Namecheap.com Provides Web identity to potentially fraudulent sites, furthering scams byshielding perpetrators with associated company Internet

Namecheap.com provides domain names for a fee. This is nothing in and of itself, but the contact for WhoisGuard.com defaults to NameCheap, suggesting some collaborative association. WhoisGuard.com offers services which allow scam artists running fraudulent websites to conceal their identities from their victims -- and some of them get their domain names from Namecheap.com

So, for example (as I reported in another RipOff Report) ebaysuccesssystems.com gets its domain name from Namecheap.com. The former might pull a bait and switch on its clients, and extremely limit accessibility to complain. If a ripped-off consumer goes to WhoIs to find a better contact to address the perceived fraudulence of the site, it is blocked by WhoisGuard.com. Clicking on WhoisGuard.com's contact link takes the consumer to a WhoisGuard page, but the phone number is the same as Namecheap's, and the message identifies the company as Namecheap. In addition the email is the supporte-mail for Namecheap.

Do I detect a bit of a corporate shell game here? especially throwing eBaySuccessSystems, and whatever other possible scam sites benefit from the services, into the mix. These assocaiations bear remarkable similarity to the structure of racketeering in criminal organizations (which the federal government calls RICO for short).

Namecheap.com is also the only one of the three to have voicemail with a human voice, though the fact that the initial menu allows hitting 1 for a message or staying on the line to send a fax, suggests a seat-of-the-pants operation.

Peter ****
Lenoir, North Carolina
U.S.A.