Tag Archive for 'domains'

Govern yourselves accordingly

Published by Peter on March 16, 2007 in spam. 25 Comments

I just received the following email:

Attention Mr. Forret,

It has been brought to our attention that you published or caused to be published an e-mail communication and/or internet bulletin containing words that are false, misleading and defamatory to our firm. More specifically, these publications can be found at:

blog.forret.com/2004/12/domain-registry-of-america-scam/

More specifically your statement “Domain Registry of America scam”. That statement is false and misleading in many ways:
1) The title of the publication accuses Domain Registry of America as being involved or perpetrating some type of scam, which his false.
2) Domain Registry of America’s mailings do not “urge” or “scare” anyone to take any action towards the mailing. It informs domain name holders that they now have the option to “transfer and renew” their domain name with any Registrar of their choice and take advantage of lower pricing and better service.
3) Your use of the phrase “it’s a scam”
4) Unaware to you, this mailing has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission as clearly describing it meaning and purpose. (PF: Actually they’ve done quite the opposite)

Your publication has caused and continues to cause Domain Registry of America irreparable damages and we intend to hold you responsible for these damages both past and present. You are hereby notified that we demand these false, misleading and defamatory statements mentioned above that you have published or have caused to be published be removed by no later than 15 days of your receipt of this notice.

If we do not receive written notification that these publications have been removed by the above deadline we will without further warning, advise our lawyers to commence a lawsuit in an Ontario court for damages and a permanent and interlocutory injunction restraining you, your employees, agents and representatives from making and publishing such publications. Domain Registry of America/Canada has successfully taken legal action in the past against other publishers of similar false, misleading and defamatory statements.

Govern yourselves accordingly,

Domain Registry of America/Canada
Relations Department
legal@droa.com

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“Domain Registry of America” scam

Published by Peter on December 10, 2004 in spam. 68 Comments

UPDATE: I received a cease-or-desist from DRoA in March 2006 about this post.

Just received a letter in the post from ‘Domain Registry of America’ (DRoA), urging me to pay them for renewing my domain name. The paper, with a London address on the back, looks like a bill and tries to scare the reader with “Your registration will expire on May 10, 2005. Act today!”


The issue is: it’s a scam. There is no need for me to renew now, and certainly not with DRoA. I know exactly who manages my domains and I am quite happy with them. But I can imagine this trick works quite well with people who have no clue how DNS works, or in accounting departments of companies. These guys have been fooling people since at least 2002, as the Domain Registry of America, of Canada, of Europe and of Australia.
Who’s behind it?

  • The letter I received has a UK address: 56 Gloucester Rd, Suite 526, SW7 4UB London. This happens to be the same address as Mail Boxes Etc, so it’s probably just a mail box.
  • The letter was shipped from “Jamaica, NY”, which seems to be the USPS post office in John F Kennedy Airport. The address on the DRoA site says “2316 Delaware Avenue #266 - Buffalo, New York”, which apparently is again a “Mail Boxes Etc” location.
  • A legal document of the Federal Trade Commission (Dec 2003) places them in Ontario, Canada. I found a “PO Box 4577, Markham, Ontario, L3R 5M7″ address on their Canadian site. Again no ‘real’ address.
  • A search in Canada’s WHOIS comes up with: droc.ca was registered in Aug 2001 by a Mr Pearl Bitton. A search in Canada’s 411 phone directory gives us one Mr. P. Bitton in Thornhill, Ontario - about 15km away from Markham. I can’t be sure it’s him, of course.
  • The FTC final judgment of Dec 2003 mentions a Daniel Klemann, President of DRoA. Mr Klemann must be seing a lot of court rooms, because he was already convicted in Canada in June 2002. So this man has been told twice by a judge that he should stop his practices, but still continues. What a hero. There is a D. Klemann living in Markham and in Toronto.
  • His partner in crime, James Tetaka, equally popular in courtrooms, was convicted for similar facts in May of 2004 and described as a Toronto-area man.
  • The company under which they operated is “1473253 Ontario Inc”, which is run by Peter Kuryliw, also from Toronto.
  • So they first ran a scam as Yellowbusiness.ca, then as Internet Registry of Canada (IRC), and now they are basically active all over the world. Global scumbags.

Other mentions of the scam:
asa.org.uk
compudave.blogspot.com
coofercat.com
domainavenue.com
domainregistrationtips.net
drbacchus.com
seowebsitepromotion.com
theregister.co.uk
webhostingtalk.com
wellho.net