domainwatch.org

Last month I made a post how iRegistrations (www.iregistrations.com) had merged with Ezinames (www.ezinames.com) aka Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd (see Aug 12 entry).

Now, according to their updated terms and conditions, Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd is the company behind the business.

They have also reduced their “free trial period” from 7 days to 3. Which means that unsuspecting people who think they are registering a domain name for $US5.95 get slug with a $US599 hosting package on top of that if they don’t opt-out of the “free trial” in 3 days!

I looked up ASIC and found that Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd has been deregistered.

Is it possible to hold a valid contract with a company that no longer exists?

Extracted from ASIC’s database at 08:07:24 on 25/09/2004
http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/gns030c?acn=096256110

Name INTERNET REGISTRATIONS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
ACN 096 256 110

ABN 96 096 256 110

Type Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Registration Date 19/03/2001
Next Review Date 19/03/2004
Status Deregistered
Locality of Registered Office not available
Jurisdiction Australian Securities & Investments Commission

Former Name(s) INTERNET NAME REGISTRATIONS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
INTERNET NAMES REGISTRY AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

from: http://www.ezinames.com/index.php?act=other&feat=terms

” … Terms and Conditions …

Parties

1.1 Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd trading as ezinames.com and hereafter for the purposes of this contract referred to as ezinames, is the service provider under this contract.

…

2.6.2 Currently each new ezinames account attracts the provision of the following services for the first domain registered from ezinames : Bulk 500MB Hosting account, host up to 20 domains with up to 20,000MB data transfer (20GB), 500x POP email accounts, 20 MySQL Databases, 200 FTP accounts, 200 Mailing Lists, 500 Sub-domains, CGI-Bin, Control Panel, Search engine
submission (provided in hosting control panel).

…

2.6.4 ezinames offers these services free for a trial period of 3 days from the date of domain name registration.

…

2.6.9 Billing after the initial free trial period is by direct debit from the registrants nominated credit card at the rate of $US595 for 1 year service period. This charge will be billed in $AU at the then current exchange rate as provided at www.x-rates.com

…

2.6.13 Should any fees charged by ezinames to the registrants nominated credit card for the account be charged back (including but not limited to fees for domain registration, hosting, or search engine submission) then ezinames shall gain full ownership, control and possession of the domain name involved. The registrant will also be liable to pay ezinames a chargeback administrative fee of $30.00.

… “

With regards to Paul Fox, who Bradley and Chesley both attest has nothing to do with any of their current operations; his name is found in an undertaking signed by Bradley Norrish on behalf of Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd.

ACCC - Undertakings register (s. 87B) 2002 - Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/331708

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=331708&nodeId=file40036b387663e&fn=d02_63700.pdf

” …

3.3 Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd undertakes at its own expense to procure that Mr Bradley Norrish and Mr Paul Fox each swear and provide to the Applicant no later than February 2003 an affidavit verifying (and annexing adequate documentary evidence) that Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd has carried out its obligations

… “

An Aussie judge has branded the actions of two internet domain conmen as “nothing less than deceitful” after they sent out 50,000 fake invoices to domain name holders in the UK.

The dodgy invoices from UK Internet Registry were sent out last year after Chesley Rafferty, Bradley Norrish and their three companies had hoovered up the details of thousands of domain name holders following a data mining attack on the .uk WHOIS database.

Nominet victorious in copyright court battle
http://www.nic.uk/News/PressReleases/2004PressReleases/NominetVictoriousInCopyrightCourtBattle.html

Nominet UK v Diverse Internet Pty Ltd [2004] FCA 1244
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2004/1244.html

Pair misled UK companies over domain names (Australian Financial Review)
http://dotau.org/archive/2004-09/0026.html

Nominet wins UK domain scammers case in Australia
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/23/nominet_legal_win/

Nominet wins Australian Court Case Against DataMiners
http://www.audomainnews.info/modules/news/article.php?storyid=342

Nominet celebrates copyright case victory
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158310

Nominet wins data mining case
http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=nominetwinsdatami1095945490&area=news

Who is Paul Geoffrey Fox?

According to ASIC he was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1962 (42 years old), lives in Wembley Downs, Western Australia and was director of Diverse Internet Pty Ltd from 12/11/2002 until 12/11/2002.

Nominet UK v Diverse Internet Pty Ltd [2004] FCA 1244 (22 September 2004)
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2004/1244.html

” … Paul Fox of Internet Registrations Worldwide … Mr Rafferty is also a director of a company called Internet Registrations Worldwide Pty Ltd which has its registered office at the same address in Perth as Diverse Internet. He succeeded Mr Norrish as a director of Internet Registrations Worldwide on 27 January 2003 … “

Commissioner wades in over DomainNamesNZ - By Paul Brislen - Oct 2002
http://www.computerworld.co.nz/Reseller/Reseller.nsf/PrintDoc/86256ABD006E93FCCC256C620008A5B4

” … When IDGNet spoke to general manager Paul Fox earlier this week, he denied
any complaint had been laid with the company over its mailing campaign … “

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS COARSE LANGUAGE

Jason “Magz” Namour who’s perthbands.com web site is “totally connected to (his) ex-work place” has quit his job.

