It would have been nice to track down "Ritchie". Initially, we couldn't because Nominet allows "private individuals" to opt out of providing full address details for public consumption; only his name appeared on querying for his contact details. But Ritchie isn't a private individual - he's using the sites to make money.
Lesley Cowley, chief executive for Nominet UK, says the opt-out is only available to people not using domains for business. "Generally, we regard pay-per-click sites and spamming as commercial activities, and we will therefore remove the opt-out from this domain," says Cowley. "We will be looking at all of the opted-out registrations for this individual." Soon after, an address appears for Ritchie in the Nominet records. It's that of a pub in Lochgelly, Scotland - which appears to have closed. Nor does Ritchie respond to emails.
