Nominet and London police add new landing pages for suspended domains

Nominet today introduces law enforcement landing pages for domains suspended due to criminal activity to provide information for those who may have been affected by activity related to the domain name.

In collaboration with the City of London’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU),  Nominet will begin redirecting web users to a secure site providing consumer advice and education for potential victims of sales of counterfeit branded goods.  

PIPCU referrals account for the majority of .UK domain names suspended for criminal activity. Since 2014 108,589 domains used for criminal activity have been taken out of action to keep the .UK namespace safe. The content of the landing page has been developed in collaboration with PIPCU to provide clear messaging for the benefit of the public.  

In 2021 Nominet will extend the pilot to include the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).  On conclusion of the pilot Nominet will assess the impact and report publicly on the next steps.  

Eleanor Bradley, MD of Registry & Public Benefit at Nominet says: 

“Criminal activity is as unacceptable online as it is offline, and the sale of counterfeit goods continues to result in innocent victims of cybercrime as consumers are duped by increasingly sophisticated websites that are not all they seem to be.  

“Our new landing pages pilot seeks to provide real time education and advice to those who may have been victims of criminal activity at the point they attempt to access the website in question. It is the latest step in our strong collaboration with UK law enforcement agencies and we’ll be monitoring the pages closely to determine the benefit for the public to ensure we can help as many people as possible to stay safe when shopping online.” 

Detective Constable Weizmann Jacobs of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) said: “We work closely with Nominet to disrupt criminals who try to operate in the ‘.UK domain’. These law enforcement landing pages, which include advice and guidance for the public, help us in protecting consumers from the dangers of counterfeit goods and protect their personal information when shopping online.”