Since auDA released “Direct .au” domain names back in March 2022, there was an initial registration period where the owners of the existing matching “.com.au” were brand-protecting themselves by also registering the “Direct .au” – e.g. I registered “Start.au” to brand-protect my “Start.com.au” domain.
However, the whole “Direct .au” release appears to be failing, with hardly-any to none of Australia’s companies or businesses choosing to use or rebrand to the new “shorter” domain extension auDA promised was “access to shorter, simpler website and email addresses“.
We are exactly two years down the track since the launch of “Direct .au” and as you can see from the below January 2024 AU ccTLD Registry Monthly Stats, new registrations of “Direct .au” have stalled. Not only that, less than one quarter of the matching “.com.au” domain owners have even bothered to register their matching “Direct .au”.
You watch what happens to these numbers over the coming years…
Anyway… if basically no one is using their “Direct .au”, why did Rosemary Sinclair (auDA CEO) champion it into existence in the first place, other than to cause around 20% of existing “.com.au” holders to double-pay for their existing online brand name and create more quick revenue for auDA?
There’s one thing for sure… I’ll tell you who IS using and loving the “Direct .au” domain names…
SCAMMERS and PHISHING criminals.
Ventra IP is a well known Australian Registrar owned by Nexigen Digital Pty Ltd. They also own Synergy Wholesale.
I should note I am a big fan of Synergy Wholesale and house thousands of my own, and my customers’ domain names on their Registrar service.
Yesterday (see below) I received this fake PHISHING INVOICE email from “Ventra IP” (apparently).
This seemed VERY WEIRD to me, as the domain name they mentioned was about to expire, according to the email, but I had just renewed at Synergy Wholesale for another year very recently?
Now… look closely at this VERY POWERFUL and VERY TRICKY phishing invoice scam email above again…. at the URL link…
The URL they use to trick you into TRUSTING them is “billing.ventraip.au“.
auDA always says “you can ALWAYS TRUST .au“.
Not anymore, it appears.
Because it seems as soon as Nexigen Digital found out someone had registered their brand domain “VentraIP.au”, it appears they were quick to have it deleted and secured for themselves, and I don’t blame them.
It’s make me wonder though, how many people were tricked, and clicked on the URL “billing.ventraip.au”, thinking it was legitimately going to allow them to make a payment to keep their domain name through the REAL “Ventra IP”, when in fact it was scammers who owned and controlled “ventraip.au” for a short period of time…
Meanwhile, I reached out to Synergy Wholesale to let them know that I thought the “Direct .au” domain name “VentraIP.au” had been registered in BAD FAITH by a phishing hacker, and they should look into it.
Here is what I wrote to them:
Their response confirmed my suspicions. They know about it and have told auDA about it.
This is the Synergy Wholesale response:
Obviously this phishing scam was NOT really from Ventra IP.
And it also appears they were quick to have the domain deleted, and then placed in their own control.
When Scammers and Hackers register a domain like “VentraIP.au” in BAD FAITH and they PRETEND to be a real company like Nexigen Digital, in the domain name industry, this is called an unauthorised business use (UBU).
I wonder how long it took auDA to act once Synergy Wholesale told them what was happening?
It appears to me, this is only the beginning of YEARS of phishing hackers using “Direct .au” to deceive and manipulate the trust of the entire Australian domain name system that has existed since Robert Elz first turned on Australian domain names in the late 90s.
Think about it, there are more than 75% of existing “.com.au” holders who have NOT chosen to register their matching “Direct .au”.
Scammers can easily register their “Direct .au” and spam email millions of Australians from the company before they realise it. It could take days or weeks for the company to realise their own “Direct .au” that they didn’t bother to register has been used to scam people?
This is a scammers’ gold mine.
It looks like this may be the END of trusting “.au” as who knows if a verified legitimate business is truly behind it?
I’m not sure where Robert Elz is today, but back in 2001, Melbourne IT (backing him) said “the integrity and trust of both auDA and Melbourne IT will be at stake” if auDA takes over the Australian domain name system from him.
It’s looking more and more like he could be RIGHT. Time will tell.
Quoted from: The Sydney Morning Herald, 2001:
[…] down the value and trust of Australian domain names, are not really being used by anybody, and, as we wrote in this article, “there are more than 75% of existing “.com.au” holders who have NOT chosen to register […]