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US Court Disconnects Canadian Domain Name Scammers
coondoggie writes "A US District Court today ordered a halt to the illegal practice of Canadian companies who the Federal Trade Commission said deceptively posed as domain name registrars and sent bogus bills to thousands of US small businesses and nonprofit organizations for their annual 'Website Address Listing.' The FTC said many of the businesses believed they would lose their Web site addresses unless they paid the bill, so they paid but in most cases the defendants did not provide domain registration services, did not provide the 'search optimization' services it claimed to provide, and bilked small businesses and nonprofits out of millions of dollars."
The article does specify they ordered their US held assets frozen. However, if they're smart, they wouldn't have that much assets held in the US.
First off it wasn't a US action, it was a joint law enforcement effort, Some dips are trying to use an international border to dodge law enforcement and got caught at it.
Second nothings been disconnected, a US judge froze the companies US assets, a Canadian court needs to seize their Canadian assets.
This is not a case of the US trying to impose its laws on Canada again, the bogus domain name companies are committing fraud and thats illegal anywhere you go.
I don't know why this article is even on slashdot, its not news. Canadian and US authorities cooperated to catch a crook who tired to use the border to avoid getting caught. Happens all the time.
The US Court sure the hell has jurisdiction in the US, where the crimes took place.
Au contraire. If the Canadian companies are scamming US companies by using the US postal service, you can bet that the court has jurisdiction to order them to stop.
If they don't stop, they will be in contempt. Any assets that ever enter the US can be seized. And I suspect that Canada would be more than happy to enforce the contempt judgment.
Because the targets of the scam are in the US and the US mail is being used, the court has all the jurisdiction it needs. To check this, see the Supreme Court's decision in Asahi Metal Industries Co. (1987), holding that a foreign product manufacturer could be dragged into US court if it foresaw that its products would be used in the US. This case is even stronger -- the Canadian scammers intended their scam to reach the US.
..and if folks RTFA there is mention of all sorts of Canadian government and police agencies being involved in this already.
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
Don't get too cocky. Not too long ago the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. Currently, it's only behind the USD by $0.017 - i.e. damn near equal.
Helping society? Contrary to popular belief there are worse things in the world then some people taking money of the middle class. They aren't taking food out of the mouths of the starving or water from the thirsty. Get some perspective.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
It's the reason large companies use purchase order systems. But for many small/medium businesses the extra overhead of purchase orders isn't worth it, and so they become vulnerable to this type of scam.
"DAX Publications" appears to be a Buffalo NY company, but the domain registration suggests otherwise:
Registrant:
namesbeyond.com
Private Private
4141 Yonge Street, Suite 204,Toronto, ON M2P
2A8
Toronto, Canada ON M2P 2A8
United States
Phone:+1.8773211356
This is some type of "Directory listing service". At my past job, they sent a bill for such things as "website hosting fees", etc.
How popular is this service? Let's ask Google!, try this:
daxpub.com -site:daxpub.com -site:daxadmin.com
How many hits? 8!!!! There are a whopping 8 links in all of Google that reference DAX Publications from the outside! There must be DOZENS of people who would know enough to find my business via daxpub.com!!!
For added fun:
1. Check their online directory to see if your company is listed
2. If so, check your accounts payable to see if an invoice was paid
3. If so, investigate and draw your own conclusions
4. Profit!!!
When I had a large-ish company (75+ employees), it was fairly common to receive bills for things that we didn't order/subscribe-to. There are likely a number of companies whose accounts payable departments simply pay any bill coming in, without cross-referencing it to a purchase order. This is no different, really. (And even many semi-legit services, magazines, and so forth, would simply send an overdue bill, rather than a subscription renewal notice. I was always more surprised at some big names that would pull that somewhat deceptive practice...)
:)
(Is it just me, or does "ordering a halt to an illegal practice" sound kinda stupid? Seizing US assets, extradition, and so forth, fine. Go for it. But "stop doing that illegal stuff!" doesn't sound that useful.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
The biggest scam artist I've seen is the Domain Registry of America - they send out snail mail letters with impressive looking American flag logos on them with a bogus invoice-looking form to renew domains, but it's really the Internet version of slamming the domain and switching registrars. DROA needs to be shut down.