More than 28,000 .uk domain names have been suspended in the last year due to reports of criminal activity. Nominet, which is responsible for safeguarding the .uk internet infrastructure, can suspend a domain, following a notification from the police or other law enforcement agencies, if it is being used for criminal activity.
Suspended domains cannot be used as part of the website or emails.
The number of domains cancelled between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019 was actually slightly lower than the previous year – 28,937 compared to 32,813. This represents around 0.22% of the 13 million .uk domains currently registered.
Nominet said it had received domain removal requests from five different organisations: the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), which coordinates requests relating to intellectual property infringement, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
applications of legislative acts including:
- Fraud Act 2006
- Trade Marks Act 1994
- Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
- Human Medicines Regulations 2012
- Medical Devices Regulations 2002
- Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
- The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002
- The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013
- Financial Services and Markets Act 2000
The number of requests that did not result in domain removal was 16. Only 5 suspensions were canceled. This usually happens when the illegal behavior of the website ceases to exist.
Nominet's anti -phishing initiative , which suspends suspicious domains at the registration stage, has so far suspended 2,668. The domain names blocked at this stage by Nominet include those misusing the names of major banks, tax authorities and large technology companies. Of those suspended, only 274 passed Nominet's additional due diligence.
Detective Constable Weizmann Jacobs of the City of London Police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit said: "By working collaboratively, we can help protect consumers from the dangers of counterfeit goods and secure their personal information when they shop online.".
