ICANN's recently released report, ICANN's Whois Data Accuracy and Availability Program: Description of Prior Efforts and New Compliance Initiatives [72KB PDF], is a summary of the Whois Data Problem Report System's (WDPRS) reports spanning a one-year period that concluded at the end of Fenruary 2007. In case you're not familiar with the WDPRS, it's system that tracks complaints about inaccurate or incomplete whois entries.
Notable facts from the report include:
According to the report, .info domains had the highest number of WDPRS reports, with 6.77 unique reports per 10,000 registrations. This is not a surprise given that inaccurate whois information is often the sign of a spammer and since .info domains are often used by spammers as they are relatively cheaper.
In response to the problem, ICANN will hold accuracy audits later this year in an attempt to clean up whois records. Each accredited registrar can expect to have their domain sampled by ICANN, and those with inaccurate data will be reported to WDPRS under an alias. For those domains that it reports for bad whois data, ICANN will double-check the domain's accuracy 45 days after its initial report to WDPRS.
Maybe I should go double-check my personal domains…
By Joey deVilla. Visit the blog maintained by Joey deVilla here.
Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, ICANN, Spam, Top-Level Domains, Whois
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I think I hold the record for longest continuing report of a single domain name.
From the DNSO list in 2003:
http://www.dnso.org/dnso/dnsocomments/comments-whois/Arc02/msg00017.html
worldteleport.org
Registrant Name: World Teleport Association
Registrant Organization: World Teleport Association
Registrant Street1: 2 World Trade Center Suite 215
Registrant City: New York
Registrant State/Province:NY
Registrant Postal Code: 10048
That address has not existed for nearly six years.
This report by ICANN is a big deal and there has not been much press about it. I am half of the "individual" who filed the largest number of complaints. We have taken complaints from other people and filed them with ICANN after we make a real effort to have these people removed from mailing lists.
The spammers almost always lie on their domain registrations and the registrars almost never verify the registrations, thus by simply following the rules, we have caused them to lose their registrations (yes, they get more and the battle continues).
What ICANN left out of the report is that 90% of the 135 billion emails sent everyday are junk email. Those bad guys may be tiny fraction of the worldwide domains, but they are eating up virtually *all* of the resources. (Numbers from the New York Times in January 20007)
We believe that ICANN has responded to our work. We seem to be they only game in town with a success story where spammers are actually stopped. We filed the most complaints because we are doing the legwork to get it done.