|
Police probe domain renewal firm
26-06-2003
Companies and consumers with .biz domain names have been warned to check carefully any unsolicited emails they receive asking them to renew the address.
The emails, sent by a company called Dot Biz Domain Renewal, warn businesses that their .biz domains are due for renewal, and give details of how to pay by credit card on its website at www.domain-renewal.biz.
But .biz domain names do not need to be renewed until November 2003, as they were originally issued for a period of two years in November 2001.
Dot Biz Domain Renewal is also claiming that it is an accredited registrar. But the only body that accredits registrars is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) for Top Level Domain names, currently .com, .net and .org.
Dot Biz Domain Renewal does not appear on Icann's list of accredited registrars.
Another major worry is that the company's website does not use the secure https prefix, indicating that credit card details could be hacked.
In addition, the postal address that the company is using in Regent Street, London, uses a non-existent postcode, W1R 7PB.
vnunet.com went to the address and found that, although it was the office address for a number of legitimate companies, there was no sign of Dot Biz Domain Renewal. Security personnel at the building had no knowledge of the company.
But the same address - including the same non-existent postcode - has been used by another company that set itself up as a web hosting firm, Dot Com Avenue, run by a Peter Francis Macrae.
Macrae is currently under investigation for fraud by Cambridgeshire Trading Standards and Cambridgeshire Police and is currently on police bail.
More details at: http://www.vnunet.com/News/1141851
|
