See no evil: two registrars issue half of world's 'rogue' drug domains

The top 10 Registrars by the percentage of domains used by "rogue" Internet pharmacies. Source: LegitScript

Half of all online pharmacy domains are registered by just two of the world's registrars. That's according to a report concluding the non-profit agency that governs the issuance of Internet addresses may not be doing enough to enforce its own regulations.

Internet.bs, which claims it's headquartered in the Bahamas, registered 33 percent of the world's "rogue" online pharmacies according to the report. The report was released Monday by a group that tracks unlicensed sellers of precription drugs online. Researchers from LegitScript said the figure was even more dramatic when considering the tiny share Internet.bs enjoys in the overall domain-name market.

"Despite only having less than 0.2 percent of the global domain name market (about 400,000 domain names out of 220 million), LegitScript's online pharmacy database indicates that Internet.bs is the Domain Name Registrar for about 33 percent of the world's non-spam 'rogue' Internet pharmacy domain names," the report states. The domains included: "buyfemaleviagracheap.net, nonprescription-pharmacy.com and sibutraminewithoutprescription.com that are engaged in the illicit and dangerous sale of drugs unapproved for sale and/or drugs without a prescription."

The findings are similar to the conclusions drawn from a separate report (PDF) issued by another watch dog in the online pharmacy arena. They come as the non-profit organization appointed to oversee domain name registration began a week of open meetings on Monday in Costa Rica. ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has the authority to revoke the accreditation of domain name registrars who violate terms of a Registrar Accreditation Agreement. But so far, Internet.bs and other registrars named in the reports have remained in business despite reports of RAA violations. These reports include allowing customers to use the domains to sell prescription drugs without the necessary licenses being made more than six months ago.

"ICANN is either unwilling or unable to enforce its contracts," the second report, issued by a group called KnujOn states. "These egregious examples demonstrate the most flagrant disregard for consumers, the industry, or even common sense. This activity must be stopped or there are truly no limits to what illicit commerce will be permitted if the basic rules of domain ownership are not enforced."

ICANN representatives didn't respond to an email requesting comment for this post. This article will be updated if a reply is received later.

According to LegitScript, the second-most popular registrar of pharmacy domain names was ABSystems. It issued more than 17 percent of the addresses cataloged in the group's database of rogue online drug stores.

According to LegitScript and KnujOn (that's "no junk" spelled backwards), an RAA is a legal contract that's binding on both the registrar and the domain name owner. Among other things, it forbids domains to be used for unlawful purposes and states that names won't knowingly be used in violation of "any applicable laws or regulations." RAAs also require that Whois information included with domain registration information to be complete and accurate.

Members of both KnujOn and LegitScript said they've spent the past year notifying both registrars and ICANN of the perceived violations. So far, they haven't succeeded in getting the behavior they're complaining about stopped.

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See no evil: two registrars issue half of world's 'rogue' drug domains