Re: [SAGE] How nice...not. "Fresh WhoIs data (emails, phones, etc.) on sale!"

[Mike Hoskins <mhoskins@coat.com>]

I feel your pain.

The number of registars that will privately register your domain is
growing. For those who may be unaware, it is usually an at cost option,
but it is becoming much more interesting to me too. The address/phone info
is held and only surrended at need. The idea has serious merit when the
business culture decides that laws are really just guidelines that look
like swiss cheese.

I'm getting tired of getting calls (number also on the DNC list) for the
"Mike Hoskins Corp."  Don't I wish. Maybe LLC. 

--
Mike Hoskins/Sys Mgmt Supv  <IXOYE><   Burlington Coat Factory
voice 609/387-7800 x2554              Systems Management
fax 609/387-2764                    1830 North Rt #130         
mike.hoskins@coat.com             Burlington, NJ  08016

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, Mark C. Langston wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 08, 2004 at 02:40:50PM -0800, Strata R Chalup wrote:
> > Got a spam today in some folks at "sales@outhosted.com" are
> > claiming to have done a registry crawl in mid-December 2003.  They
> > don't say which registry, but claim to be selling info on 214K
> > registrants, including phone and address data.
> > 
> > I thought this sort of thing was explicitly prohibited by most of
> > the current registrars, and that they had (albeit simple) throttles
> > to prevent multiple queries of that crawling sort.  Oh yes, and
> > the claim is that these wingnuts will refresh the data quarterly.
> > 
> > Any point in barking up this particular tree? Ie, has anyone here
> > seen registrars make any attempt to go after such folks?  Cynically
> > I'm assuming that there's a better chance nowadays-- simply because
> > so many registrars will sell you marketing data themselves, so now
> > it's theft from their viewpoint (rolls eyes).
> 
> 
> I don't know how much progress you'd make.  There are either some 
> extremely large customers of this sort of operation, or there are
> some very large businesses doing this themselves.
> 
> Case in point:  I got a spam-phonecall today from Experian.  Asking 
> if they'd reached $DOMAIN_I_JUST_REGISTERED.  On a number in the Federal
> Do-Not-Call database.
> 
> They claimed that if a number is used for business, it's okay.
> 
> I explained to them that registration of a domain name does not imply
> "business use", and that the number they'd dialed was a residential
> line, and was listed in the DNC database.
> 
> This wasn't the first time, either.  Last month, I got one (for the same
> domain) from a large financial house (Morgan Stanley, I think, but I may
> be misremembering).
> 
> I've always been a proponent of putting valid information into WHOIS.
> That opinion is very rapidly changing, however.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mark C. Langston                                    Sr. Unix SysAdmin
> mark@bitshift.org                                       mark@seti.org
> Systems & Network Admin                                SETI Institute
> http://bitshift.org                               http://www.seti.org
> 
>