The cons of the pros

I've been thinking about Internet scams. It should be globally known by now that there are legions of con men online who want to take your money by whatever means they can.

These crooks will offer you business "opportunities" and attempt to sell you drugs, software, you name it. And despite endless commentary and warnings from journalists, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), people still get taken.

As an example, consider the Nigerian Scam, otherwise known as 419 fraud. I first learned of this about five years ago when a friend got a letter by snail mail offering a "business proposition." Similar offers started appearing through e-mail a couple of years later and now I receive one or two each day!

If you don't know how the 419 scam works, let me tell you: You get an unsolicited offer along the lines of, "I have knowledge of a big pile of money but I need an accomplice to help me move it somewhere where I can get access to it and if you help me I'll pay you for your trouble."

The pitch appears to be a request to help launder illegally acquired money ("overbilled" contracts or some such) or reclaim funds captured by hostile governments. You are asked to provide a bank account and money for fees. Of course once they get your money the crooks vanish.

The messages are usually sent from or can be traced back to Nigeria, although some come from other nations such as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast.

The 419 scam is serious business! Estimates put the annual take in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

But we have companies much closer to home that, some would argue, have questionable ethics. Take VeriSign, otherwise known as Network Solutions. In the company's role as the primary Internet domain name registrar, it has considerable power that extends from control issues through to the marketing and sales of domain names and services. As such, it is pretty much guaranteed that the company will always be a target for criticism.

Some people are accusing VeriSign of conducting business in ways that are unacceptable. And these activities have been significant enough to attract the attention of the FTC.

According to Reuters: "The FTC is seeking information about the company's practices with regard to transferring Web addresses, deleting domain names and sending direct mail solicitations to customers of competitors in the marketing campaign that ended in May, the source said, and the company later confirmed."

VeriSign's business attitude is shown in its habit of sending final notices that claim a domain name renewal is overdue 45 days before the actual expiration date, and the custom of billing for a three-year renewal and not offering the one- and two-year prices.

VeriSign appears to be a company where chasing the sale has become perhaps too important. Check out NSI Horror Stories for an assortment of, well, horror stories.

Admittedly, some stories just show that the complainant wasn't really on the ball, hadn't read the VeriSign terms and conditions, or simply wasn't playing with a full deck. On the other hand, many stories sound credible and amount to serious allegations. And these stories have been cropping up for years.

What I'm wondering is, how long can this go on? Can we afford to have a public company in such a position of power? Even the government could run a less bureaucratic and more responsive operation. It certainly would be less inclined to questionable marketing and sales practices.

It is time to examine the concept of commercially run domain registries in general and VeriSign in particular. There are enough scams online as it is.

Pros and cons to backspin@gibbs.com.

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