Yesterday I had wrote about the whois system being broken and I agree there is really no easy fix to the problem. I wish I had the perfect answer that would keep all domain owners happy but I do not. I will be making some suggestions to ICANN but I am also only one person. I wanted to give more details into why I wrote what I did yesterday and include some personal details about why I am upset about it and how you could be effected as well and not even know it.

I was contacted by an interested party for a specific domain name they thought I owned. After this person contacted me, I thought to myself… I do not own that domain name and why does this person think I do own it?

So I check whois for this domain name and 95% of the info provided in whois is MINE???? What’s up with that I thought! I do not own this domain and I never have…

The domain "this time" is not trademark infringing, so why the real domain owner is using my name, address, phone number.. I have no clue. According to DomainTools.com, this person is using my name and details on at least 6 domain names total.

What if one of those 6 domain names contain a trademark? Something like GoogleSucks.com or whatever.

Since a large portion of the whois details for that domain name would appear that I own it, I would also be the one that would incur the costs of fighting any legal battles to defend myself and proving I do not own that specific domain name.

Again, the options are really endless on what could happen with a specific domain name, one falsely stating via whois that you are the owner of the domain name, when you really are not.

This can include spamming or some other malicious activity using a specific domain name. It could simply be a domain name that you against what is "means" and so on.

I contacted Godaddy.com, the registrar of the 6 domain names using their email address they provide for this kind of situation (invalidwhois@secureserver.net) with the details of the situation. Later last night, Godaddy did call "me" to verify the whois data but clearly they got me and not the real owner of the domain.

Talking with the Godaddy rep, I asked a few questions but didn’t get answers that really helped or that I liked the answers. I stated that since they called me and I do not own the domain name, can they remove the whois details? The answer was no. The reason they stated was because they couldn’t prove that the account holder was not a webmaster I was using (doing business with).

The Godaddy rep clearly knew the whois information was invalid while he talked to me but I think he was tied up in so much red tape, his hands were tied.

I then asked what were the steps they use to get the account holder to change the invalid whois data on these domain names and not include my details on domain names I do not own? The Godaddy rep simply stated that all they can do is ask! Now keep in mind, from further digging, I was able to provide them with who this person is and their current email address. I think many times, you may not know who the person really is and since it is so easy to create an account at a registrar, they may never be able to find the real person. If the person simply doesn’t reply to the email / phone call or doesn’t change the invalid information, there really isn’t anything they can do about it. The next step for me would be to take legal action to have the invalid information removed. This clearly would cost money and something that really shouldn’t have take place IMO, but is really the only next best option. Another side note… it’s hard to take legal action against somebody you can’t find. aka, a fake person!

Another thing I asked was if each and every domain name in a single account "could" have different whois information. The answer was yes. So technically, you could own 500 domain names in one account and have invalid whois information on all 500 domain names if you so choose. I do not agree with this but it is what it is. We do not live in a perfect world. The reason this is like that, is because if you owned let’s say a hosting company, you can have the whois detail reveal as your customer for each domain and not your company. That makes sense but is not something that I see happen all that much. Most of the time, you will simply see the whois contacts as the company (account holder).

Somethings to consider

If you have information in whois, you hold a chance for somebody to take that data and use it in their whois. You have no control what that domain name may be.

If you have information in a phone book, you hold a chance for somebody to use that data in their whois. Similar as the first one but you get my point.

It is not easy (most of the time) and you may likely incur fees to have your information changes / removed from the invalid whois details. That is if you can even find the account holder of the domain name.

Have you searched your name in Google? Your address? Your phone number? Doing so may result in a whois record created for a domain name you do not own, but somebody is using your data so they can hide. Identity theft really.

The person that used my data, didn’t use all my data. They misspelled my first name (likely on purpose) and they used their own email address. As with most of the time when fraudulent activity takes place on the net, the person uses a free email service like Yahoo mail, Gmail etc. Keep this in mind doing your research to make sure it is not happening to you and your contact information is being displayed on domain names you do not own.

Sadly, if your information is being used on domain names you do not own, making it invalid whois information, it will likely be very hard to have it changed / removed, if at all. If you do discover this is taking place, report it to the domain name registrar on record. If you can not find that information, you can create a report with internic.net for the invalid whois information. From my understanding, internic simply contacts the domain name registrar on file.