Someone registered similar domain

My info shows in whois

[RammsteinNicCage]

Someone registered a domain very similar to one of mine, but with a .info instead of .com. That I don't really care about. What's bothering me is that I did a whois on the .info domain and I see my name, my address, my phone number, and my email address listed. I'm assuming this was done through some automated process because there are question marks where there should be spaces in my address, but I'm worried about the unlikely (hopefully) event of someone doing something malicious under that domain, what repurcussions could this have for me?

Jennifer

[ChadSEO]

Jennifer,

As I understand it, domain registrants are required to provide accurate contact information. Since that's obviously not the case, if you contact the registrar, they should attempt to obtain accurate information. If/when that fails, they may turn off the domain. I, of course, have never tried this before, that's just want I've gleaned from other people.

[novice]

Jennifer,

That domain is more than likely yours. For a while registration for .info domains were free, so many registrars took the liberty of registering the .info extension for their customers that have the .com version.

[John Carpenter]

Someone registered a domain very similar to one of mine

In what way was it "very similar"? Was it a variation of your domain name or similar site content?

[FTFlash]

I'd lookup the Whois information on the domain. Somewhere on that page there should be a "Report Invalid Whois" link.

I think other than that, you can't do much.

[RammsteinNicCage]

novice, that was the first thing I thought of, but I don't think that's the case. The webhost for this site is located in the UK, the registrar (of my domain) is located in Singapore, and I think whoever registered the .info domain is located in Washington state.

John, it was domain.info instead of domain.com. The content was not the same (I didn't have any content on my site at the time), the .info had one of those placeholder pages up with some search and directory.

Flash and Chad, thanks, I'll check out contacting the registrar of the .info. :)

Jennifer

[John Carpenter]

placeholder pages up with some search and directory

Sounds like a typical site of a cyber squatter (may be just "innocently parked" though). Anyway, good luck.

[RammsteinNicCage]

Yeah, I figured it was just a cyber squatter, but is that common for them, to use someone else's info (the person that they're hoping would want to buy the domain name)?

Jennifer

[FTFlash]

No. In fact it's illegal to provide incorrect information to the Whois service.

That's why I suggested that you report it to the registrar where the domain in question was registered.

Also, here is a news article that might interest you.

[circleid.com...]

[davezan]

If it's what I think it is and you got your .com domain with that company, it's part of the
.info promo they did a year ago. And it was full of controversy, so to speak.

[psycray]

Send an email to both your registrar and the cyber squatter’s registrar stating the problem. They should have people on staff that knows what your options are. But of course it is all dependent on how good the staff person is that gets your email.

[PCInk]

Ask the registrar to post/fax the password out - if it's in your name, then you'll get all the details you need ;)