Domain name registration records show the perthbands.com to be registered to Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd and hosted by IMCO Corporation Pty Ltd both companies operated by Bradley Norrish.

http://www.perthbands.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=8394

” …

perthbands.com > The Slaughterhouse > Quitting my job..

…

Posted by: Magz Jul 1 2004, 05:10 PM
Hey guys,

Just thought i’d let you all know i’m no longer at the company i worked at for the past 4 years. I quit today , this company meant alot to me i helped it develop from 3 young guys in a one room office to a multimillion dollar company in the 4 years i was at it for. It’s been a very hard and emotional decision for me and it came about basically because of one cunt of a guy that has only been there under a year. An egotistical, crack smoking, absolute cum drain of a guy. Who wouldn’t know respect if it fucked him up his ring. Thing was he couldn’t get fired because he has entrenched himself too deeply into the infrastructure at my work so being the man i am i decided to leave the job i loved. You may think wow that’s drastic, but this guy has had me close to beating the living shit out of him the past 2 months and it got so bad i had no choice but to quit. Anywyas i leave him now being deeply hated by the rest of my fellow ex-workers whom i’m sure will make his life living hell.

Anyways, this means i have a shitload more time on my hands now so expect some changes to the site and some more big things coming your way.

…

Posted by: Duceman Jul 1 2004, 05:14 PM
Magzy, you need him taken out?

…

Posted by: Magz Jul 1 2004, 05:17 PM
I’d take him out myself if i could. He’s a little scum sucking fuck.

…

Posted by: Magz Jul 1 2004, 07:26 PM
The guy is a cancer in the company he is HATED by everyone, and i mean HATED. He is the most arrogant, egotistical bastard you could ever meet and he makes no bones about it. He gloats about it regularly that he is elite and he’s better than everyone else and no one knows more than him and he’s never wrong. He makes me sick to my stomach just looking at him. He can’t talk normally to anyone he’s always barking orders and whinging. Problem is he’s gotten himself too deeply involved with all the current projects that they can’t afford to lose him. Seeing 99% of my work is for the projects he’s in charge of means i have to work closely with him every fucking day and listen to his uneducated advice on what things should look like and giving me the most pathetic work instructions possible that make it too hard for me to follow therefore he criticises my work and i argue back that if he knew what the fuck he was doing then maybe he’d be able to give me better instructions bla blah which results in him calling my work ‘fucking shit’ and me calling him a useless cunt that has no fucking idea about what he’s doing. This argument happens alot. I’ve almost punched him 4 times in the past week. So rather than get a court date i thought i’ll leave it be and quit much to the dismay of my fellow workers and boss. It’s a catch 22 it’s my only option i seriously couldn’t handle another day working with the guy.

…

Posted by: Magz Jul 2 2004, 10:39 AM
haha thanks guys, if i ever see that guy on the street i’m pretty sure it’s gonna be curtains for him. Anyways, Yeah perthbands is totally connected to my ex-work place they host it and everything but i’m not leaving on bad terms with the company so it shouldn’t affect it in the short term. I may have to look into other hosting services in the coming months though.

… “

from: whois.enom.com

Registration Service Provided By: Internet Registrations Australia
Contact: enquiry@registrations.com.au
Visit: http://www.registrations.com.au

Domain name: perthbands.com

Administrative Contact:
Internet Registrations Australia
Domain Administrator (enquiry@registrations.com.au)
+1.611800833000
Fax: +61399236277
Level 28/ 303 Collins St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
AU

Billing Contact:
Internet Registrations Australia
Domain Administrator (enquiry@registrations.com.au)
+1.611800833000
Fax: +61399236277
Level 28/ 303 Collins St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
AU

Technical Contact:
Internet Registrations Australia
Domain Administrator (enquiry@registrations.com.au)
+1.611800833000
Fax: +61399236277
Level 28/ 303 Collins St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
AU

Registrant Contact:
Internet Registrations Australia
Domain Administrator (enquiry@registrations.com.au)
+1.611800833000
Fax: +61399236277
Level 28/ 303 Collins St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
AU

Status: Active

Name Servers:
ns1.imcoserv.com
ns2.imcoserv.com

Creation date: 03 May 2001 02:41:04
Expiration date: 03 May 2005 02:41:04

Diverse Internet Pty Ltd (Bradley Norrish) is back in court today.

from: http://courtlists.fedcourt.gov.au/courtlistings.aspx?id=8

” …

Federal Court of Australia
for Hearing on Wednesday 22 September, 2004
1 Victoria Avenue, Perth

…

(Justice French) Court: 4 level 4

11:00 am
Nominet UK -v-
Diverse Internet Pty Ltd & Ors
N1040/03
(Judgment By Videoconference)

… “

Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd v .au Domain Administration Ltd [2004] FCAFC 247 (10 September 2004)
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2004/247.html

Domain Name Australia Pty Ltd’s (Chesley Rafferty) misleading and deceptive notices remind
me of Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd’s (Bradley Norrish); who gave undertakings
to the ACCC never to do so again.

ACCC - Undertakings register (s. 87B) 2002 - Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/331708

I’m not a lawyer, however if there is a business relationship between Chesley Rafferty/Domain
Names Australia Pty Ltd and Bradley Norrish/Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd then
isn’t Bradley Norrish in breach of his undertakings to the ACCC?

What is the penalty for those in breach of ACCC undertakings?