BBC News on fake .co.uk websites...

[devolution]

A bit of bad PR for Nominet --

BBC NEWS | Business | 'Fake UK sites' trick consumers

Perhaps this will highlight the matter of closing down or suspending domains that are running fraudulent operations, or screwing customers. Hint 3 minus 2 doubled.

 

[bb99]

This is consumer ignorance, but I suppose Nominet has a part to play in that through education.

It's very bad for .uk though because this sort of half arsed reporting will do Nominet's profile no good when you consider the current issues that Nominet is facing.

 

[retired_member6]

The bbc missed out the phrase "if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is" Reporters are getting lazy, I read a telegraph item this morning about number of murder and rapes over a two year period by prisoners on probation, detailed the amount of each but failed to say by how many and how many in that time were on probation. lax reporting.

Criminals on probation commit a murder and rape a week - Telegraph

 

[meinthecorner]

This is consumer ignorance, but I suppose Nominet has a part to play in that through education.

Agree. The consumer ignorance is a big issue. The guy interviewed said the site had official logo's and everything. What he didnt say was if he clicked to check them though.

 

[stevebrowne]

What an outrageous piece of reporting!

In a survey of 52 countries, trading standards found that most countries have far tougher rules than the UK.

Usually they demand some sort of link with the country whose domain name they are adopting.

Please Mr BBC, what does the biggest domain extension in the world, ".com", do things?


The registration form asked for:

Street Address, Suburb, Post Code, City, State/Province, Country

If a UK store asked me those, I personally wouldn't be convinced they were in the UK.

 

[matmat is verified member.]

I have come across a few of these sites. Some are very well made and branded. They look like the real deal with realistic prices. Images are of the genuine item.

Its only when you google them and do a whois you see that they have been trading for about a month and are located in china!

Most of them are listed as Google PPC ads as obviously they dont rank one bit.

 

[SystregSystreg is verified member.]

We get a lot of chinese sites listed on anti fraud forums I'm involved with, almost all the Chinese based ones we have come across have been fronts for advance fee fraud where they are supposedly selling trainers or electronic goods.

The buyer pays for the product, usually via Western Union, they are then told there are problems in customs that require further funds to clear them, if the victim pays that, then there is either another request for more funds, or the victim gets angry with them via email and they just don't bother replying any more after that.

With them being located in China, the webhosts there are a nightmare, so pretty much all the abuse notifications that we send are ignored, that's the Chinese bulletproof hosting for you

 

[matmat is verified member.]

They also send you crap, that is either the wrong type/colour or second hand and they know you wont send it back as the costs are nearly the same as the actual item cost you!! Its a great way for them to move on stock that they no longer want.

If your going to import from china it really is worth getting a few very trust worthy contacts as most of them love to do over westerners!