The invoices request payment of NZ$125 be made within 48 hours, for registration of a domain name similar to that already held by the recipient. The faxes have been described by Stuart Macdonnell, accountant for the NZ-based Clutha Licensing Trust, who received one on May 29, as highly deceptive and likely to confuse some people into believing they are a demand for payment of a legitimate account,
In at least one case, the fax was followed up by an unsolicited phone call in which ING offered to reduce the price to NZ$99. On being asked whether the invoice was a scam, the ING sales rep simply hung up, the recipient of the phone call claims.
After being alerted to the company's renewed activities, an ACCC spokesperson said that they would "be very interested to hear more about it" and have requested a copy of the material being sent by ING to Kiwi domain name holders.
The ACCC also suggested that contempt charges may be placed if ING has breached the interlocutory ruling made by a judge several weeks ago. The ruling expressly restricts the company from engaging in any communication that "represents that it has a pre- existing relationship with a person, if in truth it does not".
When contacted for comment, ING denied the allegations that it was still spamming and said that it had only sent invoices to those customers who had ordered a domain name from them.
Macdonnell, the accountant for the Clutha Trust, however is adamant that neither he, nor anyone from his organisation has ever ordered a registration from ING.
ING is not the only Australian domain name reseller raising the ire of Kiwis however. Earlier this week, Internet Registry Pty Ltd spammed an unknown number of people with a very similar pitch.
After receiving several hundred complaints from angry recipients, the New Zealand domain name registry Domainz removed the internetregistry.co.nz from its nameservers, effectively knocking the company's Kiwi Web site and e-mail services off the air. The Australian site however, remains active at www.internetregistry.com.au.
Domainz CEO Derek Locke says this action was taken because Internet Registry's actions were a breach of the Domainz terms and conditions. Locke added that that following this move, Internet Registry threatened legal action.
A spokesperson for Internet Registry was unrepentant that the company had used spam to solicit business and calls requesting a comment from management have not been returned.
They're at it again!! I just recieved another letter, passed to me from our legal department, supposedly 'correcting' their previous letter. This letter starts of talking about Internet Name Group, then goes on to use the acronym of INP and not ING. This mistake is made several times, so I would suggest it has been made intentionally. This will allow them to claim it was a genuine mistake and tries to remove their responsibility for the letter. I don't understand how this company is allowed to operate when they are quite clearly attempting to trick or fool people into paying them money for services that they haven't provided. I am disgusted and hope all Australian and NZ companies are made aware of the fact that Internet Registry/Net Register/Internet Names Group, or whatever other company names they use, are not to be trusted and shold be avoided at all cost. Literally!