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Username: rachelmacgregor
Date/Time: Tue, October 9, 2001 at 11:45 AM GMT
Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer V5.0 using Windows 95
Subject: The Scam

Message:
 

 
In case we lose sight of the fraud that Afilias has implemented through its actions:

THE SCAM

1. Afilias system not set up to CHECK false TM details before registration = hey everyone, come and submit false claims, we're not checking but we'd sure as hell like to take your money.

2. Afilias Board members use their registrar companies to charge for pre-registrations, even though both they and ICANN had said this should not happen.

3. Afilias Board members continue to charge for pre-registrations all through Sunrise, still selling names which have already been taken by fraudsters - eg charging something for nothing.

4. 10000 cases of fraud come pouring in, may with visibly fake details. Afilias register them! WHY?

5. Afilias Board members make BIG money, by helping fraudsters submit their claims. EG: DomainBank charge Lorenz $16300 to help him apply for names all with "NONE" in the data, and therefore ineligible. How can HalLubsen justify taking $16300 for frauds that will screw up his own Afilias system, and screw up thousands of honest customers? EG: Speednames charge Plankenstein $500,000 to help him apply for 4981 fraudulent names dated 1899. This is in breach of registrars contractual obligations to check out suspicious or ineligible applications. In these two cases it was carried out by Afilias Board members! There is a HUGE conflict of interest here! How can they possibly take hundreds of thousands of dollars for frauds that they know will screw up their own Afilias system, and screw up thousands of honest customers? It's disgraceful!

6. Lorenz and Plankenstein both admit their claims are fake. Lorenz sends 20 e-mails to try to right his wrong, asking for his fakes to be deleted so other customers can have them. Afilias refuse to delete! WHY? What POSSIBLE reason can there be for not deleting?

7. Other Board members of Afilias are themselves caught out submitting fake Trademark details (eh Hawaii.info and Maui.info). They won the contract for this registry on the argument that they would proect Trademake rights, and then they get caught faking the Trademarks themselves and infringing other people's rights! What right have they to keep their contract?

8. Others, and far too many registrars, claim "registrar reserved" names which they are not eligible for - take for example NUDES.info registeredto one Afilias Board member's company - but Afilias (who say they have hand-checked these) go ahead and register them like they registered all the otherfakes.

9. Afilias also register 333 names applied for by Joker.com and hundreds of other registrar applications (eg Yesnic and others) even though registrars are not allowed to apply themselves. In a culture of "cheats", it appears that anything goes! WHY did Afilias register these names from registrars when it breached the rules?

10. A perfectly workable and just solution - the Domebase solution - is ruled out, even though it would have righted the wrongs. WHY?

11. Afilias fail to give ANY information to registrars about how their own future 'solution' will impact on pre-registrants in queues for stolen names, at a time when information was vitally needed and repeatedly requested. WHY?

12. Afilias Board member Robert Connelly, seeing the injustice done to their own Landrush customers, announced his decision to resign and called the process an "abomination". The Afilias team marginalised him and painted him as a malcontent.

13. Afilias remain silent on all these issues? WHY?


What has ICANN done about all this? Would the correct answer be...... NOTHING.....?    
     

 


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