Kate,
During January, we have enlisted ICANN, IANA and the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group, each of which were helpful on the forensic process of getting to a live human at NIC.MU.
Ultimately, the registry, which is operated by international racketeer Yann Kwok, did respond. Here is more on Kwok:
https://icannwiki.org/Yann_Kwok
You can see some of the correspondence below with .MU which, while not signed, is almost certainly Yann Kwok himself.
They are still enforcing a $2000 shakedown fee, even though the registrant verifiably renewed the domain 5 days before expiration, i.e. not during any grace period. It is an obvious case of racketeering.
The ICANN registrar stakeholder group collectively now all know about the .MU registry. All registrants are advised to stay very far away from the .MU registry. It is a criminal organization.
I am still on the lookout for the personal cell phone number of Mr. Kwok. If anyone has it, email me at
[email protected]. I will not reveal the source.
In the meantime, I am very sure that the $2000 extortion fee proposed by the .MU registry will be more than offset by erosion of the .MU registry's asset value.
Finally, as much as we sometimes complain about ICANN and IANA, this is a great example of why it exists, and the role of a regulatory framework. Some ccTLDs are definitely not worth the risk!
Regards,
Rob
#####
Hello Yann and .MU team,
Thanks for the reply.
Here is the API log on Epik:
(image omitted as no way to copy paste)
As you can see, there was a renew command sent on January, 2018.
The recorded create date was
January 10, 2010, which I am sure you will confirm:
(image omitted as no way to copy paste)
So the system attempted to renew 5+ days before expiration. Hexonet did not reject the API call, otherwise it would be denoted in red.
I have scoured your website for any indication of a 30 day advance renewal, and also reviewed the web archives. At no point do I see a requirement of a renewal prior to the expiration date, let alone materially sooner than that.
In other words, requiring of a $2000 restore fee is a classic act of racketeering by any standard legal definition. Here is one definition:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_(crime)
In the meantime, the impacted client has lost material business due to emails being misrouted. This is his primary email address.
Please restore the domain immediately. We’ll advise the client to renew for many years.
Regards,
Rob
On January 25, 2018 at 4:25:31 AM, NIC.MU Support (
[email protected]) wrote:
...
Dear Rob and Joseph,
Further to your claim that you have auto renewed this domain 5 days prior to its expiration, can you kindly send us evidence of the payment made to the registrar responsible for this domain.
You threatened to take legal action against the registry for arbitrarily deleting your domain. The registry takes these allegations seriously and have sent you evidence from the audit trail proving that this was not the case.
We are therefore requesting that you substantiate your claim of having made a timely renewal to 1API, copied herewith.
Regards.
On Jan 19, 2018 20:43, "Joseph Peterson" <
[email protected]> wrote:
MUNIC,
Please consider that there is a domain owner caught in the middle of this confusion. Although Epik attempted to renew this domain prior to expiry, and although the registrant attempted to renew the domain on the expiration date itself, the domain is now pending deletion; and this customer – who has been a loyal .MU user and evangelist – is now suffering the loss of his domain – including the loss of email messages based on that domain – unnecessarily.
Whether MUNIC is obligated to restore
KEN.MU or not, surely restoring the domain would be a generous gesture to a loyal customer. Rather than spend man-hours on all sides documenting or disputing what went wrong in this case, we could simply allow this registrant to continue using his .MU domain. At Epik, we can examine our processes where .MU is concerned. After this, our very first .MU domain, perhaps we could provide more .MU domains instead of removing .MU from our inventory altogether.
That would be a win-win-win-win outcome. A win for the registrant, for 1API / Hexonet as the registrar, for Epik as the reseller known to the end user, and for MUNIC. In fact, MUNIC would benefit in 3 ways: (1) time savings; (2) revenue – both continued renewals from this customer and new registrations at Epik; and (3) favorable brand exposure (through this customer's ongoing usage of
KEN.MU).
Any other outcome only does damage to all parties.
