A 34-year-old man from Groningen, suspected of internationally organized domain name fraud, heard his preliminary charges during the pro forma hearing on March 27 in the Groningen court.
The prosecutor suspects the man of having approached companies with the story that another party is interested in registering the domain name they use with a different extension. The extension is the last part of a web address, such as .nl, .com, .org. The suspect offers the companies to register this domain name for a fee for a period of ten years. The domain name is then registered with an American company, not for the duration of ten years, but for a shorter period. The service provided by the parties is therefore not fully delivered. After a year, the companies are often approached again with the story that they can register their domain name for a fee for the duration of ten years, again a year later, and in some cases again a year later. This raises suspicion of domain name fraud.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the suspects method of operation is not limited to the five companies whose complaints have been included in the file. It is likely to involve thousands of affected companies from various countries in Europe. The proceeds per victim are relatively small (200 to 300 euros), but due to the scale and duration, the suspect has reportedly earned millions of euros in total. The seriousness of the facts lies not in the individual cases, but in the bulk. To express this, fact 2 in the preliminary charges states participation as a leader in a criminal organization.
Additionally, the man is suspected of buying business data and information from companies that have been harmed in the fraud investigation.
The court has decided to extend the suspects pre-trial detention for a maximum of three months. The investigation is nearly complete. Financial investigations are intensive and time-consuming. There is still no date in sight for the substantive treatment.
The prosecutor on this investigation: “Since the amounts involved per company were not very large, a limited number of complaints have been received. Due to the investigation that was initiated following these complaints, we now have insight into about 13,500 invoices, with a paid damage amount of nearly 2.4 million euros. If we receive more complaints of such fraud cases, the likelihood of suspects being tracked down and prosecuted increases. It is always beneficial to report suspicions of fraud to the police.”