Domain swindlers bypass an increased control of Danish internet domains.
Danish TLD administrator DK Hostmaster is set to introduce a new validation scheme for .DK domains. Until now, a mail and an e-mail has been sent to the person listed as the registrant, and a domain could be activated just by clicking a link. From March 1, 2015, Danish registrants will be validated against the Danish Central Business Register (CVR) or the Danish Civil Registration System (CPR) depending on whether the registrant is a company or an individual.
The new validation scheme only applies, however, to registrants from Denmark. DK Hostmaster reports that they would also like to increase the validation of non-resident registrants, but that no adequate databases are available to be used for the validation. They further point out that EU regulations prevent them from introducing stricter validation rules for non-Danish registrants than for residents of Denmark. A stricter validation process for international registrants would lead to a significant decrease in service, as it can take a long time for a normal letter to reach an overseas address.
As has previously been documented in an analysis by IT Consultancy firm EIT, expired .DK domains are being systematically re-registered by persons with a relation to China. Many of them are then being set up as dubious web shops used for fraud, trademark infringements, selling counterfeit products, etc. According to Henrik Bjørner of EIT, the existing requirements for registering a Danish domain are far too lenient, as only a valid e-mail address is strictly necessary. There may only be problems with a small percentage of the total number of domain registrations, but it does point to a general issue with the registration procedure.