Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy - "evidence" of fraud???

["Bartels, Andreas" <Andreas.Bartels@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We have had several problems transferring domain names after a successful 
change of contact data by the registrant. As previous commentators have pointed 
out, many registrants - although they are reminded once a year to check their 
whois data according to the WDRP-policy - only update their contact data 
directly before the intended transfer. 

Although there might be a certain minimal risk of a fraudulent transfer the 
measure of locking the domain name for 60 days is out of the way. The Transfer 
policy is quite clear on this issue. Only in the case of "evidence of fraud" a 
transfer can be rejected. A simple change of contact data is not an evidence. 
In my personal understanding this is simply preventing a transfer and retaining 
the customer for another 60 days. 

There are in addition effective mechanisms in place which can revert a 
fraudulent transfer.

Even if a certain period of locking would be allowed in the future, I don't see 
a point of allowing a registrar to check or monitor a domain name for 60 days. 
A time frame of 5 working days should be enough to evaluate if a fraudulent 
change of contact data has occurred. 

For many registrars the policy of GoDaddy and Networksolutions means extra 
work, hassle and has led to frustrations of many registrants.

Kind regards,

Andreas Bartels

Deutsche Telekom AG
Head of Domain Management
E-mail: andreas.bartels@XXXXXX
Internet  http://www.registrar.telekom.de