Today my attention was drawn to a web site called Internic-Whois.com

The owners of this misleadingly named domain seem to be downright cybersquatters.

What is cybersquatting? It’s when a popular Internet domain name is registered with the intention of either selling it to its rightful owner, or using the real owner’s name for profit. Anti-cybersquatting legislation was introduced to make it illegal.

A few checks revealed that copycat Internic-Whois.com has absolutely nothing to do with Internic, which in case you don’t know is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The official Internic is licensed to ICANN which not only operates the official Internic site, but also provides the free WHOIS database lookup service for all .com, .net, .org and other current domain names.

According to WHOIS, the bogus Internic-Whois.com belongs to an anonymous private person or company residing in a P.O.Box in Boston, MA 02123, USA.

Their website invites you to use their “domain name lookup and search utility”. You might think you were using the official Internic whois service, but you’re not. Instead you’ll find they want you to register a 2 year domain for $50!

Internic-Whois appears to be linked to these other domains:
Instantpc.com
Yourfavorite.com
Bostoncommerce.com
Finitesite.com

You have been warned.