Best Regards,
Joseph Peterson
Director of Operations
Epik.com
On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 11:27 AM, Joseph Peterson <
[email protected]> wrote:
Hello,
Let me respond to this statement: "... today is the first time in 2018 that the helpdesk has received a query about this domain". Attached is an automated confirmation email that I received
on January 10 shortly after writing to MUNIC through the "Helpdesk" contact form provided on their website:
http://www.nic.mu/index.php/helpdesk.html
As you can see, the confirmation email is from
[email protected] – JotForm being the application that provides the contact form itself. If no message was received on MUNIC's side, then clearly the contact form has not been configured to deliver messages to MUNIC. In that case, the confirmation email returned to the sender is quite misleading.
Best Regards,
Joseph Peterson
Director of Operations
Epik.com
On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 1:46 AM,
NIC.MU Support <
[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Rob and Joseph,
We refer to your mail regarding the deletion of
ken.mu prior to expiration.
Firstly, regarding the issue that you have that nobody is reachable at the registry - today is the first time in 2018 that the helpdesk has received a query about this domain. The record we have prior to today dates back to January 2016, which was a confirmation of a successful domain transfer between registrars from Gandi to 1API.
Secondly, there are no arbitrary deletions in this registry as this registry is automated. Domains are automatically suspended when not renewed by the registrar. To ensure that registrant can renew their domains on time, on top of renewal notices that the registrar may send, the registry sends no less than TEN renewal notices to the registrant, admin and billing contacts PRIOR to expiration date, giving details of the registrar where they can renew their domain with.
However, in the case of
KEN.MU, as shown in the attached contact details, the registrant has purposely obfuscated all details by using an anonymous service so that they cannot be contacted by the registry. Actually, the registry has no idea who Digital Town or Epik is, as we have had no dealings with them
until today's query. Epik is certainly not an accredited registrar of this registry.
Thirdly, you claim that the domain was auto-renewed five days prior to expiration. Auto-renewed with whom? It was certainly not renewed with the registry. When a domain is renewed, our registrars do it either via EPP or through the web interface. This domain is under the portfolio of 1API and was not renewed. Some registrars also have automated their systems to delete domains that are not renewed. Our records (attached) show that the domain was deleted by the registrar 1API.
Hence you should direct your queries to 1API, which we are copying above.
Regards.
On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 3:21 AM, Rob Monster - DigitalTown <
[email protected]> wrote:
Thanks Jonathan.
We will enlist the intervention of IANA in securing a contact from the .MU registry and a resolution of their arbitrary deletion of the Ken.MU prior to expiration.
I am also copying Yann Kwok who I believe is the responsible executive:
https://icannwiki.org/Yann_Kwok
Yann and IANA team,
We have an issue with the domain name Ken.Mu which was deleted prior to expiration. We have no documentation to indicate anywhere that the domains are eligible for deletion prior to expiration. The domain auto-renewed 5 days before expiration but in fact by that point
NIC.MU had deleted the domain. The registry is looking for an outrageous $2000 restore fee. We are looking for an amicable resolution in order to avoid (1) litigation and/or (2) media escalation on behalf of the impacted registrant.
Regards,
Rob
--
Rob Monster
Chief Executive Officer
DigitalTown, Inc
Office:
+1.425-295-4564
Cell:
+1.425-765-0077
Whatsapp:
425-765-0077
Skype: robertmonster
On January 18, 2018 at 3:09:36 PM, Jonathan Denison (
[email protected]) wrote:
Hi Rob,
Thank you for your email.
I’m afraid ICANN does not have contractual authority over ccTLD operators, like .mu; however, I’m forwarding your email to IANA as they work with ccTLD operators and it’s possible they may be able to assist you.
In the meantime, if you have not already, you may wish to try contacting the ccTLD Manager for .mu using the information listed here:
https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/mu.html
Sincerely,
Jonathan Denison
ICANN Contractual Compliance
From: Rob Monster - DigitalTown <
[email protected]>
Date:
Thursday, January 18, 2018 at 12:59 PM
To: Jonathan Denison <
[email protected]>
Subject: [Ext] .MU registry
Hi Jonathan,
Does ICANN govern the .MU registry? We are having an issue there and nobody is reachable there.
Regards,
Rob
--
Rob Monster
Chief Executive Officer
DigitalTown, Inc
Office:
+1.425-295-4564
Cell:
+1.425-765-0077
Whatsapp:
425-765-0077
Skype: robertmonster