Is this a GoDaddy specific thing? I've owned and/or managed an untold
number domain names since 1995 and never seen a notification of this
sort before (primary registrar to this date was Gandi.net, and before
that Network Solutions back in the bad old days).
Regards,
Thomas Leavitt
While, of course, the message is worded a bit different, we get the same
thing for our domains registered under OpenSRS also every year.
Chris
ICANN *does* have a requirement for accurate information in WHOIS and
while I don't know how strongly the requirement is enforced, they *can*
pull your domain registration if you don't have accurate information.
That's the reason for those notifications.
I receive these sorts-of notices from our OpenSRS-based registrar
numerous times a year (usually once a month, for multiple domains).
It may have something to do with the fact that I refuse to comply
with ICANN's mandatory regulation demanding legitimate public
contact information in WHOIS records.
(If someone wants to hear my reasoning, I'll be more than happy
to share.)
Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
I receive these sorts-of notices from our OpenSRS-based registrar
numerous times a year (usually once a month, for multiple domains).
It may have something to do with the fact that I refuse to comply
with ICANN's mandatory regulation demanding legitimate public
contact information in WHOIS records.
This reason is almost guaranteed. I'd been watching this thread with some mild curiosity, since I have never received such a notification, for any domain. All my data is accurate (nothing is hidden, everything is there). Interesting. I had no idea that anyone ever really checked, or cared, but apparently they do.
...
This reason is almost guaranteed. I'd been watching this thread with
some mild curiosity, since I have never received such a notification,
for any domain. All my data is accurate (nothing is hidden, everything
is there). Interesting. I had no idea that anyone ever really checked,
or cared, but apparently they do.
...
I check and care when there is a problem in that network or domain. I
find it extremely frustrating when the contact people are no longer
there, or never were.
It may depend on your registrar. I get them, since I am a WildWestDomains
(GoDaddy) reseller and that's where my domains are registered.
TuCows/OpenSRS does it too, but I don't think there's any global
requirement for the registrars to do it, and the "valid info" requirement
itself is only a few years old.
Steve Sobol wrote:
It may depend on your registrar. [...] I don't think there's any global requirement for the registrars to do it
Actually, there is these days:
http://www.icann.org/registrars/wdrp.htm
Registrars have to annually "provide" a copy of that info to the customer, although "provide" is a flexible term.
In our case we prefer to provide it as an occasional "please verify your..." notice when they login to their control panel, since that avoids an annoying (and possibly misdirected) e-mail message. But if a customer doesn't login for a year, we have to send an e-mail message.
While I'm not familiar with the precise enforcement mechanisms or policy, I do know of one ISP who had the delegation for their (.com) domain name unexpectedly pulled by the registry in response to a complaint about inaccurate whois information directed at ICANN.
It was painful for the ISP, especially since it happened during the time that Verisign's sitefinder was live, which caused e-mail to ISP customers to be hard bounced from Verisign and people looking for their web page to be presented with a "this domain is not registered" page instead of a browser error.
It's well worth avoiding, even without the additional sitefinder complications 
Joe
Are you sure it's genuine? Those WWD domains (especially
secureserver.net) account for a large fraction of the spam and
phishing attempts I receive.
SecureServer.net is GoDaddy.
If you have domains hosted at GoDaddy or a reseller, your customer
notifications come from that domain.
They also do web and email hosting, which is probably why you're seeing
the abusive behavior, but they do have a working abuse desk, so if you see
stuff from there, definitely report it.
OK... I'll nibble.
I don't think you get this more than anyone else because
of your stance. But perhaps that will change now that
you've publically declared your resistance. 
It's incredibly important that there be accurate
contact information for a domain. If you don't want to
list any one person, for a particular role, you may opt
to use role accounts. Unless I've misread and
misunderstood the policy, neither the contacts nor the
registrant need be a natural person. Contacts can be
role accounts and the registrant can certainly be a
legal entity instead of an individual.
Additionally, if you have privacy concerns (which I can
certainly understand and respect), many Registrars offer
proxy contact options for a nominal fee.
- Christopher
Following up to myself: I understand that you can still get phishes
purporting to be from them. But if you can verify that the message came
from secureserver, don't write it off as a phish without doing some
further checking.
GoDaddy's abuse desk is not so easy to work with...I have had two different
times that a whole /24 was blocked even though parts of the address space
were split between different providers (and customers), but GoDaddy would
hardly relent. Took over a week to get that resolved.
Frank
Once upon a time, Frank Bulk <frnkblk@iname.com> said:
GoDaddy's abuse desk is not so easy to work with...I have had two different
times that a whole /24 was blocked even though parts of the address space
were split between different providers (and customers), but GoDaddy would
hardly relent. Took over a week to get that resolved.
Heh. We had an IP (of a customer's mail server) that GoDaddy blocked.
They told us it had been blocked for something like 8 months (at which
time it had not been assigned to any customer); we had zero complaints
on record for that IP. They couldn't tell us why it was blocked or how
to get the block removed. When we asked to speak with a supervisor,
they told us that their supervisors didn't have phones.
I must be dumb, but how does a registrar 'block an ip' in a manner that affects anyone but themselves?
--matt@snark.net------------------------------------------<darwin><
Moral indignation is a technique to endow the idiot with dignity.
- Marshall McLuhan
Godaddy also hosts a sizeable number of vanity domains registered with them
If you register with them you have the option of also buying NS, mail
and webhosting