1200 .co.uk Domain Names Taken Down by Nominet

After Police Instruction

[IanTurner]

A major investigation by the Metropolitan Police's e-Crime Unit identified 1200 domain names used by organised criminal networks purporting to sell designer goods.

Nominet were instructed by the police to take down these domains and carried out the shut down.

see [nominet.org.uk...]

[engine]

That's a new way of getting scammers offline.

What's to stop them picking up new domain names?

[IanTurner]

Absolutely nothing prevents them picking up other domains, if they haven't been arrested.

However I think the exercise is about cleaning up .co.uk namespace so that it can have a trusted reputation with UK consumers. It was discussed at the recent Nominet registrars conference and representitives of the UK Police were speaking in panel discussions.

[IanTurner]

The government's Digital Economy Bill is the driving force behind a lot of the turmoil in the UK Domain industry at the moment and some of the statements in their impact assessment really show how out of touch they are:

See DEB Impact Assessment [interactive.bis.gov.uk]