble of masquerading as the specific registrar. Too bad (?) they didn't cover their tracks better.

      • Actually, given that a profitable amount of people believe they are communicating with Nigerian royalty

        I don't know of any way of measuring the total value of Nigerian scams, but as noted in the quote, it seems that it is profitable; scammers keep playing the game, so it must be working for them to some extent.

        Scambusters says $100 million to $200 million a year http://www.scambusters.org/nigerian-scams.html [scambusters.org] with no detail on the calculation.

        Has anyone ever seen a serious attempt to monetarily quantify Internet-based Nigerian fraud type activity?

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No, you're not thinking about it wrong. You're choosing to think about it ethically. Just like most people choose to have a job to bring home money instead of using a gun to rob their local convenience store.

      As for people falling for the "bulls***", despite what some people may think, there are still people out there who are new to the internets and the Google and can't quite wrap their brain around it all.

      I know people who, despite numerous attempts to explain, can't figure out why they can access their we
    • "i should be thinking 'how can i prey on stupidity and fear of authority'"

      Blame the Republicans, you accomplish both at once.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dargaud ( 518470 )

      its amazing people actually fall for that bulls***
      Well, I'm not. One of my customers who I webmin for received it and I had to read it several times before I even guessed it was a scam: it knew all our DNS info (of course pulled from WHOIS), but also claimed to be our registrar (only the address was different but i wouldn't have known that). What tipped me off was the price.
  • ordered a halt to the illegal practice

    So basically the courts ordered someone to stop breaking the law? Yea, that's gonna change their whole attitude.

  • Summary is horrible. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @02:44PM (#23827771)
    First off it wasn't a US action, it was a joint law enforcement effort, Some dips are trying to use an international border to dodge law enforcement and got caught at it.

    Second nothings been disconnected, a US judge froze the companies US assets, a Canadian court needs to seize their Canadian assets.

    This is not a case of the US trying to impose its laws on Canada again, the bogus domain name companies are committing fraud and thats illegal anywhere you go.

    I don't know why this article is even on slashdot, its not news. Canadian and US authorities cooperated to catch a crook who tired to use the border to avoid getting caught. Happens all the time.
  • I got an email about buying real estate on the moon. Had I bought it, at least I could rest easy knowing I wasn't a moron and it was in fact the person sending it who was at fault... I've also won a MILLION DOLLARS from readers digest... And they got millions?? really!? But the US has no power in Canada... How could this order make a difference? Actually, strike that last part. I'm fairly certain the US controls Canada :-). Harper would love that...

  • The stupidity tax really bites hard (Score:3, Insightful)

    by damburger ( 981828 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @02:50PM (#23827861)
    Especially if you send money to random people who ask for it without checking who they are first.

    • Stupidity tax rewards evil (Score:5, Insightful)

      by spun ( 1352 ) <loverevolutionary&yahoo,com> on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @02:59PM (#23828013) Journal
      The thing about the "stupidity tax" as so many call it is not that it harms the stupid, it is that it rewards the corrupt.

      You can laugh at the people who fall for things like this and pat yourself on the back all you like, but it is wrong. It isn't helping society. It isn't weeding out the weak and stupid. It is rewarding evil.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by damburger ( 981828 )
        Helping society? Contrary to popular belief there are worse things in the world then some people taking money of the middle class. They aren't taking food out of the mouths of the starving or water from the thirsty. Get some perspective.
        • I wish those starving would starve to death already, I'm sick of seeing bloated African children on daytime TV. Oh wait, am I supposed to care?

          • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

            by spun ( 1352 )
            Yes, you are supposed to care. If you don't, it indicates a major subsystem of your brain is missing (you're a psychopath) or damaged (you're like most people.) Our brain has mirror circuits that let us run simulations of other sentient beings, which tie in to empathy circuits that let us feel what others are feeling. If you can witness suffering without feeling anything, there is something wrong with these circuits. As they are highly advantageous, both for the individual, and for the species as a whole,

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by jcgf ( 688310 )
              I think that it just indicates that he knows "Christian Children Fund" etc just keeps the money to themselves.

