The administrator of the .AU name space, auDA has requested a domain name registrar to delete about 1025 domains. It says that the domains were used to impersonate Australian businesses. auDA had announced its plans of conducting an unauthorized business name audit in September.
The organization said in a statement :
As the policy authority of the .AU domain name space, auDA initiated an audit of the .AU domain names registered by the reseller of an accredited registrar.
We acknowledge the registrar of record’s co-operation in identifying a reseller who appears to be behaving in this manner.
During the audit, domain name registrant details and screenshots of associated websites were scrutinized by auDA.
auDA added :
Each domain name and associated screenshot was then manually checked to see if it satisfied our assessment criteria.
If the domain name matched all or most of the criteria, it was put on a list for deletion.
If it matched some of the criteria, but there was still doubt about the registration, then it was put on a list for a standard investigation.
Following the process, auDA requested the domains be placed in policy delete – a process that sees the domains removed from the Domain Name System and eventually purged entirely from the registry.