FTC warns ICANN about more top level domains

TOO MANY INTERNET TOP LEVEL DOMAINS might be a bad thing, according to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) about plans to allow more global top level domains, or GTLDs.

The FTC is charged with rooting out problems on the internet, mostly to do with bad trade practices, and its letter suggests that more GTLDs are bad (PDF) as they could make it easier for scammers to scam and people to be scammed.

ICANN is due to open up a period of registration for new top level domains in early January, having given approval for that earlier this year, but the FTC said that this "rapid expansion" would harm the internet and make its job much harder. It also warns that ICANN is unable to handle the work and top level domains it has already.

"A rapid, exponential expansion of gTLDs has the potential to magnify both the abuse of the domain name system and the corresponding challenges we encounter in tracking down Internet fraudsters," it warns, as it suggests that scammers will abuse the new domains by registering mis-spelled company names and creating copyright infringing websites.

"In particular, the proliferation of existing scams, such as phishing, is likely to become a serious challenge given the infinite opportunities that scam artists will now have at their fingertips."

The problem is already apparent, at least if you work at the FTC or are a big business that has people spoofing your company web sites on the internet, and many web sites are being created with fake Whois information.

"We have encountered Whois information with facially false address and contact information, including websites registered to 'God,' 'Bill Clinton,' and "Mickey Mouse'," adds the letter. "In Internet investigations, identifying domain name registrants immediately is especially important, as fraudsters often change sites frequently to evade detection." It added that ICANN has failed to resolve these problems over the last ten years.

The FTC suggests that ICANN launch a small pilot of the new top level domains, and only approve a small number, but there already is talk of it approving thousands more. The FTC says that these should be managed by additional compliance officers and controlled in a more secure manner than others have been.

Each domain should be checked to make sure that it has correct Whois information, it added, and ICANN should develop a program that measures consumer complaints arising from them.

"We strongly believe that ICANN should address these issues before it approves any new gTLD applications," said the FTC in its letter. "If ICANN fails to address these issues responsibly, the introduction of new gTLDs could pose a significant threat to consumers and undermine consumer confidence in the Internet." µ