A Bermuda company has sent a cheekily humorous “get lost” message to a UK company that tried to sell it six variations of its own internet domain name for $1,200.

And an investigation by The Royal Gazette casts doubt on claims by London firm Profile Business Services that it was simply doing a favour and covering itself legally by forewarning an Island company that someone in Hamilton was trying to snap up the unregistered domain names.

Those six domain names offered for a one-off fee of $1,200 were available for a total of $45.86 per year on a popular US domain registry late yesterday.

The attempted sale in Bermuda this week almost identically matches one successfully challenged in the US after alleged bogus claims were made to dupe customers into buying variations on their own domain names.

That resulted in a Canadian firm paying $375,000 after the Federal Trade Commission brought allegations against the company that it had duped customers into needlessly registering variations of their existing domain names by deceptively contending that third parties were about to claim them when there was in fact no third party.

Earlier this week Bermuda Provident received a telephone call from the London-registered Profile Business Services, which sells domain names, telling it that a “Mr. Marshall” in Hamilton was trying to buy a selection of Internet domain names that very closely resembled its own.

“The person was very concerned that someone had applied for these domain names and she thought it was suspicious,” said Toni Johnson, who took the call at Bermuda Provident. She gave us three options; either let it take place, sue — but she thought that would be difficult, or pay $600 ($1,200) for the domain names. She wanted to get an answer quickly. I told her I had to contact my IT person.”

Bermuda Provident was informed “Mr. Marshall” had applied a couple of days ago to register the domain names and might get suspicious and try and buy the names elsewhere if there was a delay in processing the request. But to give Bermuda Provident time to make its decision the Profile Business Services caller agreed to “freeze” the domain names in question for 24 hours.

IT Consultant John Hatzidimas immediately sensed something fishy going on and did some quick checks on the Internet which backed up his hunch that all was not as it seemed. He has since informed the Bermuda Network Information Centre of the situation.

“The reason I found this fishy is the amount she was charging, they usually sell for about $10 each. And also, since when do domain registrars care who registers the domain? If it’s available they’ll give it to you,” he said. “They are trying to scare you into buying.”

Mr. Hatzidimas responded to Profile Business Service with a cheeky email requesting quotes for a few more domain names including; “nicewaytomakealiving.com”, “doyouthinkwearemorons.bm” and “wasnicetalkingtoyou.not”.

The Royal Gazett> spoke to Cindy Thompson at Profile Business Service, which has a registered address in East London, UK, and questioned her about the proposal.

“It is strange. We do not have many applications like this, that’s why we got in contact with the bona-fide company to make them aware,” replied Ms Thompson.

“It wasn’t to inform them to buy them, that wasn’t the case. They have obviously taken that wrongly. It was a matter of three options, one to allow the application to go through — so at least they are aware (should it come to) a court of law. The second option is to put a disclaimer on the web site to state they are not affiliated with a bona-fide company, and the third option would have been if they wanted to take priority then yes, they could have taken priority at that stage. So it was not ‘cold calling’ for sale, not at all.”

When asked what legal action the company was protecting itself from by calling up a company to inform them of an impending sale of similar domain names, she replied that Profile Business Services had three years ago been taken to court for selling a domain name and not pre-informing the owner of a similar domain name.

Question$>“What company was involved?”

Ms Thomps<$> “It was a company name that I can’t divulge.”:<$> “When did the court case happen?”

Ms Thomn:<$> “Three years ago now.”<

Q:<$> “What court was that?”

Ms Thson:<$> “That was here in the UK.”>

Q:<$> “And in what court?”

Ms mpson:<$> “I wasn’t involved in the court case, I’m just telling you the story. I don’t have that information.”

Profile Business Services registered as a UK company in 1994. In recent months its name has started cropping up on internet forums with identical claims from people saying a representative from the London firm had called warning that an individual was seeking to register a number of domain names similar to their own, potentially causing confusion, conflict or damage to the owner of the original domain name.

The proposed remedy involved paying sums of around $1,200 to secure the domain names. Many of the WebHostingTalk forum posters said they initially felt scared by the warning. One has now reported the matter to the Irish domain registry who are to take the matter up with UK authorities.

Another business in Iceland reported being called by Profile Business Services in the past month and told that a “Mr. Marshall” (it is unclear if this is the same as the Bermuda Mr. Marshall) was seeking to register various variations on that business’ domain names.

Is Ms Thompson aware of these internet conversations critical of Profile Business Services?

“Yes, I’m aware of them.”

Question: “You do a lot of th”

Ms Thompson:<$> “No, unfortunately we are the messenger and people shoot the messenger.”

Q: “So, why do you do it? What do you get out of it as a busin?”

Ms Thompson: “As I said there can be no legal re-dress that comes back on our company.”

She then gave examples, including a battle between the UK’s Inland Revenue and a Mr. Hicks for the right to own a domain name. The Ro Gazette <$>has so far been unable to find reference to this court case. Ms Thompson also mentioned a domain name dispute involving Coca Cola.

The US-based National Arbitration Forum lists such a dispute amongst others. Interestingly, domain name vendors are protected from legal proceedings due to prior registration agreements that the domain name owner is the one liable to settle third-party disputes.

A study of Profile Business Services’ own terms and agreements shows it also has a clause protecting it from any liability resulting from domain names it sells infringing trademarks or other rights of any third party.“Do you get a lot of calls from journalists?”s Thompson:<$> “No, not at all. This is the first in my experience.”

As of last night all six domain names mentioned in Profile Business Services communication to Bermuda Provident were freely available to purchase across the internet, indicating they are neither “frozen” nor in the ownership of the mysterious Mr. Marshall.

To buy the domain names from US-based Godaddy.com registry would amount to $45.86 for one year of ownership.

UK internet domain company is sent packing