Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/03/domain_scam/
Domain scam duo fined AU$2.3m
Oz crooks pommelled over Nominet attack
Posted in Spam, 3rd January 2006 16:53 GMT
A pair of fraudsters who made millions using a domain registration scam have been ordered to pay AU$2.3m (£980,000) by an Australian court.
Brad Norrish and Chesley Rafferty conned victims into stumping up non-existent fees under the threat that they risked losing their domain names unless they paid up. The duo used data from domain name registrar Nominet to produce authentic-looking notices that lent credibility to the trick, the Australian reports (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17549155%255E2702,00.html).
Up to 50,000 UK website owners were targeted in the scam. Nominet was forced to take the extreme step of disabling its publicly available database as a result of the scam.
Judge Robert French, of a Perth-based Australian Federal Court, ruled that Norrish and Rafferty had flagrantly breached copyright laws and ordered them to pay A$1.3m damages to Nominet plus an estimated A$1m in legal fees. T
he ruling brings to an end a two-and-a-half year legal fight by Nominet that began when the UK domain-name registrar sued Norrish and Rafferty in 2003. ®