Comments on: How Tucows Helps A Spammer Cover His Tracks

by: BJ Gillette

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:03:17 +0000

Hi Serena.
Unfortunately, this type of behaviour is not limited to Tucows.

I’m baffled that ICANN would go along with the theory that legitimate businesses operating in the public sphere (ie, Web) need to have their identities protected.

by: Serena Giddens

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:12:35 +0000

Tucows does more than that to aid Spammers. It’s an ICANN-mandated regulation (and part of every registrar’s own TOS) that you must provide valid contact information for the WHOIS databases Internet-wide (or utilize a proxy registration service). But I can tell you first-hand that I have contacted Tucows numerous times related to a domain registration registered through them because that registered domain’s contact information is completely false. (I had need to contact the domain owner due to copyright infringements they were directly commiting against SERENA’s WORLD. Tucows patently refused to even acknowledge those communications from me whatsoever, let alone take the appropriate action against the domain registration’s owner for violating their TOS and ICANN’s for false contact information. Reason? I believe it’s because the violator’s domain is through a reseller of theirs that has thousands and thousands of domains through them and also hosts the violating domain - and they don’t wish to “rock the boat”.

Bottom line is: A domain registration through Tucows can easily have completely false information and Tucows cares not. Naturally this open up a huge can of worms for the illegally and/or immorally bent snakes in the grass.

by: cando

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 16:44:28 +0000

After that the registrars learn like making the monies from the squatters of Domain Name, they chase the commerce. This protection of privacy is a similar sense to make the monies from the spammers.

by: BJ Gillette

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:47:03 +0000

@thewebguy.
Why pick on Tucows? Factual illustration. Note the last sentence in our article: "Most all the registrars do it."

In my spammer tracking experience, virtually every professional spam operation hides behind the privacy shields rented out by registrars.

Businesses who own domains ought to be reachable. Nobody needs registrars to help them hide.

Those who eschew public interaction can set their spam filters appropriately.

by: thewebguy

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 07:42:28 +0000

why pick on tucows for something that nearly every registrar offers? private domain registration is an effort to STOP spam, so that no one can browse through whois records and mine email addresses.

if you have ever registered a domain without using some sort of spam protection, try it and see what kind of spam you start getting.