              I am suspicious that they take your money and then eat the bloated African children. Remember those licorice candies called "Nigger Babies"? Well they aren't really made from licorice!

        • Re:Stupidity tax rewards evil (Score:5, Insightful)

          by spun ( 1352 ) <loverevolutionary&yahoo,com> on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:39PM (#23828639) Journal
          You miss the point. It isn't who these people are hurting, it is what they are being rewarded for. Rewarding behavior that hurts others is never a good idea, no matter how minor the harm.

    • Try running a business (Score:5, Informative)

      by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:37PM (#23828619)

      Especially if you send money to random people who ask for it without checking who they are first.
      That works fine if you're paying your dozen monthly personal bills sent to your home. It's totally different if you're running a business. If you're lucky, you only have 50 monthly bills. More likely you have 100-200. Many vendors are used sporadically so their bills will be unfamiliar. And the person paying the bills wasn't involved in purchasing from the vendor so even the vendor name may be unfamiliar.

      It's the reason large companies use purchase order systems. But for many small/medium businesses the extra overhead of purchase orders isn't worth it, and so they become vulnerable to this type of scam.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ozbird ( 127571 )
        That works fine if you're paying your dozen monthly personal bills sent to your home.

        I don't pay mine - problem sol
        NO CARRIER

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mpe ( 36238 )
      Especially if you send money to random people who ask for it without checking who they are first.

      Especially given that sending out bogus invoices is a very old scam. But apparently one which still gets enough money to make doing it worthwhile.

  • dollars (Score:2, Funny)

    by dword ( 735428 )
    bilked small businesses and nonprofits out of millions of dollars

    Why bother? It's probably Canadian just dollars...

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by navygeek ( 1044768 )
      Don't get too cocky. Not too long ago the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. Currently, it's only behind the USD by $0.017 - i.e. damn near equal.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jcgf ( 688310 )
        Yeah, he won't have his nose in the air when their economy collapses and we see 1USD = 0.073CAD.

        When it happens, I am going to head down to Minneapolis, find some hookers and then pay them to fight some other hookers I picked up in Tijuana. Be able to do it all for about 12 CAD if I budget. Maybe more if the Tijuana hookers can't be revived (I had them in that freezer for quite some time and I'm not as experienced with Cryogenics as I would like - no I did not just use a deep-freeze; I know THAT doesn't

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by keeboo ( 724305 )
          Yeah, he won't have his nose in the air when their economy collapses and we see 1USD = 0.073CAD.
          When it happens, I am going to head down to Minneapolis, find some hookers and then pay them to fight some other hookers I picked up in Tijuana.
          Really? Look at this [international.gc.ca] then.
          Over 80% of canadian exports go to the US.
          How do you think canadian economy will be if US collapses?

          Meanwhile <16% of what is exported from Brazil goes to the US, as you can see here [state.gov].

          I guess it's more likely that brazilians would be

  • Network Solutions (Score:4, Insightful)

    by N8F8 ( 4562 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:01PM (#23828039)
    Network solutions sends out bogus bill-looking mail too to registrants.

  • Great News! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Random Guru 42 ( 687672 )
    Now if only the Canadian government would do the same thing up here.

  • Canadian Companies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by whisper_jeff ( 680366 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:14PM (#23828253)
    I haven't read the article, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess "Canadian companies" is used loosely since it's illegal to charge for a service and not provide it, even in the frozen, barbaric north. I suspect "Canadian companies" is being used rather than "illegal scammers that happen to operate out of Canada." Then again, I didn't read the article so...
  • heh, these guys send me a couple of their "re-registration" notices every year around that time. slimy, but illegal? how are they any different from the "renew you automobile warranty" letters i still get every few months?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zorque ( 894011 )
      They're probably not any different, but that doesn't make them legal. Charging people for a service you don't provide is, the last time I checked, fraud.

