RE: [registrars] Domain Tasting and Spying

["Paul Stahura" <stahura@xxxxxxxx>]

I was in the room during the discussion quoted in the article.
I think the panelists/reporter erroneously linked tasting and phishing
as they were being talked about at the same time.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Diaz, Paul
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 6:28 AM
To: registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Jay Westerdal
Subject: RE: [registrars] Domain Tasting and Spying

Perhaps VRSN is rethinking its position on this practice...

Security "Cannot Keep Pace with Attacks on Net" (MSNBC, 031506)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11829455/
 
Mr Sclavos said a legitimate practice known as domain tasting was making
the job of detecting criminal activity harder.  Domain tasting is when
companies take advantage of a five-day grace period, in which they can
get a refund for any .com domains bought, to buy thousands of web
addresses.  They test those that receive the most traffic and surrender
the rest for a refund.

In the past 18 months Verisign's registrations had risen from about
500,000 a week to 7m, he said.  Domain tasting made it harder to figure
out which .com addresses were being used for "phishing" attacks, where
users were lured through e-mails to fake bank or eBay sites and asked to
provide their personal log-in details.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jay Westerdal
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 12:09 PM
To: registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [registrars] Domain Tasting and Spying

ICANN Registrars,
We have seen a rise in complaints about domains getting registered a day
after a person does a search but the person didn't buy the domain the
same
day. The person can only assume someone is spying on them when in fact
some
registants out there are picking up 1M domains to taste and they overlap
with ones they looked at. I can only assume other Registrars are seeing
the
same complaint in a larger scale. We have even put up an FAQ up on it (
http://support.domaintools.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle
&kba
rticleid=8 ). I think the registrars should brainstorm on this during
NZ,
curbing Domain Tasting would be a good thing for a majority of people. I
am
more convinced now that Domain Tasting if allowed should be done with a
different thread type so people know the domain is still available.

Jay Westerdal
Name Intelligence, Inc.
http://www.nameintelligence.com