Domainbox Industry News

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Counterfeit Goods Reseller Websites Seized

Domain resellers will be pleased to hear that police are investing their time into protecting us against cybercrime, and the seizing of two thousand .CO.UK domains this week that were found to be selling fraudulent goods is fantastic news in the lead up to Christmas.

The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime unit (PCeU) have identified a multitude of .CO.UK sites that fraudsters were using to sell counterfeit goods in brand names like GHD, UGG, Sony and other favourites over the Christmas period and shut them down. The department are urging that people ensure they are buying their goods from approved and legitimate sites, but in the current economic climate it is no surprise that people are looking to the internet to make savings on the costly prices on the high street.

The subject of police seizing domains has been controversial for some time and for this reason Nominet are in the process of putting together a policy that will mean there is more of a path that police have to take when seizing domains. This will mean that genuine site owners are not having their sites seized in error, and therefore their businesses are not being disrupted while they are investigated. We reported to domain resellers last week that the Metropolitan Police have increased their cybercrime team from twenty to one hundred and twenty four thanks to additional government funding, meaning that the UK government is aware of the problem and investing time and money into tackling it.

Fraud from .CO.UK domains is on the rise as they are so very well priced and can only be registered for a period of two years. New policy changes from Nominet could see this registration process change so that registrants can register their .UK domains for as long as ten years, but this is the way that it currently stands.

If you sell domains within your custom storefront then make sure you have a wide variety so that you can cover the needs of all your customers.