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Shielding Domain Registration Info?

Posted by Cliff on from the anonymous-to-whois dept.

occamboy asks: "I'd like to register a new domain, but I'm tired of getting tons of spam (most filtered, but some not) and snail mail whenever I register a new domain. In short, I'd like the domain, but I don't want to announce the details of its owner to the world. I was thinking of using GoDaddy's domain proxy, but the terms are scary: they reserve the right to change the agreement anytime, by posting the new terms on their site, and the buyer automatically agrees to the new terms. What's to prevent them from grabbing my domain name from me, or doing some other nefarious thing? So, is there any good way to anonymously acquire a domain? Should I just register with fake info, use a service ... or what?"

3 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Sneakemail it by polymath69 · · Score: 4, Informative
    This won't do anything about the postal spam, but give your email as a sneakemail address. Then whenever that address gets harvested for spam, you can cancel it, set up a new one, and update your whois record.

    It will still get harvested... but you'll probably only have to cycle it a couple of times a year. The three or four spams a year that'll get through is probably negligible.

    This is a good strategy for /. email, too.

    --

    --
    I don't want to rule the world... I just want to be in charge of mayonnaise.
  2. Re:Use fake information by brewthatistrue · · Score: 5, Informative

    well, if you are worried about what agreements you are entering into, ICANN requires valid contact information. How often your info will be checked for validity varies, but if you get caught with fraudulent info you can lose your domain. http://www.icann.org/registrars/wdrp.htm http://www.internetprivacyadvocate.org/ProtectYour PersonalInfo.htm (urls via google keywords: whois contact icann)

  3. Re:namecheap! by adam+mcmaster · · Score: 4, Informative

    RegisterFly.com offer something similar, only $1 to protect each domain. It puts something like this in the whois record:

    Registrant Contact:
    RegisterFly.com - Ref# 11453500
    Whois Protection Service - ProtectFly.com (11453500.fly@spamfly.com)
    +1.2122952121
    Fax: +1.2122952153
    230 Park Avenue
    Suite 864
    New York, NY 10169
    US

    That email address gets forwarded to your actual address, and it changes every so often so you don't get spam to it.