Fraudit helps registrars battle global online fraud

Computerworld - At first, he said it couldn't be done. But ultimately, Rick Wesson, CEO of Alice's Registry Inc., developed a product to improve the accuracy of Whois data on the front end.
"About a year ago, a number of people expressed their interest in a system to detect when someone provided inaccurate information on their domain name registration form, and I said it couldn't be done," Wesson said.
But he decided to take on the challenge -- and to his surprise, succeeded in developing such a system, he said.
The new product, named Fraudit (think "fraud audit," Wesson said), is the first to tackle the problem of ensuring that the information that people provide to registrars of domain names is correct, said Alec French, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman, (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property.
Fraudit checks databases worldwide to verify an entity's e-mail address, postal address and telephone number, detecting errors and scoring the validity of the registration information, said Wesson, who is also the chief technology officer of the Registrar's Constituency group of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. He said registered users can access the Fraudit service through an easy-to-use Web-based form or a secure Web service client for 25 cents per transaction, with a $49.95 minimum per month.
Wesson, who noted that Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Alice's Registry is already using Fraudit, said he has been talking with other registrars about using the new technology, which was announced in October. He declined to say more about how those discussions are going.

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