  • An oldie but goodie (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Happy Lemming ( 918671 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @03:22PM (#23828387)
    Long ago, we used to get official-looking bills for listings in a worldwide Telex directory, for several hundred dollars a year. They were mailed from somewhere in Europe, I think, but the bills that reached us went straight into the bin. Looks like the scam has been updated.
  • Props to the perps. Go Canada!

  • Let's take a look at www.daxpub.com (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "DAX Publications" appears to be a Buffalo NY company, but the domain registration suggests otherwise:

    Registrant:
    namesbeyond.com
    Private Private
    4141 Yonge Street, Suite 204,Toronto, ON M2P
    2A8
    Toronto, Canada ON M2P 2A8
    United States
    Phone:+1.8773211356

    This is some type of "Directory listing service". At my past job, they sent a bill for such things as "website hosting fees", etc.

    How popular is this
  • These's guys have doing this for a long time...

    The problem is enough people fall for this to make it profitable for them... basically like spam.

    When I was working in webhosting, I don't know how different customers would call us asking about these "invoices" and if they should pay them or not... or asking why they have to pay us since they already paid them.... probably hundreds.

    It always annoyed me how they could get away with it...

  • Same old scam (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Back in the 80's there was a scam where a company would send bills for the phone directory and used the "walking fingers" logo which was never trademarked. People thought this came from the one and only phone company and paid it. The directory (if it was ever printed)was not the "official" one. (Back then there was only one phone book. it was either just before or just after the breakup of AT&T.)
  • Dudes, c'mon, our law enforcement officers and law makers are way too busy with important things such as a bribe-sponsored copyright reform to worry about such pesky things... :p
  • Yeah, I 'know I'm a bad, bad man for providing false information, but as far as I'm concerned, providing fake contact info is just another way to avoid this bullshit.

    Yes, I know that I could pay extra to hide my domain info, but I refuse to do so. If ICANN requires me to post real information, they can fucking well require the registrar to hide that info for free. In the meanwhile, I'll keep lying, and if the feds really really care about tracking me down, they can do so with the credit card that I use to p

  • Bogus bills not isolated to internet stuff... (Score:4, Informative)

    by PhotoGuy ( 189467 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @08:40PM (#23833031) Homepage
    When I had a large-ish company (75+ employees), it was fairly common to receive bills for things that we didn't order/subscribe-to. There are likely a number of companies whose accounts payable departments simply pay any bill coming in, without cross-referencing it to a purchase order. This is no different, really. (And even many semi-legit services, magazines, and so forth, would simply send an overdue bill, rather than a subscription renewal notice. I was always more surprised at some big names that would pull that somewhat deceptive practice...)

    (Is it just me, or does "ordering a halt to an illegal practice" sound kinda stupid? Seizing US assets, extradition, and so forth, fine. Go for it. But "stop doing that illegal stuff!" doesn't sound that useful. :)

  • What about DROA Domain Registry of America (Score:5, Informative)

    by mabu ( 178417 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:39PM (#23833525)
    The biggest scam artist I've seen is the Domain Registry of America - they send out snail mail letters with impressive looking American flag logos on them with a bogus invoice-looking form to renew domains, but it's really the Internet version of slamming the domain and switching registrars. DROA needs to be shut down.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by gemada ( 974357 )

      The biggest scam artist I've seen is the Domain Registry of America - they send out snail mail letters with impressive looking American flag logos on them with a bogus invoice-looking form to renew domains, but it's really the Internet version of slamming the domain and switching registrars. DROA needs to be shut down.

      they seem to have a Canadian branch called DROC - Domain Registry of Canada - that pulls the same scam. i have seen clients receive these fake bills as far back as 2001.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by I'm not really here ( 1304615 )
      Yeah, I agree. I've received regular mailings from them in spite of repeated phone calls and emails instructing them to cease and desist... why can't we have a CAN SPAM act for physical mail? (Or at least be able to put together "blacklists" that the Post office should just shred. They still get their money, and I don't see the mail.)

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