Dodgy domain name selling continues

More domain name resellers are coming under the spotlight for their controversial sales tactics.

A complaint has been made to Swansea Trading Standards about InterWeb Services, a domain name reseller based in the city.

Steve Beeston, a systems developer for Fluorocarbon, a company based in Hertford, received a phone call from the reseller warning him that a "mystery shopper" wanted to register a variation of his company's name.

Beeston told vnunet.com this was not the first time he has been cold-called by domain name resellers using this tactic.

"Someone has to do something to stop this type of selling," he said.

Swansea Trading Standards said it is collating the available information about InterWeb Services to consider what action may be appropriate.

However, Colin Jones of InterWeb Services said the company's salespeople did not tell companies that a 'mystery buyer' was trying to buy variations of their domain names.

"I have heard about this form of selling and we only advise people that their names are under risk of other people registering them," he said. "Trading Standards is welcome to visit us anytime."

vnunet.com has also received another complaint about the sales tactics of UK-Names, which, along with Domain Registrar Services and its director, Scott Denny, agreed to the terms and conditions of an interim injunction brought by Nominet for passing themselves off as being connected with the organisation.

Theo Stewart, the owner of a singles dating agency, received a phone call from UK-Names warning of the threat to her business of a "mystery shopper" wanting to register variations of her company name.

During the call, the UK-Names salesman stated that he was calling from "the UK Names, at the registration office".

"This sounded very official to me and panicked me into buying the names. He also told me he could block any future applications from people trying to register domain names that could harm my company," Stewart said.

vnunet.com has passed the details of both complaints to domain registry Nominet. Nominet has in turn informed its solicitor about the phrase used by UK-Names.

Swansea Trading Standards are understood to be reviewing the situation.

See also:

Domain name resellers shut up shop

Criticised domain name sellers shut their doors  24 Jan 2003

Review of the Year: Domain name sellers

An unregulated industry has sold end users short  01 Jan 2003

Surfers shun .me.uk domains

New domain name for personal websites is a dot-flop, reports Nominet  16 Dec 2002

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