Tracking down a .co.uk registrant with incorrect contact details

[wesley]

I was just wondering if anyone knows what the best way to get hold of a .co.uk domain name owner if their WHOIS details are incorrect. I would like to buy a particular domain and sent the registrant a letter which was returned to me a few days later because the person was no longer at that address. I called Nominet and they referred me to the registrar. The registrar told me that they couldn't pass on a message to the owner or give me their contact details as that would be breaking the Data Protection Act.

So I'm a bit stuck.

Does anyone have any ideas for tracking someone like this down? Short of hiring a private investigator of course! I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks

Wesley

Ps. I wonder whether Nominet could institute a similar program to what ICANN have where you have to verify that your contact details are correct every year. That would be very helpful in situations like these.

 

[bb99]

It would be wrong for the registrar to hand out the registrant's details to you.

But surely they can pass on a message/email? Maybe try sending a fax to the registrar's big cheese and see if they can apply some common sense as you may have spoken to a telephone monkey.

 

[Admin]

Have you looked at the domain in the wayback machine to see if it shows any contact info?

PM me the name of the domain if you need some help.

Admin

 

[wesley]

Thanks very much for the replies and suggestions!

The registrar in question is Telivo and I ended up sending them an email because their phones were constantly engaged. This is their exact reply:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Unfortunately the data protection act means that we cannot release any details of our customers or pass any details on to them in this case.

If you have any further problems or queries please don't hesitate to contact
us by replying to this e-mail.

Regards

Telivo Limited

I think I might try and see if I can get in touch with someone higher up the food chain.

Admin, I'll PM you the name of the domain now but yes, I have tried the wayback machine. I also tried DomainTools to see if they had recorded any different contact details over the years. No joy though, looks like it has been the same registrant the whole time and they never used the domain at all.

 

[anthony]

"Unfortunately the data protection act means that we cannot release any details of our customers or pass any details on to them in this case."

How strange! What a lousy reply.

 

[paul]

Wesley, send me the details if you still haven't sorted this and I'll see what I can do

 

[retired_member3]

have you tried emailing the usual various eg webmaster@.... admin@.... etc... slim chance but hey.

 

[paul]

Wesley

It appears that the address listed in the whois is for the company that registered the domain for this chap. The company that initially registered it looks like Netlink Internet Services LTD (U-net) who it seems were taken over by Claranet (not 100% sure though) link They used to operate from 20 New Oxford Street at the time the domain was registered. It appears they used their own address on a number of domains rather than the registrants.

I found a couple of other domains listed with the same address

bellwood.co.uk whois
brunelmicroscopes.co.uk used to have the same address here

Also there is a DRS for a dissolved company that had the same address here

So it looks like the only real thing you have to go on is this guys name. I checked to see if he has any other domains registered and no luck I'm afraid

 

[wesley]

Thanks!

Thanks very much for all your help guys, especially Paul and Admin. You guys have been great.

So it looks like it's as bad as I suspected. I have a real mission on my hands if all I have to track this guy down is his name. And with that address being the one for his old registrar, it doesn't narrow down the country either so the only way to do it would be to call all the people with the same name in the phone book! Not a job I fancy doing!

I'm going to give Telivo another try and go from there.

Thanks again

Wesley

 

[paul]

One last thing you could check is if there is a director of a company with this name, bit of a long shot but might get you somewhere.

I agree that your best chance is Telivo, however, some registrars renew domains automatically and never charge the owners. I could show you quite a number of domains that are like this So Telivo might not even have up-to-date info. Give Nominet a call and ask them if the domain is set to auto renew they should give this info out if you tell them why

Good luck