Detecting Anonymously Registered Domains 97
Spamresource.com has up a piece describing a new service that could be useful in evaluating the reputation of sites you deal with — anonwhois.org returns information on domains registered anonymously. It provides a DNSBL-style service that "is not a blacklist and wasn't meant to be used for outright rejection of mail." Only 619,000 domains are listed so far, but more are added as they are queried, so the database will grow more complete. Anonwhois.org seems to be a sister site to Spam Eating Monkey.
Re:Continued misuse of blacklists (Score:5, Informative)
It provides a DNSBL-style service that "is not a blacklist and wasn't meant to be used for outright rejection of mail.
Which of course means that in a year or two us mail administrators will start encountering mail servers that have been setup to reject mail based soley on them being on this blacklist.
Yeah, I urge everyone to exercise caution here ... I looked at the stats [anonwhois.org] and was a little concerned about 123k domains (20%) being domains by proxy. I host a site as a hobby and enjoy tinkering with forums and the like on it. I also don't like the idea of someone looking up my home address via whois and showing up at my front door to complain about something someone said on one of these forums. As a result, I opt for my ISP to be my proxy on the registration of the domain. Now, I know you think that means I have something to hide but I just really don't want my address and name out there because all I would have to put there is my house address.
Granted, my domain's not no the list and I'm not using it as a mail server (yet), I sympathize with hobbyists, non-profitable sites and people who value privacy. Keep that in mind if you're going to utilize this site as an auto-reject authority.
Re:Fake whois info (Score:4, Informative)
10 domains at $9/yr each for privacy gives $90/year extra. A PO box costs $45 or so a year. For any more than 5 domains, it's cheaper to go the PO Box route.
Re:Stupid (Score:3, Informative)
I use a PO Box for my domains and don't put my real name on anything I register. It at least keeps away most crap. For email, I always just list a GMail address now and they do a pretty good job filtering out any spam I may get through it.
Everyone in Canada will end up on this list (Score:5, Informative)
CIRA (the ".ca" registry) has a feature called "whois privacy" which hides the information of individuals who register domains by default. Only businesses get their information published in the whois database (by default - individuals and businesses can turn this on or off, although businesses need to provide CIRA with a good reason why they want their whois info hidden).
rfc-ignorant.org already does this (Score:3, Informative)
This sounds a lot like the whois DNSBL service by rfc-ignorant.org, which has been around for much longer. Why do we need another one?