Legal to Lie about Whois Info?

[Arch]

It is now illegal to provide false information when registering a domain name.

Last year, there was a brief attempt to make registrars responsible for the accuracy of the Whois database. Fortunately, that legislation failed. What did become law was a new, stiff penalty (7 years) for providing false WHOIS information. While this looming jail time might have some sway over US-based crooks, it will do little to get accurate information from those who live overseas.

http://www.circleid.com/posts/whois_privacy_vs_anonymity/

The article is from 2005, so I'm sure I just missed the news and talk about it when it was going on and now I don't know all the details I should. How does that law get put into action and actually used? Would someone have to turn the false information into authorities (who?) and is it only if something illegal is taking place on the site...or could it be some random personal blogger who didn't put the correct info in the whois registry and ends up being jailed for it? :uhh:

 

[Arch]

No one knows? I'm asking because I actually 'do' have false information in the registry. I didn't even want my host to have the correct connecting information to me, but I'm not doing anything illegal, so could this really come back on me later?

 

[Kevin K]

No one knows? I'm asking because I actually 'do' have false information in the registry. I didn't even want my host to have the correct connecting information to me, but I'm not doing anything illegal, so could this really come back on me later?

What can happen and I can tell you this since this just happened from one of our customers is that the domain registrar can suspend or remove your domain name for having false information.

I am not sure on the legal side of things, but I would not think so.

If you want to hide your information your should get a extra service like ID Protect or something of that nature that masks your domain whois information. Its alot better than just lying about the info.

Hmmm sounds like you really have something to hide.....

 

[brianf]

Some registrars provide an ID protect service for free while others charge a minimal cost. The nice feature is that when someone sends an email to the listed email address, it is forwarded to you. This keeps all of your personal information private and is a must for those not running a business.

 

[JamesCWilson]

Thank you for the tip BrianF!

I do not run any businesses currently, and would prefer to keep all my registration information private.

Really, I think it should be the rights of anyone not running a business to keep things like that private.

 

[ANMMark]

I think the bigger question here would be "why?"

If you're running a personal website (non-business) then, yeah I can see using something like info protection (not outright lying).

However, when someone purposely lies about their contact information, and admits that they don't even want a business who has the right to the information for billing purposes having it, that raises a TON of red flags.

I mean, keeping information private is one thing, lying about needed information to a company you do business with is fraud. It also raises the question of "Who is less trustworthy...the company who has your info to send you a bill, updates, etc, or the person who will go to any length, including fraud, to hide their information?"

It amazes me though that it would be this particular type of customer who publicly comes off with "I'm angry with this host, because they didn't contact me before suspending or terminating my account."

Bottom line is, there is no reason to lie about your information, when there are so many information protection services for domain registration available, unless you know you're doing something you shouldn't be doing and don't want people knowing who you are. Then you have to ask what the bigger picture is.

Sorry, just sounds very fishy to me.

 

[Arch]

Haha. I don't have anything major to hide guys, and I'm not running any illegal operations, lol. It's back on one of my earliest domain names when I was still very skeptical of things. The company I hosted through had an ID protection package I could purchase, but I was on a low budget and was just trying things out. I didn't give horribly incorrect information and consider I was naive at the time, it could still be traced back to me, but...

Like, for example, instead of the name listed being as "John Smith," it's something like "This John"....and my address was listed as my parents home at the time, even though I hadn't lived there in a few years. I didn't want to be gathering junk mail from this place I was giving my contact info to or getting my name sold to other places (I didn't know/trust the company yet) and I didn't list my last name because I didn't want people who looked me up, being able to trace me to other places.

I could easily go and change it now, but I thought 'that' might throw up red flags. Like I said to begin with, I'm not doing anything illegal...but I didn't know about this, and I didn't want my earlier mistakes coming back to haunt me later. No need to make me sound all fishy, lol. I was just curious!

Glad I finally got an answer, though. Geesh! Thanks for the replies.

 

[ANMMark]

Well keep in mind that the opinion I put out there for you, would not just be mine. I tend to think logically before expression.

I would ask you to re-read your own initial 2 posts, with an unbiased outlook (in other words, you don't know anything about you, what you do, etc)....basically look at your first 2 posts the way anyone else would look at them.

The 2 posts alone, with just the statements within them, make the situation look "fishy".

I know nothing about you or what you do, and can only go by what you say/type here. On that same note, I don't know you well enough to say you're doing anything wrong....again, just going by what you stated.

 

[Arch]

I totally understand where you're coming from, but I tried to leave my first post open, and no one responded. I fall into the category of "random personal" site owner that I mentioned in the original post, and I stated both times that I wasn't doing anything illegal (which on second thought, could cause you to think I was, I guess....I was just trying to make sure people knew this was on a personal level, and not some grand scheme I was trying to hide). I'd googled the subject more before asking here, and was just hoping for some more personal knowledge about how it'd come about happening, if someone had false info in the registry. I figured by leaving it open, that maybe others would benefit from the topic, but I 'can' see why it makes me look like I'm seriously hiding something now.

On a side note, I alluded to my consideration to changing the information now....would 'that' throw up flags, or is it perfectly acceptable for me to correct my info now?

 

[ANMMark]

I truly don't think that they actively monitor when you're changing the information. It's more of a matter that when they do check, the info is accurate.

 

[brianf]

Changing your registration contact information at any time isn't a problem regardless of whether you change it to a new address or to a privacy protection service. ICANN requires that the information be correct and, if I remember correctly, the address must be a physical street address versus a PO box. Many registrars send an annual email to the domain's registrant contact email requesting that the information be verified. To my knowledge there are no real checks, so it's sort of on the honor system.

Keep in mind that an email address that's not 'real' means that if there is an issue with your registration you'll never know it and the registrar can essentially unregister your domain, as arch implied. While this is very rare, many times in cases where a registrar is made aware of a domain being used for SPAM or Phishing it is taken off-line. Regardless of the reason it's take off-line, once it's off-line since the contact information was incorrect, it's gone forever.

 

[shockym]

It drives me nuts when there is something wrong with a website and I go to try and contact the admin and see a ton of false info, just happened this morning and the only thing I thought was "Good its friday".

 

[Rob]

Lying on whois can be viewed as fraudulent. Many web hosts only keep your information on record so that they can get in contact with you if needs be.

 

[brianf]

It may be considered fraud if it is done to deceive someone to gain a personal advantage. Many times it is simply just the individual's method, albeit a poor method, to avoid potential identity theft, which is why these privacy services exist.

Maybe registrars should do a better job explaining the offered privacy protection service as well as all of the requirements for domain registration. Far to many people register domains for which they do not comply with the policies, such as citizenship, and then find themselves without remedy when their domain is taken away.