Banned registrar selling via Pdom.com

By ADAM GIFFORD

Wellington internet domain name registrar Pdom.com has discovered banned Australian registrar internet Name Group is using its automated registration system to make a $100 profit selling people overpriced names they may not need.

"It's very embarrassing. We don't want to be seen as implicated in this scam and we don't condone it," said Pdom.com chief executive Robert Wiles.

"The best thing people can do is throw their letters away."

Domainz, which runs the .nz registry, last year barred internet Name Group from acting as a .nz registrar because of a range of ethical infringements, including using a Domainz database to send mail to holders of all 100,000 .nz names.

Its latest mail, sent out this week in the name of internet name Protection Pty, advises holders of names in the .co.nz space to also register the same name in the .net.nz or .com name spaces, and asked them to fax back authorisation for a $125 credit card payment.

Wiles said a small spike in the number of .net.nz addresses registered yesterday alerted him that internet Name Group was using his company as a conduit for its activities.

"We are the cheapest .nz registrar - it only costs $28 plus gst to register a name, so they are making almost $100 a name," he said.

Larger corporates are likely to have already bought their name in alternative name spaces, and the mail-out is likely to affect small businesses.

"It appears some people are responding thinking they already own the name and this is a renewal, while others are being panicked into thinking they need to respond to protect their corporate identity," Wiles said.

He said it was not practical to stop internet Name Group using the system. Some 400 companies in New Zealand and around the world are .nz registrars, many with automated interfaces to Domainz.

Commerce Commission fair trading section manager Deborah Patel said the commission investigated internet Name Group after an earlier mail out sought a non-refundable $250 fee to reserve names in the new .biz and .info domains.

"We decided that since the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission was also looking at internet Name Group, we would work in with them rather than attempt to mount separate actions," Patel said.

The ACCC was in court in Melbourne yesterday seeking an injunction against the company's trading practices.

ACC public relations director Lin Enright said the hearing was adjourned until May 6 after internet Name Group undertook to discontinue its alleged misleading and deceptive conduct.