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Originally Posted by myclassy67
Looking up the info on the site came up with a wrong phone number, a street that doesn't exist, etc. When I tried to call the hosting company, I get answering machines and no returned calls.
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I had a problem with someone sending spam with my email address as the return address. The spam was coming variously from China, South Africa, Brazil, etc. Companies in these countries are difficult to track down. The advertised site was registered in the US (it was a .us domain), but hosted in Malaysia. The single page at the site contained an information-gathering form that linked to an IP number belonging to a cable company in Arizona.
I called the telephone number listed in the contact information for the domain, but the number was that of an individual who had no idea about the site. The area code and exchange
were correct for the address listed. Directory assistance had no listing for the person associated with the domain name.
Registrars generally have a clause in their terms of service (TOS) specifying that contact information must be correct, and must be changed within a certain period of time if necessary. I contacted the registrar (godaddy.com in this case) and informed them of the situation, particularly the incorrect contact information. The site was shut down (no DNS) the next day. Their spam still went out, but it was now useless. I hit them where it hurts: in their wallet.
If you have problems with a site that has incorrect contact information (I often use samspade.org to get this information) contact the registrar associated with their domain name, not their web hosting service, and let them know about it. GoDaddy was very helpful in this particular case.
Best Regards,
Narasinha