A U.S. District Court has shut down an operation that used deceptive spam messages to sell Web addresses that did not work.
The England-based operations were shuttered at the request of the Federal Trade Commission, which also asked the court to order an asset freeze for consumer redress, the FTC said.
The businesses used appeals to patriotism to sell addresses such as “.usa,” “.brit,” and “.bet”, bringing in more than $1 million from the illegal scheme, the FTC continued.
After Sept. 11, the companies began an aggressive e-mail campaign targeting U.S. customers advertising the .usa domain names for $59 each.
The FTC said the companies are not accredited domain name registrars and that the domain names are not usable on the Internet.
The FTC complaint names TLD Network Ltd., Quantum Management (GB) Ltd., TBS Industries Ltd., Thomas Goolnik, and Edward Harris Goolnik of Finchley Road, London, England.
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