Call for Volunteers: Fake Renewal Notices Drafting Team In Brief The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council seeks volunteers to serve on a drafting team that will prepare a request for information on Fake Renewal Notices, work with the Registrar Stakeholder Group to obtain the information requested and report back to the GNSO Council. What This Group Will Do The GNSO Council resolved at its meeting on 6 October in response to one of the recommendations of the Registration Abuse Policies Working Group that 'additional information is needed from the Registrar Stakeholder Group with regard to the conditional [RAP WG] Fake Renewal Notices recommendation #2 before an Issue Report should be requested of Staff. The GNSO Council hereby requests that the Registrar Stakeholder Group provide further information and data on the nature and scope of the issue of Fake Renewal Notices to help inform the GNSO Council's and its RAP WG deliberations on whether an Issue Report should be requested. A small group of volunteers consisting of registrar representatives and others interested (including former RAP WG members) should be formed to prepare such a request, work with the Registrar Stakeholder Group to obtain the information requested and report back to the GNSO Council accordingly'. How This Group Will Work ICANN Working Groups use transparent, open processes. The meetings of this Drafting Team (DT) will be recorded, and the recordings will be available to the public. The mailing list for the DT will be archived publicly. DT members are expected to submit Statements of Interest (SOI). The group will collaborate using a public workspace. The DT is expected to follow theGNSO Working Group Guidelines <http://gnso.icann.org/council/annex-1-gnso-wg-guidelines-07apr11-en.pdf>. How to Join The Council invites interested parties to provide names of expected participants who can then be added to the DT mailing list. The GNSO Council may also invite stakeholders and experts to join. Community members who wish to be invited to join the group should contact theGNSO secretariat <mailto:gnso.secretariat@icann.org?subject=Application%20to%20Join%20IRTP%20Part%20C%20Working%20Group>(gnso.secretariat@icann.org). Background
From theRegistration Abuse Policies Final Report <http://gnso.icann.org/issues/rap/rap-wg-final-report-29may10-en.pdf>: 'Fake renewal notices are misleading correspondence sent to registrants from an individual or organization claiming to be or to represent the current registrar. These are sent for a variety of deceptive purposes. The desired action as a result of the deceptive notification is:
* Pay an unnecessary fee (fraud) * Get a registrant to switch registrars unnecessarily ("slamming", or illegitimate market-based switching) * Reveal credentials or provide authorization codes to facilitate theft of the domain' As a result, the RAP Working Group recommended, following obtaining further information from ICANN's Compliance Department, that the GNSO Council consider requesting an Issue Report on this issue. However, after review of the information received from the ICANN Compliance Department (seehttp://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg10766.html) and further discussions on this issue (see for examplehttp://singapore41.icann.org/meetings/singapore2011/transcript-rap-18jun11-e...), the GNSO Council determined that further information would be desirable before deciding whether or not to request an Issue Report. -- Kind Regards, Benedetta Rossi BC Secretariat www.bizconst.org bc-secretariat@icann.org