Aussie scammers use Kiwi disguise to get rich

Two 25 year olds form Perth have been caught trying to steal $500,000 in credit card payments after asking holders of co.nz internet addresses to buy the .net, .net.nz or .com version of the same name.

The domain name scammers charged $237 for the charge, which costs 10 times more than usual registrar alterations.

The money, which has been sent to Swiss bank accounts, was intercepted by the Commerce Commission before it went through. It returned mail, and gave senders the option to continue with NZ domain names ore not go ahead with each purchase.

Roughly 2500 transactions were caught, which means that the scammers, Chesley Rafferty and Bradley Norrish, lost out on about $580,000.

Rafferty, however, defended himself, by claiming that he is part of a legitimate domain name registration company which offers services through direct marketing, and large numbers of their customers are satisfied with the results throughout the world.

This scam has been rated by the Western Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection as one of the top 10 scams of 2003.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken the case to the Federal Court in Melbourne for misleading and deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act.

Rafferty sent out 800,000 letters to Australian domain name users, which, together with the New Zealand domain name mail-outs, has netted millions of dollars.

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