Court forces domain name scammers to quit

A UK domain name registrar has quit the business after court action was brought against it for cold-calling customers and pretending to be associated with Nominet, the body that governs the .co.uk domain.

Domain Registrar Services Ltd and its sister company UK Names closed down as part of a settlement with Nominet. A case brought by Nominet had been scheduled to be heard in the High Court next week, but in the settlement, the defendants agreed to pay Nominet £40,000 in costs, stop passing themselves off as Nominet, and to provide Nominet with a list of all those approached by either company. An interim injunction against the defendants was awarded by the High Court last November.

Under the terms of this week's settlement, company directors Scott Denny and Matthew Hayes will not engage directly or indirectly in any business associated with domain name registration, said Nominet.

The case was brought following attempts by the defendants, Domain Registrar Services Ltd and sister company UK Names, to obtain payment for domain name registration services by misrepresenting their relationship with Nominet. According to Nominet, the defendants made unsolicited approaches to potential and existing users of .uk domain names, claiming - falsely - to be acting on behalf of or with the support of Nominet.

Nominet's managing director Lesley Cowley said: "They consented to the court order and that in effect closes the case. Given the extent of the undertakings we saw no purpose in taking the case forward."

Matt Loney writes for ZDNet UK