Whois data a key weapon in fraud fight, FTC says | CNET News.com
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The Federal Trade Commission has made a pitch for open access to Whois, saying the databases are a key weapon in its fight against spyware and other Internet fraud.

The agency on Tuesday called access to the Whois databases, which contain contact information for Web site operators, “critical to the agency’s consumer protection laws.” It was responding to a recommendation from a Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers committee to restrict use of the data to strictly “technical purposes.”

The official statement comes after an address by FTC Commissioner John Leibowitz to a meeting of ICANN this week in Morocco, where he gave examples of how Whois data has aided the agency’s attorneys and investigators in identifying perpetrators of Internet scams, spam and other illegal online activity.

“Whois databases often are one of the first tools FTC investigators use to identify wrongdoers,” he said.