The absence of a proper domain resolution process is hampering South African businesses, says Calvin Browne, director of the .co.za domain administrator, UniForum.
According to Browne, the dispute resolution process should have been set up by the Department of Communications in terms of Chapter 10, Section 8 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, which has been in force for more than three years.
"The lack of a proper dispute resolution process is hurting businesses hard," he says.
Browne`s comments come on the back of a statement issued by ICT law firm Buys Inc, which says an international criminal network is operating a domain name scam that "systematically targets local businesses".
"Since the start of September 2005, we received various calls from local companies, expressing concern about the status of their domain names," says Reinhardt Buys of Buys Inc.
"Their concerns resulted from a UK telephone call informing businesses that an undisclosed third-party is about to register their domain names. The caller introduces herself as acting on behalf of a UK business that may prevent the pending domain name registrations upon payment of a fixed fee."
Browne says his attention has been drawn to this issue for about a year, but that it is difficult to tell if it is a scam or not.
"To me it sounds more like a high pressure selling technique. For instance, how can one tell if someone is about to register a domain name in advance?"
Browne`s advice to people who have been approached in this manner is to first establish who they are dealing with, work out if they need the domain name and build a relationship with a trusted local Internet service provider.
Share
