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January 6, 2012<\/p>\n
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Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org<\/p>\n
Washington, DC \u2013 The planned expansion of the generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) name system poses significant threats to consumer protection from online scam artists, according to the National Consumers League. Starting January 12, 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) plans to begin accepting applications for new gTLDs despite the significant concerns expressed by hundreds of stakeholders in the non-profit and business communities as well as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and members of Congress. As an organization that receives thousands of complaints from consumers about online fraud, NCL is extremely concerned that expansion of the gTLD system will be a boon to scam artists intent on deceiving consumers.<\/p>\n
In particular, NCL is troubled by the findings of the FTC that:<\/p>\n
\u201c[a] rapid, exponential expansion of gTLDs has the potential to magnify both the abuse of the domain name system and the corresponding challenges we encounter in tracking down Internet fraudsters. In particular, the proliferation of existing scams, such as phishing, is likely to become a serious challenge given the infinite opportunities that scam artists will now have at their fingertips.\u201d<\/p>\n