ICANN spam by credit card companies

[dudeman]

Well it seems now credit card companies are getting my information from ICANN

I know this due to the way my name was spelled out on the snail-mail I was getting.


I'm thinking I'm gonna just use my initials on the ICANN info, I cant see why that isnt enough for ICANN.

Damn spammers, Ive been forwarding email spam to the FTC but as far as proving that the snail-junkmail info was gotten by ICANN might be hard to people that dont know a bloody thing about the internet much less computers, otherwise I'd look into some sort of lawsuit.

Part of me thinks I need to setup a domain I care less about and put in something rather obnoxious for the name and see if they really pay attention to when they mail that stuff out.

 

[len fischer]

Do you mean they are getting the information from the public whois or is icann selling the information?

 

[dudeman]

yep, its the only way they could of spelled my name the way they did, it was exactly as I abbreviated it on WHOIS

been getting a lot lately, people thinking i have a small business for some reason so they offer me credit cards for small businesses

this isnt just small time peeps either, they are Visa cards

 

[007bond]

I hope something will be done,say why do you think they are thinking that you have a small business?

 

[labrocca]

Whois spam is common. Very little can or will be done. You can choose whois privacy/protection from registrars for a small fee.

 

[Earthian]

I don't think reputable companies would even risk sending (or being associated with) spam .


It is probably just a spammer who is an affiliate with a company that offers credit cards .


When someone accesses the WHOIS (in any site) accepts certain ToS , amongst them there are terms against using the WHOIS for spam .


Unfortunately , they cannot be easily found or procecuted . For example , you could check the affiliate code (which would be a code usually at the end of the outgoing link from the email you received , usually in the form of p?=******* , id?=****** or something similar) , then (should you wish to pursue it that much) you could go to the company straight by typing only the URL in a new browser , check their policies regarding spam and report the user with that specific code so they can ban him . Of course , this might have zero effect , since the spammer could just make a new affiliation with a different address . If you can't see the outgoing link , check the status bar while hovering over the link . Alternatively , you can right click on the link > copy shortcut > paste in wordpad .


Unfortunately , people who spam usually use free email addresses to create their account (usually created with false information) and therefore they can't be easily found . Going the long haul to demand their IP from the free email account (or using an online tool like the Domain Dossier) and then contacting the ISP (of that IP) for the physical address is again very consuming , plus it might just end up in another country or in an internet cafe or something which would make it very difficult to almost impossible to trace the person .


Spam justs needs a little patience for the time being . In the future (when technology would allow it) it will be really easy for people to report and ISPs to check (verify) spam and the whole banning procedure will become faster . Some registrars , in the meantime , are already charging fines to domains sending out spam in an attempt to fight this issue .

 

[primacomputer]

So this had nothing to do with ICANN, but lets blame them anyway

It's not that hard to deal with spammers like this. Most companies that have affiliate programmes have strict rules on spamming. When you report them they will cancel the account and the spammer won't get paid. Sure they can sign up again. As long as they are happy to send all this spam and never get paid I guess there's nothing you could do to motivate them to stop.

And if you can't get them to stop then simply blacklist the company they are an affiliate for. One line in your mail filter and you never heard from them again.