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A group of Canadian con artists caught scamming US individuals, small businesses, and non-profit organizations for millions in phony domain registration and search engine optimization fees has been shut down by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC announced Monday that has reached settlement agreements with most of the defendants in the case, while another defendant, Steven E. Dale, received a default judgement to the tune of $4.3 million.
A Toronto-based company going by the name of Internet Listing Service sent fake invoices to thousands of US consumers designed to look like they came from a legitimate domain name registrar, requesting fees for domain name renewals and "search optimization" designed to drive "a substantial increase in traffic." Many of these customers believed they could lose their domain name if they didn't pay the invoice, while others were enticed by the promise of better traffic.
The FTC charged those involved in the scheme in June of 2008, claiming that "most" consumers who fell for the ploy did not get a domain name renewal and that the claimed "search optimization" never happened. A federal district judge signed a temporary injunction against the defendants and froze their assets pending trial.
The settlement and default judgement orders signed today end that litigation, according to the FTC. Defendants Isaac Benlolo, Kirk Mulveney, Pearl Keslassy, and 1646153 Ontario Inc received a suspended judgement for $4,261,876, the total amount the group bilked. The FTC told Ars that the settling group of defendants are unable to pay the full amount, and as part of the settlement agreement the group will pay $10,000. Default judgment against Dale is for the full amount. Charges against two other defendants in the case were dropped. All parties are permanently barred from attempting to sell domain registration or search optimization services in the future.
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