After reading what I could here and trying to decifer fact from fiction, then going to ICANN's website, which then sent me to VeriSign's website (since Verisign handles all .com names), I failed to find any diffinitive rule or regulation on providing fake Who Is info after the domain name has already been registered with truthful info. Frankly, both websites seem like trying to get info from the CIA. Fruitless.

I want to keep all administrative info on one domain name private and I'm not interested in third-party ownership.

After I registered the domain name with register.com and provided all truthful info, I posed the privacy question to my sales rep. He recommended that I go into my account and change the admin info to anything I want (basically). He said my real name does not need to appear and nor does my correct address or my correct phone number. I told him I would keep my ISP email accurate, which is actually the best way to reach me quickly.

I intend to call register.com tomorrow and investigate further. If anyone here knows a precise link that answers this question, please let me know. I'm not sure what I can offer you for your kindness but I'm sure we can work something out. :love:

Kisses in advance,

MistyBreeze

Yes, it is against ICANN policy to have false WHOIS information.
ICANN will only investigate if someone has complained to them
regarding your domain name. Then ICANN will send a notice to
the registrar holding the domain, and request they have the
domain owner correct their information. In this case, the registrar
will contact you to correct things.

However, there are other ways of getting your whois private
within guidelines and yet still be listed as the owner of the domain. If the registrar agrees to let you use their contact info,
and will agree to relay email and postal mail messages to you. Theoretically, your whois contact is considered correct.

If Register.com gave you all this advice then they advised you very badly.

I haven't got any links at my fingertips (and haven't got time to look right now - sorry!), but I do know that your registrar is entitled to deactivate or even delete your domain if they receive a complaint about incorrect Whois information. There is a standard procedure with a standard web form that makes it very easy for someone to complain about incorrect Whois information, and it is a tactic regularly used against spammers who register their domains with fictitious details such as "Fred Bloggs, 123 Main Street, Newtown, Afghanistan".

So - don't even THINK ABOUT putting a fictitious address in your registration. You could lose your domain. If you don't want your home address to appear get a PO Box.

As for putting your ISP email in your Whois - I presume you mean your email address @your ISP, as opposed to your ISP's email address? If that is the address that you normally use and that you give to all your friends then you definitely DON'T want that to appear in your Whois. Whois entries get harvested by spammers, email addresses that are in Whois entries will very quickly become so spam-infested as to become virtually unusable. You should set up a separate address for Whois entries, and it should be an address that is disposable so that you can throw it away and replace it by something else when you start getting spammed.

you need valid info or you might lose your domain easily

use privacy protection services which is legal wy to hide your info.

Thank you. I appreciate everyone's response so far but, frankly, how is the advice and supposedly factual information you have offered here any different than the info provided by the register.com sales rep? In deference to everyone seeking accurate knowledge, credibility demands documented proof. (Do I really need another attorney?)

First of all, my conversation with register.com was verbatim. When I write about the facts of my interaction with any company, I do not embellish or make things up. Not one word of cautionary loss-of-name scenarios was ever mentioned.

I hate spam and spamming has nothing to do with my reason for privacy and this was made clear to my sales rep when I posed the question.

Also, I meant email address@myISP. Yes, now I know about spam and I know not to use any account that matters to me.

Without spam issues present or any other obvious reason, why would anyone complain about an innocuous website with invalid WhoIs info?

In order to create an account with my registrar, I provided accurate contact information. This account information doesn't change when you change or alter any domain name admin info on WhoIs. As long as the account info with the registrar is correct, it seems the WhoIs info is irrelevant when it comes to contacting me, the account holder. As long as the registrar has all the legal sign-up information and I am reachable by email or phone (provided when opening the account) why should invalid WhoIs info matter?

As long as I have the Account number, its password, and can identify the credit card used to purchase the domain's registration, what use is WhoIs to anyone who has no complaint? Is it really appropriate to provide private information simply because someone may want to offer me money to purchase my domain name? I don't get why the viewer has more rights than the owner.

Still trying to get to the bottom of this.

http://wdprs.internic.net/


The sponsoring registrar is responsible for investigating and correcting the data in response to your report as described in ICANN's "Registrar Advisory Concerning Whois Data Accuracy"

<http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm>.

