Domains by Proxy

Short description: Internet company offering domain privacy services

Domains by Proxy, LLC[1][2] (DBP) is an Internet company started by the founder of GoDaddy, Bob Parsons. Domains by Proxy offers domain privacy services through partner domain registrars such as GoDaddy and Wild West Domains.[3]

Subscribers list Domains by Proxy as their administrative and technical contacts in the Internet's WHOIS database, thereby delegating responsibility for managing unsolicited contacts from third parties and keeping the domains owners' personal information secret.[4][5] However, the company will release a registrant's personal information in some cases, such as by court order[6][7] or for other reasons as deemed appropriate by the company per its Domain Name Proxy Agreement.[7]

As of 2014, over 9,850,000 domain names use the Domains by Proxy service.[8]

## Contents

* 1 Political usage
* 2 Controversy
* 2.1 Fraudsters and scam
* 2.2 Privacy
* 3 See also
* 4 Footnotes
* 5 External links

## Political usage

In the run-up to the 2012 United States presidential primaries, numerous domain names with derogatory expressions have been registered through Domains by Proxy by both Republicans and Democrats.[9]

Domains by Proxy have allegedly been a target of the Internet organization Anonymous due to perceived malicious business activities including inducements to join their service, claims of privacy that are not fulfilled and the lowering of Google PageRank of the sites they link to. [10]

## Controversy

### Fraudsters and scam

Controversially, Domains By Proxy is also used by a number of organizations that target vulnerable individuals by sending threatening psychic letters, and fake drug companies.[11] It is also used by fake anti-spyware and anti-malware sites to hide their real ownership of the software that they promote.

Advance Fee fraudsters also use Domains By Proxy. On 5 February 2016, the database of Artists Against 419, an Internet consumer protection group, reflected 1124 out of 108684 entries abused the services of Domains By Proxy. This represents a figure of slightly over one percent of the entries.[12]

Reportedly, Domains By Proxy provides services to various scammers around the world.[13][14]

It also was alleged that it scams domain owners for $50 USD when a third party sends emails to DBP claiming legal matters.[15]

### Privacy

In 2014, Domains by Proxy handed over personal details of a site owner to the Motion Picture Association due to potential copyright infringement despite the website not hosting any copyrighted files.[16][17]

## See also

* Internet privacy

## Footnotes

1. ↑ "Domains By Proxy, LLC :: Delaware (US) :: OpenCorporates". 2002-02-27. https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/5074714.
2. ↑ "Domains By Proxy® : Proxy Policy". 2020-05-21. https://www.domainsbyproxy.com/domainsbyproxy/proxy-agreement.
3. ↑ Godfread, Paul, and Kristine Dorrain. "Survey of the Law of Cyberspace: Domain Name Cases 2008". The Business Lawyer.
4. ↑ Xu, Kuai; Wang, Feng; Wang, Haiyan; Yang, Bo (February 2020). "Detecting fake news over online social media via domain reputations and content understanding". Tsinghua Science and Technology 25 (1): 20–27. doi:10.26599/tst.2018.9010139. ISSN 1007-0214.
5. ↑ Godfread, Paul, and Kristine Dorrain (2009). "Survey of the Law of Cyberspace: Domain Name Cases 2008". The Business Lawyer.
6. ↑ Private domains not so private? | CNET News.com
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Domains By Proxy Domain Proxy Agreement
8. ↑ "List of 9,863,496 domain names using Domains By Proxy". https://whoisology.com/organization/archive_6/domains+by+proxy,+llc. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
9. ↑ Rucker, P. and Farnam, T.W. In Campaign 2012, Web sites are the new real estate. The Washington Post, 18 October 2011.
10. ↑ Samarasinghe, Nayanamana, and Mohammad Mannan. "On cloaking behaviors of malicious websites". Computers & Security 101.
11. ↑ Dr. Bob [1]
12. ↑ Artists Against 419 Database [2]
13. ↑ "Domains By Proxy, LLC is rated "Bad" with 1.6 / 5 on Trustpilot" (in en-US). 2025-04-28. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/domainsbyproxy.com.
14. ↑ "Domains by Proxy LLC The worst company to exist." (in en-GB). 2021-11-13. https://scammer.info/t/domains-by-proxy-llc-the-worst-company-to-exist/83511.
15. ↑ "Domains by Proxy can scam you out of $50 and leak your personal info" (in en-US). 2015-07-02. https://botcrawl.com/domains-by-proxy-scam/.
16. ↑ "'Domains by Proxy' Hands Over Personal Details of "Pirate" Site Owner". TorrentFreak. 6 March 2014. http://torrentfreak.com/domains-proxy-hands-personal-details-pirate-site-owner-140307/. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
17. ↑ "Domains by Proxy can scam you out of $50 and leak your personal info" (in en-US). 2015-07-02. https://botcrawl.com/domains-by-proxy-scam/.

## External links

* www.domainsbyproxy.com — Domains by Proxy site

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