NRNN.com

Recently the domaining world has seen as increasing instances of fraud.  The fraudsters have discovered that good domain names are valuable and especially in the case of 4 letter .com’s reasonably liquid.  The most common scam is for the fraudster to obtain the user name and password of a PayPal account that has been hacked.  The seller receives payment via PayPal and only later has the payment has been reversed.  The registrar for its part often does not want to get into the business of arbitrating disputes.  So the domainer is left with no domain and no cash. 

A few ways of avoiding being defrauded:

- be careful about accepting PayPal especially for larger amounts or with people that you don’t know.  Don’t get me wrong I probably do a few dozen PayPal transactions per month but I insist on a more secure method for large amounts or where I have no way of gauging the reputation of the buyer;

- use Escrow.com or a site such as TDNam.com or Sedo.com for larger transactions. 

- if you want to verify that the seller really owns the domain they are selling you can always e-mail the owner using the whois address;

- keep up to speed on the latest frauds with forums such as NamePros.com.  Its a sure bet that the scammers will do nothing but get more inventive and one of your best defences is to be informed. 

Whether you own one name or a hundred there is some legislation that has been proposed in the United States Senate that you should be seriously concerned about.  The legislation is labelled as the “Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008″ (APCPA).  Sounds good right?  After all - who could possibly object either “anti-phishing” or “consumer protection”.  A read of the proposed legislation reveals its about a lot more.  It could allow major corporations to legally steal your domain names.  Here’s how it could work:

- you own a website and domain name;

- someone who wants your name sends you a letter telling you that you now have two options - give up your domain name and business for free or they will sue you.  Since the maximum penalty of $6 million is so onerous and cost of the legal defence is so high many domain name owners will no choice but to give up their domain names without a fight. 

The Internet Commerce Association and CircleID.com have done a more indepth review of the legislation.