I’ve been quite surprised by the number of domainers I’ve seen posting on domain name forums lately asking questions about what are there odds of getting caught or what’s going to happen to their domains if they get caught… I understand that some people value their privacy more than others and I have nothing against people who would prefer to protect their details from being publicly available, but I really can’t say the same for people too cheap to pay for private registration who provide inaccurate WhoIs information.  To think there are domainers out there who would jeopardize the very safety of their domains for all of a few dollars per year… But what are the chances of getting caught they say? I don’t know but why take that chance when you don’t need to? Beyond having your domain reported for having incorrect WhoIs information, how do you think a panelist is going to view your decision to provide false WhoIs information? I’m guessing that if there was even a hint of doubt in his mind that the complainant had a case that we’re now going to see the complainant win. When your domain is registered with incorrect data, it just kind of makes it look like you have something to hide… I can understand why many domainers who’ve been around awhile opt for private registration — certain types of domains (like LLL.coms for example) will literally get you spammed to death if you own a decent amount of them.

Most of the domainers I’ve seen asking questions about private registration likely don’t have $XXXX+ domains however, more like $100 domains or domains they just registered. I’m not sure why many of these new domainers are afraid of having their details exposed.. If anything, for someone just starting out it might be a benefit and may result in an enduser sale or two you wouldn’t have had otherwise — how is an enduser going to contact you and express their interest in a domain if your contact information isn’t available? Maybe there’s a few of them out there, however I’m not aware of many endusers who’d go to the lengths domainers would of getting around stuff like private registration if there was a domain they were interested in waiting on the other side. I don’t know what the rules are elsewhere, however here in Canada we have a recently implemented national Do-Not-Call list which one can opt to be part of. — If a telemarketer is dumb enough to disregard that and call you, it might very well be the most expensive phone call he’ll ever make, with fines of up to $15,000 per call.

Related posts:

1. Best Domain Name Registrars
2. Domain Name Security
3. Finding End Users for New Domain Name Extensions