For additional background information regarding registrars' Whois data accuracy obligations, see also the Registrar Advisory Concerning the '15-day Period' in Whois Accuracy Requirements

<http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-03apr03.htm>.

As discussed in detail in these advisories, it might legitimately take up to several weeks for the registrar to take action in response to your report.

wow thats cool

As long as I have the Account number, its password, and can identify the credit card used to purchase the domain's registration, what use is WhoIs to anyone who has no complaint?

That is like saying you don't need license plates on your car because you will never speed. You still need the plates. You still need accurate whois info.

Spamcop - one of the leading anti-spam organisations - nearly lost their domain because "Person Unknown" (presumed to be a spammer) submitted a Whois complaint about an out-of-date fax number in their Whois entry (the matter was resolved, but their was off the air for a number of days).

I don't know if you have any enemies, but someone might just report your incorrect Whois data out of spite. Unfortunately it is not the information in the registrar's internal database that matters, but the information that is published - and if that is incorrect you could be in trouble.

Originally posted by acts837
http://wdprs.internic.net/
<http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-10may02.htm>.
<http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-03apr03.htm>

Fascinating reading. I can't believe I was unable to find these with all the advance searches I did. Thank you, acts837.

All I can say is...this industry really needs to get its act together.

What fascinates me most is why would a veteran sales associate from register.com suggest the things that were suggested to me and do it with such self-assured altruism?

It wouldn't surprise me if I heard that many registrar employees are just as concerned about privacy issues and spam as their customers are and don't know how to harness the power to fight an "open" industry where privacy and secrecy is an antithetical concept. Therefore, they sympathetically provide contradictory or even inappropriate information, thinking they might be furthering a greater good while sharing empathetical concern.

It seems to me these WhoIs rules are regarded as nothing more than nuisance protectors. Every owner has 15 days from notification of investigation to correct the information before facing the threat of losing their name. It seems a cat and mouse game can go on forever as long as some domain name holder wishes to keep their WhoIs info private. In other words, there's no law that says you can't provide inaccurate info on WhoIs. You can't get sued, you can't go to jail, and as long as you correct the info within the 15 day grace period, you won't lose your name and there's nothing to stop you from changing it back to incorrect WhoIs info until the next complaint.

Also interesting and missing from the urls provided is any mention of the Privacy Feature some accredited registrars provide. Why don't they all provide this feature and why isn't this feature free? These rules seem so arbitrary to me and money continues to talk.

With the ever growing contempt toward spam and invasion of privacy issues, I suspect these rules and regulations will change. I have no problem with providing a registrar with accurate information that protects my names and my presence on the web. But, I have serious problem handing that information so freely to spammers and attackers, whose growth numbers far exceed any other growth percentages out there.

Until the IT world of businesses can figure out a way to protect its customers while keeping contact info accurate and available in emergencies or investigations, and yet still private, all we're left with is nothing more than stupid, corporate-inspired, insecurity. It seems to me the IT arena isn't any smarter than the airline industry. We all have to endure TSA agents now until someone figures out a smarter way not to punish the majority of innocent travelers. Please, someone take my fingerprint!

Originally posted by MistyBreeze
Fascinating reading. I can't believe I was unable to find these with all the advance searches I did. Thank you, acts837.
:wavey:

Originally posted by MistyBreeze
All I can say is...this industry really needs to get its act together.

Agreed!

Originally posted by MistyBreeze
What fascinates me most is why would a veteran sales associate from register.com suggest the things that were suggested to me and do it with such self-assured altruism?

Because all Register.com cares about is the sale. I have spoke with their tech support on the phone on more than one occasion and I wasn't impressed. They (register.com) are one of the worst registrars about hanging onto to domains for "years" after they expire.

Originally posted by chet
That is like saying you don't need license plates on your car because you will never speed. You still need the plates. You still need accurate whois info.

Comparing WhoIs info to the threat of death by someone ignoring a red light is laughable. Thanks but, no thanks.

Originally posted by acts837
They (register.com) are one of the worst registrars about hanging onto to domains for "years" after they expire.

I'm not sure what this means and how it relates to my needs.

Originally posted by MistyBreeze
Comparing WhoIs info to the threat of death by someone ignoring a red light is laughable. Thanks but, no thanks.

