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Fake co.uk websites

artmo
Aspiring Champion
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Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Fake co.uk websites

Item on BBC News this morning about fake co.uk websites:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8178959.stm
There was also an item on 'Click' about it this morning:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/
The advice was to check suspect sites on whois.
18 REPLIES 18
dvorak
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Registered: ‎11-01-2008

Re: Fake co.uk websites

Shocking, who'd have thought it? Next we'll have British companies having fake US websites by using the .com domain. Oh they already do.
Surely it's the same old thing, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
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pierre_pierre
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Fake co.uk websites

and dont forget the TV one, what will happen to that when Tuvalu sinks through global warming?
mal0z
Grafter
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Registered: ‎02-10-2008

Re: Fake co.uk websites

But the report implied that many countries have tigher control of their url - suffix, i.e. only Finnish registered companies/organisations can have .fi ?
If true that might help - but so many British companies have .com presumably becuase they think it looks better.
VileReynard
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Re: Fake co.uk websites

What's wrong with .com? - doesn't it stand for company?

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mal0z
Grafter
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Registered: ‎02-10-2008

Re: Fake co.uk websites

The British have no control of .com do we - but Nominet look after .co.uk etc
avatastic
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Fake co.uk websites

@Jeremy
I believe .com was picked to represent a 'commercial entity' by the dot commies back in the early days.
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artmo
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Re: Fake co.uk websites

The item on 'Click' said that only the .com and .co.uk can be used by anyone irrespective of location.  Most others can only be obtained within the country you operate from.
It's always a good idea I think to check on a website for an address and phone number as an initial clue to the company location.
chillypenguin
Grafter
Posts: 4,729
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Fake co.uk websites

Quote from: artmo
It's always a good idea I think to check on a website for an address and phone number as an initial clue to the company location.

Don't count on that, it's very easy to get an address and phone number but not be based in the UK.
Take for example Plusnet's customer service, call a UK number get an answer in South Africa.
The company I work for you call a London number and get answered in Dublin!
grimme
Grafter
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Fake co.uk websites

In the Firefox browser there's an addon called Netcraft Toolbar, it does a check on the website and shows information including where the site is based - would this be sufficient to alert a user to the validity of the site?
VileReynard
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Re: Fake co.uk websites

It only shows the location of the country that the website is hosted in.
There's nothing to stop a site being hosted in a foreign country.
I don't think any .tv websites are actually hosted in Tuvalu Smiley

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Oldjim
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Fake co.uk websites

Not to mention my 1&1  .co.uk site which is hosted in Germany
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Fake co.uk websites

Ha Ha, won't get that with an Irish .ie website as the Irish had the sense to tightly control the registration of their TLD's.
http://www.register.ie/domain-name-help.html
mal0z
Grafter
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Registered: ‎02-10-2008

Re: Fake co.uk websites

But you can get one in NI ?
mal0z
Grafter
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Registered: ‎02-10-2008

Re: Fake co.uk websites

What about EU TLD's - ?
are they tightly controlled ?