Bad Bad AletiaNIC

**Eric Pauker** · 08-31-2005, 02:12 PM

I got an email from AletiaNic today telling me my domain ericpauker.info was about to expire. This greatly confused me since I never registered that domain name so i typed it into my browser and it lead to a search engine. I then logged into AletiaNIC and checked my account and the domain name ericpauker.net was listed as mine. When I contacted them I was given this response:

If you have never owned a .info domain name, you can ignore this email. You were automatically given a .info domain for one year by the distributors of .info domains and have the option to renew it if wanted. Again, if you do not want it, do not worry about renewing it.

Eric E.

Now at first this might seem harmless to you, but I don't like another company using my domain name, and in this case my name, to push their crappy little search engine. Has this happened to anyone else and does anyone know how to stop this kind of BS from happening to me again?

::edited by Les to put Erics response in quotes

**JPC-Greg** · 08-31-2005, 02:16 PM

We are no happier about this than you and in fact Im quite a bit upset. We did not send this out, enom did. This is causing a big spike in tickets, complaints, and probably going to cost us a few clients thinking we are trying to rip them off. I cant beleive they initiated a "promotion" or giveaway or whatever they want to call it using our name without our permission. This has to be illegal but theres probably some clause in their policies we agreed to that they will throw at us.

We will be taking this BS up with enom.

**Galen** · 08-31-2005, 03:20 PM

I also got the e-mail and I'm very thankful to hear that JagPC had nothing to do with this.

**jason** · 08-31-2005, 03:20 PM

I had something similar happen about a year ago. I got a letter in the mail from one of those rip off registrars that try to get you to transfer your domain to them by sending in the renewal order form they send you. I didn't give it much thought (I get quite a few of them) until I noticed that it was for kodiakskorner.info, a domain I've never registered. I did a whois lookup on the domain and found it registered in my name--all the details were the same as those for my real kodiakskorner.com domain. I managed to track the domain back to the originating registrar (not the same one that sent me the letter, BTW), and although they were listed as ICANN-acredited their site was noting more than an Enom PDQ site (like Aletianic). I wrote a nasty email to their support address and got a response back from someone at Enom telling me that the "name was registered on my behalf" and some other BS.

Personally, I see this as a form of identity theft--they are using my identity (name and address) to register another domain without my knowledge or permission. I have no way to access this registration nor do I have any control over what is done with that domain. Although I don't like it, the advertising site is pretty harmless and the domain is for personal use only, but what if someone was using that domain for spamming/fishing? When someone researches the source and decides to take action, guess who they'd be coming after? The same hold true for JPC--by sending out those emails they are tarnishing JPC's reputation and possibly (as Jag already mentioned) costing them business.

Enom has a great set of tools for resellers and, from my experience, they seem to be a pretty solid business, but if they are going to do things like this I'll seriously reconsider keeping my registrations with them.

--Jason

**jason** · 08-31-2005, 03:23 PM

Talk about irony...as I was typing that last post I got an email "from" another Enom reseller with whom I have domains registered alerting me that "(My) domain names and services will soon expire." The domain? kodiakskorenr.info

--Jason

**Tim** · 08-31-2005, 04:54 PM

I got the email too that appears to have come from AletiaNIC.com. After reading Eric's post, I went to the .info domain and got the Web Directory page. As Jason mentioned, I was startled when I checked the whois and saw my info. Thank you Jag for clearing this up. I am confused though, if "my" .info domains are going to expire on 09-28-2005, then why am I getting the Web Directory page? What a scam.

**Ron** · 08-31-2005, 05:48 PM

I got it tooooooooooooooo, went to enom, looked at it, went to aletianic, looked at it.

What would ahve been nice, is if there was an account page that showed the history of my account, so I coudl look and see if I every actaully paid for or acknowleged or took any action to turn that promo (which I vaguely recall happening way back when) into an active domain. I don't think I did...

**Spathiphyllum** · 08-31-2005, 06:15 PM

Got the same email this morning. I do recall them offering the *.info as a complement for one year. Ignored it then and am ignoring it now. At this point, *.info domains are wallet-padding for domain registrars. I'm not about to pay for the extra names for my myriad domains though I can certainly understand why some would feel pressured to do so. Yes, this is a bit unseemly. Another one of the perhaps uglier sides of domain maintenance.

**Vin DSL** · 09-01-2005, 04:15 AM

Bwahaha! This is beautiful! What a grand conspiracy!

I was reading this thread, thinking to myself, "I'm glad I don't use eNom!"

Then, for the hell of it, I checked my Dotster account, and...

Gawd, I hate .info TLDs! I deny .info referers on my site. Now, I find out I own one. I'm

too!

As you can see, I've been with Dotster since they started. Grrrr....

**Vin DSL** · 09-01-2005, 04:34 AM

LoL! It gets better...

Note: Spam-Shield and Whois Privacy are not available with .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ or .US domains.

**Vin DSL** · 09-01-2005, 04:54 AM

BTW, anyone wanna buy Lenon.info? I'll sell it cheap!

EDIT: You know... now that I've gotten over the initial shock, this might be interesting. It'll give me a chance to play around with the 'Multi-Hosted Domains' feature in cPanel.

Every cloud has a silver lining, no?

**Vin DSL** · 09-01-2005, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by Vin DSL

...this might be interesting. It'll give me a chance to play around with the 'Multi-Hosted Domains' feature in cPanel...

Hey, that works pretty slick!

http://lenon.info/

Kudos, JagPC!

**jason** · 09-01-2005, 04:46 PM

Vin,

At least you have access to that info domain. In the Enom case the domain is registered in the .com owner's name but it doesn't show up in his account so he can't do anything with it.

--Jason