An international criminal network operating a domain-name scam is systematically targeting South African businesses, according to an IT law firm.
Reinhardt Buys of the law firm Buys Inc said on Monday various calls have been received from local companies since the start of September, expressing concern about the status of their domain names.
”Their concerns resulted from a United Kingdom telephone call informing businesses that an undisclosed third party is about to register their domain names,” Buys said.
”The caller introduces herself as acting on behalf of a UK business that may prevent the pending domain-name registrations upon payment of a fixed fee.”
The Achievement Awards Group is one of the local businesses recently targeted by the scammers.
Eleanor Muller, MD of the Achievement Awards Group, said the company was contacted by a person from a UK business called International Domain Services.
The person said someone was about to register various domain names that included her company’s name. The person also supplied an e-mail address and a telephone number.
Buys said these and similar domain-name scams abuse the public’s limited understanding of the domain-name registration and dispute-resolution procedures.
”Domain owners may confirm their domain registrations online and if a domain registration is fully paid, it may only be transferred to another through court proceedings or online arbitration,” he said.
Owners of .co.za domain names may confirm their registered ownership through the ”whois” service on the website co.za/whois.shtml.
A similar service for other domain name registrations is available from the website of Network Solutions.
Buys suggested that businesses ignore the fabricated threats and report the name and contact details of the scammer to the .za Domain Name Authority or the police. — Sapa