Registered a .US and wow... just wow... (5.Viewing)

Some of you might have noticed I have not been as active here the past week or so.

I launched a new project with my son and as part of the project we have a domain in .COM & .CA.

I didn't the site to look biased to Canada.ca so I purchased a .US as well. The site will also be targeting the US but I figured I will get someone I know to use their name and address for the WHOIS if there was ever an issue.

That said, being a .US WHC does not have the ability to keep the WHOIS private and my son and I have been coding for a week. During this time my cell phone has rang non stop from call centers in India. The display always says Los Angeles, New York, or some other famous city but the caller is always Indian.

Sir we notice you bought domain1.us and we are inquiring what the purpose is for the domain and what we can do to help you launch it bla bla bla...

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If I were to say 10-20 calls daily I would probably be understating the amount of spam calls.

Woke up this morning to over 60 spam emails for the same.

Buying a .US domain has been an eye opening experience.

Yeah, it's quite unfortunate that .US does not allow WHOIS privacy.

There are so many spammers that harvest data from the WHOIS.

Any time you register a domain, expect to be flooded with phone calls and emails offering web design, logo design, SEO services, and other garbage.

The good news is it will slow down over time as the spammers move on to new targets.

Brad

It’s also scammers calling to check if your number is active.

Checked my blocked list and I have blocked over 2,000+ numbers.

DataCube said:

The good news is it will slow down over time as the spammers move on to new targets.

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You can get a phone number from Twilio for around $1/m for such use cases. They also allow programmatic actions on calls and text messages on that number.

I registered one .US domain long, long ago and it was a real mess. Tons of emails and harassment, even a couple of hack attempts on the spare gmail address I used. It's like there's a mass of 3rd world scammers just slavering to get at those new .US registrations.

I'll never own a .US domain ever again.

I get a constant rate of about a half dozen spam phone calls per day, and and 15 to 30 spam emails per day offering web and app services. The emails usually go straight to my spam box which is great. I don't answer any phone calls where I don't recognize the number or caller, I figure if it's important they can leave a message or will find another way to contact me.

Thanks for the heads up on .us, not planning to get one but will consider your comments in the future if I do.

I don't get too many domain-related spam, but I do get plenty related to the peni$-enlargement surgeries....it's almost like my women are talking to them or filing complaints somewhere anonymously

Brandit said:

I do get plenty related to the peni$-enlargement surgeries....it's almost like my women are talking to them or filing complaints somewhere anonymously

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Speaking of bad phone calls, I made the mistake of answering the phone today from an unrecognized number - I wish it was just an indian scammer. So this guy basically says "Sorry, I don't mean to ambush you on the phone here, but I represent a client with 6 trademarks and we want to try and negotiate before we resort to CDRP." He dropped the CDRP threat before he even asked anything about a price or what I'm doing with the domain or anything at all. Sounds like a fucking ambush to me. So I said stop right there because if you're wanting to have a good faith negotiation, already threatening cdrp is starting off on a very bad footing with me! That is not good faith negotiation.

This is a word in a foreign language, it is also a surname used in Canada, and there are trademarks by multiple other companies with the same word in Canada and numerous other unrelated uses such as existing business names and websites. I'm not worried in the least about losing a CDRP.

I'm guessing that the typical lawyer hubris will ensure that they don't actually do what is right for their client. What he should do would be to apologize, start with a clean slate and then negotiate. They can always go to CDRP later if they wish, so there's zero need to start with that threat. And the reality is, after they lose the CDRP, their client loses double. They paid their lawyer to screw them over with bad advice, they still won't have the domain, and if they actually really wanted it, then the price will have gone up by at least $5K.

Scammers tend to target suckers.......and if you register a .us domain name, you're probably considered more likely to be a sucker than those who register .com domains.

GeorgeK said:

Scammers tend to target suckers.......and if you register a .us domain name, you're probably considered more likely to be a sucker than those who register .com domains.

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They should really target newgTLD registrants, like those on .horse, etc.!

Correct me if i am wrong but i think namesilo offers privacy for .us domains, i complained about the same spam thing and i think someone suggested that, actually going to look into that now.

carolstarnes said:

Correct me if i am wrong but i think namesilo offers privacy for .us domains, i complained about the same spam thing and i think someone suggested that, actually going to look into that now.

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Welcome aboard @carolstarnes , nice to see you here

I this all .US has no privacy

Here is a Dynadot domain too look at as well, you can see all details.

Whois red.us

MapleDots said:

That said, being a .US WHC does not have the ability to keep the WHOIS private and my son and I have been coding for a week. During this time my cell phone has rang non stop from call centers in India. The display always says Los Angeles, New York, or some other famous city but the caller is always Indian.

Click to expand...

carolstarnes said:

Correct me if i am wrong but i think namesilo offers privacy for .us domains, i complained about the same spam thing and i think someone suggested that, actually going to look into that now.

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It's the US registry that doesn't allow privacy. I can see a registrar potentially offering proxy registrations with their address, but I believe that is against the registry rules and can possibly lead to the deletion of your domain. This is from the top of my head without refreshing my memory.