Huh? How does that relate to the question at hand?

If you are unwilling to go the Private Registration route, then get a PO Box.

Sorry, that was free and off topic. I guess it was my way of saying that Register.com is screwed up hence the answer you received from their staff.

I know this may not be the best solution but the way I have solved this problem is I use a PO Box and cell phone for the whois info.

Originally posted by pms
Huh? How does that relate to the question at hand?

Funny, that's precisely the question I asked regarding the comparison to auto license plates, which are required by law. Accurate WhoIs info is not required by law. (Memo to me: No more chatting with the slow-of-brain.)

Comparing WhoIs info to the threat of death by someone ignoring a red light is laughable. Thanks but, no thanks.

Threat of death?? Huh?

You are saying you are above the rules because you have done nothing wrong, and will do nothing wrong, that is what everyone thinks. But thanks for making my post edgy...

Wow you really are being a pretty dismissive jerk for someone who can't even handle a simple search.

edit -
Ahh - just searched on you misty. This seems to be your MO, have no idea what you are talking about, have others explain it to you who do, then attack them and act arrogant. No thanks. Helping you (who always seems to need help) is futile.

Originally posted by acts837
Sorry, that was free and off topic. I guess it was my way of saying that Register.com is screwed up hence the answer you received from their staff.

I know this may not be the best solution but the way I have solved this problem is I use a PO Box and cell phone for the whois info.

Everyone seems to be screwed up. That's part of the problem. My IT guy says the industry is still too new. The kink issues need more time to get ironed out. (Which translates into: the more public outcry, the more change ahead.)

It's so easy to find something wrong with everyone and every aspect of this business. What scares me is how many people are willing to give up so much without any fight. I call that lazy and apathetic (and stupid).

I currently use my cell phone for all WhoIs. The PO Box may be the only answer at this time.

ps Acts837, I have a lovely Sangiovese varietal direct from Tuscany. Send me your address via PM and I'll send you this special bottle to thank you for helping me. Helping me is never futile because I sincerely appreciate any smart effort.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's try to keep the personal insults to a minimum. :angel:

I found this page and beyond an interesting read: http://www.internetprivacyadvocate.org/

If 77% of Network Solutions' customers expressed concern about private information being available on WhoIs, I doubt the percentage of the entire industry can be further off? There's power in these numbers and, in my opinion, more people need to speak up.

I spoke to a manager at Register.com and, sure enough, she said the sales rep who advised me to change my WhoIs info gave me bad advice. She said not only does Register.com abide by the rules of ICANN but they also include these rules in the Register.com Service Agreement. Their service agreement is 11 pages hard copy and features a 10 pt font size. (And they call me verbose.)

She did recommend I write the company and express my security and privacy concerns, something she tells all customers who ask about this missing service. She said that home office users express the most concern and she empathized with their fear and apprehension. She said if more people write in with suggestions, chances are Register.com may eventually offer a privacy feature.

She went on to recommend using a Post Office address and a cell phone number to avoid spam, solicitations, identity theft and unwanted phone calls. A post office box in NYC costs $48 per year.

Originally posted by acts837
:wavey:



Agreed!



Because all Register.com cares about is the sale. I have spoke with their tech support on the phone on more than one occasion and I wasn't impressed. They (register.com) are one of the worst registrars about hanging onto to domains for "years" after they expire.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I have been with domainpeople.com for about five years and have found their service awesome

I suppose occasionally they make a bit of an error but you immediately get a friendly, articulate person on the line who fixes the issue rapidly (immediately means youre only on the line for a minute or two before getting live people)

I started with their www.easyhost.com service for retail and paid $35/name until I realised that as a reseller that dropped to $10--thus became one after wasting more than $1000 on the $35 registrations

I believe they are owned by webhost netnation.com. I haven't yet set up a site with netnation--I use a range of others--all somewhat unsatisfactory lol

however last night I emailed netnation with a hosting question and got a response within hours from a named person

so the parent company seems professional and responsive as well

I could save a buck or two with other registrars but reliability is vital to me - I would stray from domain people for the odd name--perhaps to take advantage of some promotional offer byt if you seel domains--even for four figure sums it's nice to feel that your registrar is right on the ball and won't create hassles

carl